PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1867 Session I, C-01

C.-No. 1.

PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS.

PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, BY COMMAND OF HIS EXCELLENCY.

WELLINGTON.

1867.

C.—No. I

No. 1. Copy of a Letter from the SuPEEDfTENDESTT, Otago, to the Hon. E. W. Staffoed. (370-137.) Province of Otago, New Zealand, Sic, — Superintendent's Office, Dunedin, 4th March, 1867. I have the honor to forward herewith for your information a copy of the Otago Provincial Government Gazette, of the 27th ultimo, containing certain proclamations issued by His Honor the late Superintendent, under the delegated authority of His Excellency the Governor under " The Gold Fields Act, 1866." I have, &c, James Macandbew, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, "Wellington. Superintendent. No. 2. Copy of a Letter from the Hon. E. ~W. Staffoed to the Supeeintentient, Otago. (No. 158.) Sic,— Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 23rd March, 1867. I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Honor's letter No. 370-137, of the 4th instant, forwarding a copy of the Otago Provincial Government Gazette, of the 27th ultimo, containing certain proclamations issued by your predecessor proclaiming new Begulations for the depasturing of stock, and for the issue of Depasturing Licenses within the proclaimed Otago Gold Fields. I have submitted these proclamations to the Attorney-General, and am advised that the proclamation dated the 26th ultimo is illegal. The proclamation does not recite the authority under which it is made, but it is presumed it is intended to be taken as being in exercise of a delegated power under the fourteenth section of " The Gold Fields Act, 1866." The land referred to also is described as " Eeserve," there being no authority for making such a reserve, nor can it be understood what is meant by such a description. The fourteenth section of " The Gold Fields Act, 1866," in giving the power to grant Depasturing Licenses, does not empower the granting, as the proclamation purports to authorize, of pre-emptive rights and rights to compensation. Moreover, although the expressions used in the fourteenth section " to make regulations for the depasturing of stock " are very general, yet from the fact that Business Licenses and Mining Licenses or Miners' Eights cannot be granted " for longer term than a year," and thaf special provisions are made for granting leases, it cannot be inferred that the Governor had a power to make regulations for depasturing stock, but merely to grant rights of pasturage, and for short periods only. There is no mention in that section of rent, but simply of fees; consequently the Eegulations issued by your predecessor altogether go beyond the spirit and letter of the authority given by the fourteenth section of " The Gold Fields Act, 1866." It was clearly intended that these Depasturing Licenses should be granted upon payment of fees to such persons as applied for them, and should not in effect be leases of specific land for a long term. The object of the section is to give a power to allow depasturing stock for the convenience and benefit of gold-mining communities ; not an original power to create a class of pastoral tenants to take the place of those tenants whose licenses under the "Waste Lands Law have been cancelled. There is also no doubt whatever that the particular regulations providing for the payment of compensation and for giving pre-emptive rights are ultra vires and of no legal validity. I would also observe that the delegation to the late Superintendent of Otago having expired, your Honor has no authority to administer those Eegulations. For the above reasons it has become the duty of the Government to stop the public auction of Depasturing Licenses advertised by Messrs. Driver and McLean to take place on the 29th instant. I have, &c, His Honor the Superintendent, Otago. E. W. Staffoed. No. 3. Copy of a Letter from the Supeehttekdent, Otago, to the Hon. E. W. Staffoed. (370-140.) Sic, — Superintendent's Office, Dunedin, 4th April, 1867. I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of date 23rd March, 1867, No. 158, advising that you had stopped the sale of the Depasturing Licenses within the proclaimed Otago Gold Fields. As the proclamation for the sale of these runs was issued by my predecessor, the Provincial Treasurer has handed me a Minute upon the subject, and as this Minute fully explains the policy which dictated the proclamation, and also meets the arguments adduced by you for the stoppage of the sale, I enclose copy of it herewith, to which I beg to refer. For my own part, I have only to express my regret both at the action which the General Government has seen fit to take in this matter and at the mode in which it has carried that action into effect, —the one as being indicative of hostility, and the other as being eminently discourteous towards the Provincial Government.

