TO THE MINERS OF OTAGO

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 185, 24 August 1871, Page 6

TO THE MINERS OF OTAGO

[Per favour. of the Tuapkka Times.]

Fkllow Miners, — We, the miners of the Arrow district address you with the view to enlist your sympathies on behalf of the welfare of the mining community of Otago. We have succeeded in establishing a Miners' Association iv our district, but feel by our isolated position the inability to procure that amount of benefit which might be obtained if all the miners of all the goldfields of Otago were to unite ; for it is by cooperation alone tr.at we can expect to obtain that consideration from the Government due to the importance of the mining interest.

Therefore, unite fellow miners, and you will have taken the most iinpovUnt step, which must lead to a goal alilfe honourable and advantageous. We are taxed heavier than any other class of the eotnm unity; we are having an alien rave thrust upon us, to rob us of the fruit of our perseverance and industry; the auriferous lands of the province are being encroached upon by the agriculturists ; we are governed by obnoxious rules, which are framed by men unacquainted with practical mining, and which are administered by men without that technical knowledge which is required to adjudicate upon mining cases ; we are treated with contumely by the. Government, which is shown by the reduction of salaries of the goldfield's officers, and by a continual tampering with the rules which regulate mining; the revenue, which is extorted from us, is spent in districts and on objects totally disconnected with mining, while those districts which we have explored and settled are left without passable roads. To remedy this state of things is the object of Miners' Associations.

Remember that we, the miners of Otago, exceed in number any other class of the community; that by our united voice we must obtain what we demand in justice, and that the way in which we have been treated by the Government is due, in a great measure, to our own inaction.

Look at Victoria ! There the mining interest rules the destiny of the country ; her miners would never submit to oppressive ard unjust taxation, nor bend before the rule of the squatter or the lsmd jobber. There is yet to be traced in her laws that voice of the people which made itself heard by energetic co-operation in the early days of gold-digging, which shows that Miners' Associations have not existed in vain ; but on the contrary, that they have performed an important and a beneficial part.

We, therefore, beg to urge you to form a Miners' Association in your district without delay, to act in unison with all similar institutions throughout .the goldfields of Otago. You will see that our condition is capable of much improvement, and it will be sufficient to hint that in us and in our united action lies the power to do so. — We are, &c,

The Committee of the Arrow District Miners' Association Arrow Efver, August 14, 1871.