MINING LEASES.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 882, 2 November 1871, Page 2

MINING LEASES.

( To tlve Editor of Hie Wesiport 'times and

Charleston Argus.)

Stu, —In your issue of the 30th ult.j a letter appears under the above heading, signed '"Westland," in which your correspondent calls attention of >l the miners of the Nelsotl province and the County of Westland," to ji notification of the Superintendent's intention to grant Grold-mining Leased at the Inangahua to Messrs Mace and Trenery. As thefe has been a great deal said and done lately in the Shape of petitions, counter petitions, &c., with reference to the granting of mining leases in the Inangahua district ; and as the general public have been greatly misled as to the facts, I take the opportunity in replying to Westland's letter to contradict some rather gross misstatements \Vhich have been made. " Westland" says " I have visited the locality where both these leases have been applied for and find, that they are situated on the two only existing lines of reef now thoroughly defined and developed.'' " Westland" first ignores the lact that, the Superientendent's notice refers to three leases, and then makes a statement which any person lookiug at almost any newspaper on the West Coast must know to be untrue, namely that there are only two defined and developed liues of reef on the Inangahua. With reference to the leases to be granted to Messrs Mace and Trenery, two ot them are undoubtedly on defined lines of reef; the third one, not. " Westland" has a great deal to say about " grasping reef sharks, who, have neither money, knowledge nor influence ; and, who are going to monopolise the reefing district and keep it protected for the next twelve months." " Westland" whoever he may be is a perfect " whale" in knowledge or rather his ignorance of the subject on which he writes, and as an act of charity L will enlighten him a little. The lands applied for by Messrs Mace and Trenery were, in the first instance, taken up and registered as ordinary quartz claims, after which, leases were applied for, and are now about to ba granted, and this, pur et simple, is what has excited the ire of" Westland." This is what is (as he in effect says) " 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 ... a mockery." Your correspondent does not seem to know that Warden Giles has not recommended the grant of any lease for land not held under miner's rights, nor does he seem to be aware that gold-mining leases contain provisions compelling the lessees to work the land, and that land held under a lease cannot be " protected for twelve mouths." Yet these things be true, Oh, sapient " Westland !" The assertion made by your correspondent in speaking of the counter petition, that " there was not an independent miner signed it, but those who were subservient to Mace, Trenery, and Co," is simply a falsehood and a libel upon the miners in the Inangahua districts' In conclusion, I would recommend "Westland" when next he rushes into print to write upon some subject with which he has a little acquaintance. In answer to his gushing appeal, " Is it not time that we should cling together, and hurl from office those incapable creatures," &c., &c. I say yes, it is time. Therefore, i go and cling, " Westland," go and i cling. 1 am, &c., W. Nxe. Westport, November 1, 1871. ■