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This, I believe, is the first occasion since the arrangement of 1856, in which the privilege of this Province practically to administer its Waste Lands has been interfered with or called, into question, and it is my duty, on behalf of the Province, emphatically to protest against such interference. The effect of the stoppage of this sale has been to deprive the Provincial revenue of a large sum of money which would have been expended on public improvements within the Lake Districts. It has also led to numerous claims (some of which have been already demanded) for travelling expenses incurred by intending purchasers upon the strength of the proclamation. Messrs. Driver, McLean, and Co. will, I presume, render an account of these claims as well as their own expenses to the General Government. I have, &c, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, James Macandbew, Wellington. Superintendent. Enclosure in No. 3. Mdtute by the Peovixcial Tbeastteee for His Honor the Supebin'tekdent. Tiie Provincial Treasurer desires to express his regret at the course adopted by the General Government in arresting the sale of the Wakatipu Euns, and especially at their having thought it necessary to communicate with the auctioneers direct. The reasons stated by the Colonial Secretary are evidently based upon the assumption that the sale is undesirable from a public point of view. He has clearly been misinformed as to the circumstances, or he would at any rate recognize that it is desirable the sale should take place. As the objections are all more or less based upon the conviction, as stated, of its being undesirable to allow the sale to proceed, the Treasurer considers that if he states the facts which have led to the sale, the Colonial Secretary will agree that the sale is desirable, and will aid in removing the difficulties to which he refers in his letter of the 23rd March, and which, it seems to the Treasurer, could all be legally surmounted by a properly framed proclamation. It came under the notice of the Provincial Government some two or three months back that the depasturing fees received from the Wakatipu District were very low in proportion to the extent of country over which it was permitted to issue Gold Fields Depasturing Licenses. On inquiry, it appeared that a wholesale evasion of the payments due in respect to the sheep depastured in the country in question was going on, and there seemed no way of properly protecting the revenue. Further inquiry showed that there were some 350,000 acres of country suitable for pasture purposes. The Government came to the conclusion that such an immense commonage was not necessary for the wants of the comparatively small mining population in the district. There-were several grave objections to it; amongst others, —the loss to the revenue, —the impossibility, under any commonage system, of getting the country properly stocked, —and the great facilities for cattle stealing offered by making a common of such a large tract of country. It was obvious also that, for the miners generally, the system which best stocked the country would supply them cheapest with animal food. It was therefore decided to lease about 100,000 acres available for depasturing occupation by the miners, and to sell leases of the rest in runs which had already some time back been marked out. The Government preferred to sell under the Gold Melds Act because provisions more suitable for the miners and more favourable to the revenue could be found under it than under the Land Act. The Treasurer alludes particularly to clauses four, five, six, and seven of the conditions proclaimed. The Treasurer should mention that applications to restrain the sale were sent to the Provincial Government, but they were apparently made in the interests of those who had already put the revenue to loss by depasturing cattle without paying the fees, and further, the reasons alleged were not deemed valid. The Government anticipated from the sale a sum of over £10,000; besides that, the assessment would have yielded a large annual rental. As there are heavy works in roads and bridges required by the district, the Province will not be able to dispense with such sums and will have to sell the leases under the Land Act, to do which, there is a clear power, unless the Colonial Secretary will lend his aid to enable the sale to be made under the Gold Fields Act with the introduction of the conditions already contemplated. To sell without these conditions would entail a sacrifice on the mining community, which it is desirable to avoid, and a large loss to the Province. The Treasurer respectfully urges the Superintendent to bring this Memorandum under the notice of the Colonial Secretary, with a request that he will be so good as to aid the sale by paving the way to a proper proclamation. Julius Vogel, Provincial Treasury, Dunedin, 4th April, 1867. Provincial Treasurer. * No. 4. Copy of a Letter from the Hon. E. W. Staffoed to the Supeeinteitdent, Otago. (No. 789.) Sib, — Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 16th April, 1867. I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Honor's letter No. 370-140, of the 4th instant, enclosing a Memorandum from the Provincial Treasurer, referring to my letter No. 158, of the 23rd ultimo, in which I stated that the Regulations made by your predecessor (a day or two before his term of office expired) for the sale by auction of Depasturing Licenses over Waste Lands within a proclaimed Gold Field, in the Wakatipu District, were illegal, and that consequently it was the duty of the Government to stop the proposed sale. Tour Honor, and the Provincial Treasurer of Otago, appear to have overlooked the circumstance that, on the 27th of February last, the delegation under the Gold Fields Act to the Superintendent of

