The Tuapeka Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25,1870.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 133, 25 August 1870, Page 4

The Tuapeka Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1870.

"Measures, not Men." The fate of the Tuapeka Petition of agricultural leaseholders, in common with the petitions from other districts, is sealed. The petition was first referred to the Public Petitions Committee and reported upon as follows :—: — The petition bears the signature of 247 persons styling themselves settlers in the Tuapek.a District, and they pray that the sum of 7s. 6d., which parties desirous of purchasing the fee simple of land situated within the goldfields of Otago are compelled by the law to pay, by equal instalments, extending over three years, as rent, should be deduoted from the purchase money at the conclusion of three years ; in other words, that the lessors of such lands within the limits of the goldfields should be permitted to obtain, at the expiration of three years, the fee simple on a further payment of 12s. 6d., instead of 203. A majority of the Committee were of opinion that a report, recommending the prayer of the petitioners to the favourable consideration of the House, should be drawn up and presented to the House. A minority of the Committee were of opinion that a report should be presented to the House to the effect that the petition should be referred to the Select Committee on the Goldfields, in accordance with the order of reference passed by the House on Friday, 17th June, 1870. The order of reference runs thus :—": — " That a Select Committee be appointed to consider all bills and petitions that may be introduced into this House affecting goldfields, &c. ; to report generally upon the provisions and principles which any such, bill or petition may contain ; with power to confer or sit together with any similar committee which may be appointed by the Legislative Council, and to agree tp a joint report,"

In accordance with the opinion of a majority of the Committee, I beg to report that the prayer of the petitioners is entitled to the favourable consideration of the House. J. Ceacroft Wilson, C.8., Chairman. August 4, 1870. Had the petition been referred to the Goldfields Committee, as we fully anticipated it would be, we might have expected some reallypractical result; but when it was referred to the Waste Lands Committee, we said farewell to any hope of its success. What, in the light of all the experience of the past two or three years, could be expected from a committee whose leading members are Messrs. Yogel, Driver. Main, and Maeandrew. Our Wellington correspondent informs us that Mr. Macaudrew moved the following resolution in Committee: — "That the subject of these petitions involving as it does both a retrospective and prospective reduction of the price of land in the province of Otago, ought to be submitted in the first instance to the Provincial Council of that province, and that the petitioners' be advised to that effect." This is nothing more or less than another dose of Macandrewbunkum. Such tricks as these on his part are too transparent to gull the goldfields settlers who will not forget to recognise their Superintendent's action in this matter. Why such circumlocution? Why not settle the question on its merits as proposed by Mr, Bradshaw ? Under & false pretext that the price of land would be reduced to the injury of the province, the once friend of the people is the first to throw a stum-bling-block in the way of the petitioners. We should like to know how Mr. Maeandrew can reconcile his conduct last ye&r in hastening through the Assembly a bill affecting so closely the interests of Otago, without consulting either his Executive or the Provincial Council, and his conduct on the present occasion in objecting to the inhabitants of the goldfields appealing directly to the Assembly for what the Provincial Council have refused to give them. The very man who set the example of dealing directly with the Assembly, independent altogether of , the Council, is the first to object to others following his footsteps. This is but another evidence of the futility of the system of double government which exists In this colony. The most sincere petitions — petitions pointing directly to a radical evil which calls for immediate redress, are knocked about like shuttlecocks from one committee to another — from Wellington to Dunedin, and from Dunedin to Wellington — until they get lost in the labyrinth of the circumlocution office' to be heard of no more for ever. What, we ask, is the result of this kind of government 1 Simply this, people become indifferent to anything savouring of public spirit, and our population settle clown discontented and in the full conviction that the Government of the colony is nothing but a mass of corruption, and the man in whom they confided a traitor to their best interests.