MINING LEASES.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 881, 31 October 1871, Page 2

MINING LEASES.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times and Charleston Argus). Sib, —I wish to call the attention of the miners of the Nelson Province and the County of "Westland to a notice which appears in your issue of to-day, " notifying the intention of the Superintendent to grant gold mining leases at the Tnangahua to Mace and Trenery." I might state I have visited the locality where both these leases have been applied tor, and find that they are situated on the two only existing lines of reef now thoroughly defined and developed, and beyond doubt highly remuuerutive. I would respectfully inform the editor of this journal that the miners consider the letter which they received from the Superintendent in reply to their petition against the granting of gold mining leases on new aud unprospected lines of reef to bo extremely unwise and imprudent, an insult to practical sense and justice, having no precedent in the annals of the Australian goldfields to justify it. To be brief, what a mockery to grant leases on new lines of quartz veefs ! Who has ever heard the like before ? Is it not time that we should cling together, and hurl from office those incapable creatures that have retarded the development of this very important district from some mercenary motives, if not from their narrow knowledge of the capabilities of the district for the lost two years. Does the Superintendent understand when he grants highly auriferous lines of reefs to parties who have neither money, knowledgenor influence to develop their auriferous resources, it is but for the purpose of giving these grasping reef sharks an opportunity to monopolise the reefing district, and keep it protected for tho next twelve months, to the detriment of the mining community at large and the prosperity of the district. As for the counter petition, there was not an independent miner signed

it, but those who were one way or the other subservient to Mace, Treuery, and Co. The physical formation of the neighbourhood of these reefs is not such as to prevent even the heaviest kind of machinery from reaching there easily. It is a mistake to think otherwise, but it is a representation industriously circulated for the object of bringing the labour of hardworking men within the easy grasp of a few persous. In conclusion, I would recommend the Superintendent to weigh well the granting of these leases on new lines of reefs, and to be actuated in his decision by practical sense and justice. West Land. Westport, Oct. 28, 1871. SCARLATINA. ( To the Editor of tlie Westport Times and Charleston Argus.) Sir, —Your remarks in Saturday's issue " that scarlatina had again brokeu out on the bouth Spit, and that several cases had been reported," have taken us all here quite by surprise. lam requested, therefore, to ask you to be good euough to state in your next impression that the report is utterly without foundation, not a single case of any kind of sickness having been known on the South Spit for the last five months. With reference to the word " again," the residents here are unanimous in ' their opinfon that, though a very talented gentleman once during the last summer months expressed his opinion that a case of scarlatina had appeared on the South Spit, such was not the ease, and we intend to hold this view until disproved by some authority we consider more worthy of credence than our own experiences. George Cbaddock, And all other Residents. South Spit, Monday. [ We learn that the locality was misstated in the paragraph; instead of being across the river, i.e., at the South Spit, this form of sickness has presented itself a few miles up the Buller river.—Ed. W. T. and C. A.]