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Otago, lapsed, and since that date the Government of that Province has had no power to give instructions with respect to the administration of the gold fields. It is only necessary, lam sure, for me to remind your Honor of that circumstance, in order to remove any impression you may have conceived that hostility or discourtesy to the Provincial authorities of Otago was indicated by the course taken of communicating directly with Messrs. Driver and McLean, the auctioneers, and informing them that the sale of the Depasturing Licenses in question could not be legally completed, to which I presume you refer when you complain of the mode in which the General Government had carried their action into effect. Your Honor will, on a consideration of the above fact, recognize that as the General Government alone could stop the sale, it was compelled to communicate directly with the auctioneers, and also that as by the same mail I fully informed your Honor of the action taken, and of the reasons for. it, every courtesy was shewn to the Provincial Government. The Government cannot concur in the arguments advanced by the Provincial Treasurer in support of an immediate sale of these Depasturing Licenses, which would have the effect of locking up these lands in the hands of a few individuals, who might not only have no connection with, but might have even opposite interests to the mining or other industries of the localities in which they were situated. The Government believes that the lands in question, and indeed all lands similarly circumstanced, as well as all special land funds or other local funds, should be used for the advantage of the inhabitants of the district in which the lands are situated, or in which the funds respectively accrue, and that in no other manner can justice to individual localities be so effectively secured, and the colonization and development of the resources of the country in so great a degree promoted. The Provincial Treasurer is in error if he believes that the Provincial Government can sell the licenses under " The Otago Waste Lands Act, 1866." The General Government is advised that such a sale would be illegal, and that the Otago Waste Lands Act gives no such power. So long as the lands over which the licenses are to run remain within a proclaimed gold field, the Waste Lands Act has not, in the absence of a special provision to the contrary, any operation over these lands. In the case in question no such special provision exists. The leasing of land within a gold field for depasturing sheep is not specially provided for in the Otago Waste Lands Act. The one hundred and twenty-third section of that Act does not authorize it, as that section does not expressly confer the power of granting Pastoral Leases, and as it does not do so expressly or specially, the provision does not satisfy the forty-eighth section of " The Gold Fields Act, 1866." I have, &c, His Honor the Superintendent, Otago. E. W. Staffoed. No. 5. Copy of a Letter from the Supeeintendent, Otago, to the Hon. E. W. Staffobd. (No. 370-141.) Province of Otago, New Zealand, Sic, — Superintendent's Office, Dunedin, 17th May, 1867. Referring to the last paragraph of my letter No. 370-140, of the 4th ultimo, I have now the honor to forward copies of applications which have been received by this Government, for payment of expenses incurred by the writers in visiting the Wakatip Runs as intending purchasers. The applicants have been informed that it is presumed the General Government, having stopped the sale of the runs in question, is prepared to pay such expenses. I have, &c, James Macandeew, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. Superintendent. Enclosures in No. 5. ■Copy of a Letter from Mr. Young to the Peoyincial Teeasueee. Sib, — Wain's Hotel, Dunedin, 25th April, 1867. I beg to to call your attention to the account on next page. The trouble and inconvenience I was at in wandering over the Wakatip Country was very great, and the loss of time and expenses considerable. I was prepared to purchase part of the land at even over its value rather than lose it, therefore I trust that you will kindly take into consideration the annoyance and expense I have been at, and make me an allowance for the same as per annexed charge. I have, &c, Hugh W. Young. Julius Vogel, Esq., Provincial Treasurer, Otago. ■ Account of Expenses in visiting Wakatipu Runs : — £ s. d. To personal expenses for two weeks @ 255. <$■ day ... ... 1500 To expenses of a valuator for four days ... ... ... ... 12 12 6 To loss of time and trouble &c., three weeks ... ... ... 20 0 0 £47 12 6 Hugh W. Young. 2

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Extract from a Letter dated 2nd April, 1867, addressed to His Honor the Superintendent by Mr. T. Mund, M.P.C. "I was induced by the advertisement in the Provincial Gazette offering for sale certain country in the Wakatipu District as runs on lease for ten years, to make a journey of four hundred miles in company of my partner, for the purpose of inspecting the country, and from the opinion formed by us, I can confidently state that we would have been buyers had the sale taken place as advertised. The amount of expense incurred was £16 for travelling expenses alone, and it is for that amount only that I prefer any claim, although it has cost me indirectly a good deal more, as both myself and partner were absent ten days during the heat of harvest."

