CORRESPONDENCE. THE CHINESE PETITION. (To the Editor.)

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 234, 25 July 1872, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE. THE CHINESE PETITION. (To the Editor.)

Sib,— "Who might these be?" asked my mate Bill, as three gentlemen, mounted on horseback, apparently equipped for a journey, were proceeding the other day through the Dunstan Gorge. "These," said I, '• are the gentlemen" (mentioning their names) "appointed by the Government to enquire into the charges made in the Chinese petition against Mr. Warden Beetham." "That petition," said he, "seems to be creating more stir than the general run of petitions, for they say they are mostly all consigned to the waste paper basket. One would have thought that after the Council would not vote the £100 for the witnesses' expenses, am\ithe row tbat was between Eeynolds and the Speaker for wanting to decide the motion after half-past five, that we would have beard no more about it ; or that, when it was referred to the Government, they would have just done the same as they did with the petition that was sent down from here against the granting of the agricultural lease over there — just send it back to the warden to report on." " But," said I, " the petitions are of a different nature." "I can't see they are so much different at all. You petition the Government against a decision of your warden, to which there is no appeal. The Government send the petition to the Government to report on. His report is not likely to be against his own decision. It goes back, and finds a place in the basket ; the lease is granted, and the thing is done. If they want to have the Warden sacked, he must have been decidi ing or doing wrong, as they may think. Why not, then, send this as well as the other to the warden to report on these wrong-doings ? Of course his report would favour himself, but, like the other, the affair would be settled, and the petition might also go to the basket." " But our petition was only before the Government, while theirs was before the Government and the Provincial Council, and the Council referred it to the Government." "Well, there is no doubt that the Grovernment wants a spur-up now and again ; and if it be true what Smythies told the judges in Wellington about him that presented the petition, that the whole law fraternity of Dunedin were frightened at him, it is not much wonder, now that he has got in the Council, that the Government should be a little scared." "I am not," said 1, "at all surprised at the enquiry; but I wonder that the present Secretary of Goldfields and the late Secretary of Gbldfields did not form part of the Commission." You need not be surprised' at all about the former of these gentlemen, for you know well enough, and so does he, that he would never have got past the Teviot; for they would skin him alive down there, if they could but catch him. But there does seem a screw loose about the other ; or it might be (for I did not pay particular attention to the estimates this year) that the Government has been again meddling with his screw, and that he has been obliged to sell the other horse, and perhaps has not the means of travelling. But, then, that Tuapeka is not a very lucky place for wardens, and pro-wardens, as they sometimes call themselves. The late Secretary of Goldfields, as you call him, though he seems to-be bent on sticking there for the next three generations, might yet have to go on the wallaby." " How for three generations ? " "If you ever read the paper, or paid the least attention to what you do read, you would remember that he was not there a month before he wanted to""have ninety-nine years' lease of some land, as it was not worth his while to be building for twenty-one years." " I shall be very sorry if the result of this enquiry should injure Mr. Beetham, as he appears to be well thought of by the Europeans there." " You need not be much alarmed -about that. The affair will all end in smoke, and Beetham will come out a better man than ever, and the petition might as well have gone to the basket first as last ; but you may be sorry for the money it will cost, which might have been better spent in fixing some of these bad roads ; for though they would not vote the £100, by the time these chaps get home again, there will not be much of it left ; and a fine spree it would have been, too, had it been well managed." " I really cannot see how the affair could have been made a lucrative one." Ido not w at that, for you are just about as green as the Government itself. I wish I had got the job, with 50 per cent, of the profits ; I could have settled down pretty comfortable for tfh§ winter." " Well, let us hear.""- . « Itksaid that there are some eight hundred odd of these Chinkys that have been signing this petition, and you and I and the

Government and everybody else know that the one-half of them does not take out miners' rights. Well, I would get the Government to dub me, for the time being, special constable, or bailiff, or sub-sheriff, or anything they might choose, barring a judge or a J.P." " Why make these exceptions ?" "Did you not see the hubbub there was among them down there when Yogel sent the last judge down to them, and if they were to make another so soon the row would be frightful ;" and as for a J.P., it is getting too common to be much good. But if you wish to hear how I am to get on with the Chinkys, I hope you will not interrupt me further. I would, then, make my way up to the Arrow, and if it were frosty weather, and not much doing, I would not have much trouble in getting about half-a-dozen or so of the boys there to join me. I should provide each of them .with a good long whip — stock-whips, in fact, to those who could use them. By the way, there are a couple of chaps been practising the lash at Cromwell lately ; it would be worth a trifle if I could get them with me — experience is worth a deal in those things. I should then make my way to Queenstown, and fossick out the Chinky that got the petition up, or at least the one that hajwked it round. I would say to him, ' I am one of Her Majesty's so and so, with special orders about this petition of yours; and in the first place, I want you to come round with me and show me all these eight hundred and odd Chinkys. I may give ] you a trifle for your trouble if you do your work well.' We would gee round among the Chinkys, picking up the ones who had not got their rights. The boys with the whips would keep them together, and drive them along ; and if the mob should get too bis, and likely to spread, I would tie them tail to tail, as Samson did with the foxes, only leaving out the firebrands ; or head and tail, as it would be much the same — the way the horse-dealers takes the nags to the fairs at home. Just fancy a well rounded-up mob of three or four hundred or more of these Chinkys taken before Beetham, without rights, after their trying to get him the sack. Wouldn't he give it to them — the full penalty — and he can do it when he likes. See how he wakened up Henry for wakening the Queenstown folks with the bell that lime. Well, if I got 50 per cent, of the fines, I would make a good job of it, and the Government would have the other to pay the expenses of the enquiry out of." "But perhaps many of them would refuse or be without the means to pay ; the only thing then would be to send them to gaol, and the spec mi^ht so became a failure." %< Oh, no fear of that ; it" they were sent to gaol, Mac is not the man to desert his pets — he would bail them out to a man. He might threaten writs for malicious prosecution, or something such like, but he would think better of it when he cooled down. — I am, &c, Bill's Mate.