No. 6. Copy of a Petition from the Switzees Gold Field. To His Excellency Sir George Grey, X.C.8., Governor of New Zealand: The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of the Switzers Gold Field— Sheweth :— That your petitioners have ascertained with the utmost surprise and consternation that your Excellency has seen fit practically to refuse to continue the delegation of the powers conferred by " The Gold Fields Act, 1866," to His Honor the Superintendent of Otago. That your petitioners are informed that the said refusal is in consequence of certain representations made to your Excellency relative to the acts of the present Superintendent when he held the same office some years ago. That your petitioners fail to see how any such matters can be made to interfere with the rightful administration of the Gold Fields if they do not interfere with the rightful discharge of the ordinary duties of Superintendent of the Province, that is to say —that the person who is fit to hold the office of Superintendent must also be fully capable of administering the Gold Fields. That the present Superintendent was returned to the office against herculean opposition by an overwhelming majority, and possesses the unbounded confidence and respect of every section of the community. That your petitioners one and all lack the same feeling with respect to the gentleman (Mr. J. B. Bradshaw) to whom the powers before referred to have been delegated, and are satisfied that the appointment will result in severe disaster to the Province, if persevered in by your Excellency's Government. That your petitioners are convinced that the System will never work successfully, however able an officer might be appointed, being quite contkaey to the Spieit or the Constitution, and being exceedingly liable to bring the office of Superintendent into contempt, as every person dissatisfied with the action of the "Agent" will naturally appeal to the Supeeintendent, who, it appears is powerless to interfere, and consequently communication with Wellington must of necessity be had recourse to before any redress could be obtained. That neither the System nor the gentleman appointed (Mr. Bradshaw) possess in any degree the confidence of your petitioners, who are far more concerned at this act of the General Government than they can find words adequately to express. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Excellency will be pleased to cancel the appointment, and forthwith confer upon the Superintendent the necessaey powees for administering the affairs of the Gold Field. And your petitioners will ever pray. (Here follow two hundred and forty signatures.)

Same Petition from Hamilton's and Mount Ida Gold Fields, with sixty-six signatures. Same Petition from Mount Ida Gold Fields, with two hundred and two signatures. Same Petition from Tuapeka Gold Field, with one hundred and forty-three signatures. Same Petition from Beaumont Gold Fields, with forty-five signatures. Same Petition from Twelve-mile Aeeow Gold Field, with fifty-four signatures. Same Petition from Aeeow Town Gold Field, with sixty-three signatures. Same Petition from Tapanui Wakatip Gold Field, with thirty-two signatures. Same Petition from Blackstone Hill Gold Field, with sixty-nine signatures. Same Petition from Sowbuen Gold Field, with thirty-four signatures. Same Petition from Hoeseshoe Bend Gold Field, with nineteen signatures.

No. 7. Copy of a Petition from the Inhabitants of St. Bathan's. To His Excellency Sir George Grey, X.C.8., Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same. Mat it please Youe Excellency,— "We, the inhabitants of St. Bathan's, in the Province of Otago, having learnt with deep regret that your Excellency has been advised to withhold from His Honor the Superintendent of this Province the powers heretofore invariably delegated by your Excellency to the Superintendents of this Province, beg most respectfully to express our disapproval of that step, which we consider not only injurious to

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our interests as a mining community, but as unconstitutional and fraught with the most serious consequences to the advancement of the Province. We wish further to express our regret that your Excellency has seen fit to appoint an Agent to administer the government of the Gold Fields of this Province, over whom the Provincial Government has no control. This appointment is, in our opinion, a virtual disfranchisement of the entire mining population of the Gold Fields; and it is calculated to bring the Provincial authorities into contempt. We also regard the appointment of an Agent irresponsible to us as an infringement of our political rights, and a violation of the spirit of Constitutional Government. We beg, therefore, most respectfully to urge upon your Excellency the propriety of cancelling the ill-advised appointment of a General Government Agent for the Gold Fields of this Province, and of delegating the necessary powers to His Honor the Superintendent and Provincial Council, by whom only can the Government be properly, efficiently, and satisfactorily administered. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. [Here follow sixty-four signatures.]

No. 8. Copy of a Petition from the Committee of a Public Meeting held at Manuheeikia. To His Excellency Sir George Grey, X.C.8., Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same. May it please Totte Excellency,— We, the undersigned Committee elected at a public meeting held in this (the Central Manuherikia) District, consisting of a population of over three hundred, do most humbly pray—That your Excellency will again consider the ill-advised step of withdrawing the delegated powers from His Honor the Superintendent of this Province, as we consider the appointment of an Agent above His Honor is an insult to that gentleman, and calculated to do this Province a great amount of injury. This community also pledge themselves to do everything in their power to assist His Honor the Superintendent and his Council to this end, and pray that your Excellency will cancel the appointment of Mr. Bradshaw as Gold Fields Agent. And your humble petitioners will ever pray. William Etjpeet Mooee, William Feedeeick Dixon, John Stewaet Dickie, John Melloe, Edwaed Magee. Drybread, Matakanui, 20th May, 1867.

No. 9. Copy of a Petition from the Miners of Nevis. To His Excellency Sir George Grey, X.C.8., Governor-General of the Colony of New Zealand. Mat it please Toue Excellency,— Tour petitioners, the Miners of the Nevis District, learn with much satisfaction that your Excellency has taken the management of the Otago Gold Fields into your own hands, for the following reasons, viz.:— " That the administration of the Gold Fields by the Provincial Government of Otago has been grievously inefficient and burdensome. " That the Provincial Government has misapplied the revenues derived from the Gold Fields, and diverted them from the purposes to which they should have been legitimately devoted. " That a great proportion of the expenditure on Public Works has been injudiciously made and diverted from its legitimate source to the serious disadvantages of the up-country districts. " Tour petitioners having lost all hope of any redress of their grievances through the Provincial Government, trust that your Excellency will continue to withhold the Gold Fields administration from the Provincial Government. And as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray. Nevis, Otago, 11th May, 1867. [Here follow seventy-four signatures.]

No. 10. Copy of a Petition from the Aeeow District. To His Excellency Sir G. Grey, X.C.8., Governor of New Zealand. Mat it please Your Excellency,— We the undersigned, being a large majority of the Miners resident in the Arrow District, have heard with unfeigned satisfaction that your Excellency has determined to retain the management of the Gold Fields in your own hands. The Provincial Government has almost always turned a deaf ear to our very moderate wants ; has absorbed thousands of pounds sterling of revenue from this district and spent it in Dunedin, doling out to us with niggard hands only the most trifling sums for local works. Interminable delays have also arisen in obtaining our leases, caused solely by the double system of Government. All this will doubtless now be altered, and a fair proportion of our revenue allotted to us for local requirements. Under these circumstances we trust your Excellency will continue to withhold the powers under " The Gold Fields Act, 1866," from the Provincial authorities. And your petitioners will ever pray. [Here follow one hundred and fifty-six signatures.]

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No. 11. Copy of a Petition from the Mayoe and Town Council of Clyde and Inhabitants of the Dunstan District. To His Excellency Sir George Grey, Knight Commander of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Islands of New Zealand, and Vice-Admiral of the same: The Petition of the undersigned humbly sheweth— May it please Toue Excellency,— Tour petitioners, being a large majority of the miners, merchants, and agriculturists resident in the Dunstan District, have heard with unfeigned satisfaction that your Excellency has determined to retain the management of the Gold Fields in your own hands. The Provincial Government have almost always turned a deaf ear to our very moderate wants, — have also absorbed thousands of pounds of revenue from this district and spent it in Dunedin, doling out to us with niggard hands only the most trifling sum for local works. Interminable delays have also arisen in obtaining our leases, &c, caused solely by the double system of government. All this will doubtless now be altered, and a fair proportion of our revenue allotted to us for local requirements. Under these circumstances we trust your Excellency will continue to withhold the powers under " The Gold Fields Act, I860," from the Provincial control. And your petitioners also pray that your Excellency will establish the management of the Gold Fields at Clyde, it being the centre of all the Gold Fields, and within one day's reach of all the Gold Fields District. And your petitioners will ever pray. J. D. Feeaud, J.P., Mayor. Jno. TJ. Cambridge, "1 James Hazlett, Chaeles Goodwin, [-Councillors. Edw. a. Ryan, Henry John Cope, J L. Wm. Carter, Town Clerk, and one hundred and twelve other signatures.

No. 12. Copy of a Petition from the Mayoe and Town Council of Clyde. To James Benn Bra'dshaw, Esquire, Justice of the Peace, and Member of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, and Government Agent for the Gold Fields Department: The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Town of Clyde and District — Humbly Sheweth :— That the Town of Clyde is the most central town of the Gold Fields of Otago. The want of quick communication with those in charge of the Gold Fields Department is severely felt by all engaged in mining pursuits, and imperatively calls for some alteration. The present heads of the Gold Fields Department are located at Dunedin, far away from all mining operations. Tour petitioners humbly pray that you, as Agent for the Gold Fields, will take such steps as you may see fit to have the Head Department removed to Clyde, the most central of all Gold Fields Town of the Province, so that we may have yourself and the Secretary of the Gold Fields resident in our midst. And your petitioners will ever pray. [Here follow seventy-nine signatures.] Clyde, Ist May, 1867.

No. 13. Copy of a Petition from the Inhabitants of Hyde. To His Excellency Sir Greorge Grey, X.C.8., Governor of New Zealand: The Memorial of the undersigned Miners and Inhabitants of the District of Hyde, in the Province of Otago— Respectfully Sheweth : — That your memorialists, at a public meeting held at Hyde in the beginning of February last, unanimously resolved that a memorial should be forwarded to His Honor the Superintendent jjraying that a block of land of 5000 acres should be reserved for agricultural purposes, and open for selection to bond fide settlers on the run occupied by Messrs. Gardiner and Main. Your memorialists respectfully beg to inform your Excellency that in accordance with the unanimous resolution of the meeting aforesaid a memorial was signed by every inhabitant in the district, and forwarded to His Honor the Superintendent, asking that His Honor would be pleased to declare the lands applied for open for selection, which he promised to grant, and has not yet been carried out. Tour memorialists hail with satisfaction the fact of your Excellency taking the management of the Gold Fields of this Province under your own charge. Tour memorialists humbly sheweth that Hyde is the central place in the Taieri District; that it is in contemplation to run the mail1 coaches from Dunedin by McCrae's, Hyde, Naseby, Hill's Creek, via Dunstan ; and that in the event of the land applied for being thrown open for selection it will induce men of small capital to take up allotments, and raise produce which they can supply the various districts on the Gold Fields as enumerated, at a much cheaper rate than as at present supplied from Dunedin. •

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Tour memorialists respectfully beg that your Excellency will be pleased to order that the said land as marked off may be declared open for agricultural purposes, with the right of pasturage to loud fide applicants, without the interference of Messrs. Gardiner and Main. And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. M. L. Duffy, William Price, Edward Lynch, andone hundred and three other signatures.

No. 14. Copy of a Petition (No. 2) from the Mayor and Town Councillors of Clyde and the Inhabitants of the Dunstan District. To His Excellency Sir George Grey, Knight Commander of the Bath, and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Islands of New Zealand, arid Vice-Admiral of the same: We, the undersigned, Residents of the Dunstan and surrounding Districts, your Excellency's petitioners — Humbly Shxwzts: — That the necessity for the establishment of a Supreme Court at Clyde is each day becoming more apparent; so much so, that we cannot in duty to ourselves hesitate any longer in approaching your Excellency in the hope that, by a sufficiency of reasoning, a favourable hearing may be accorded to our prayer. That, lately, a District Court and Court of Appeals has been opened at Clyde, and the advantages derived by the community therefrom arc such as to embolden your petitioners and encourage them to still further efforts in the cause advancement and progress that all important districts and civilized communities should enjoy and command. That the formation and establishment of a Supreme Court would in the minds of your Excellency's petitioners be at once easy and inexpensive now that the District Court is duly established at Clyde, seeing that the officers for such Court would, it is presumed without any additions, discharge such duties as appertain to the Supreme Court, in and over which your petitioners feel confident that His Honor Judge Gray could equally as well preside as over the courts of inferior jurisdiction at present attended by him. That your petitioners would assure your Excellency that the present embarrassments that attend the course of justice are of such a nature as to frustrate the ends thereof, —a journey to Dunedin of one hundred and twenty miles being, by men of business and others, regarded as an insuperable obstacle, and the loss of time and expense in attending the court there has objections that cannot be too greatly considered, especially on the Gold Eiclds, where the loss of a single day may be attended with such a sacrifice as to be almost irreparable. That at the present time, the mining population remaining in the district and Province are no longer imbued with that wandering propensity that formerly so prominently characterized them ; that now mining and agricultural pursuits are marked by the same features of permanent and settled industries, —the result being that a deeper interest is taken in the progress of the country than heretofore by those who have now taken up their abodes in it, and who therefore approach your Excellency, not with the former apathy and indifference that was the consequence of their migrating and unsettled habits, but with the earliest salutations of honafide settlers, who, embarking their whole capital in the country, look to your Excellency for that just recognition of rightful claims in granting what will assuredly prove a lasting benefit alike to the district and State. And, in duty bound, your Excellency's petitioners will ever pray. J. D. Feraud, J.P., Mayor. James Hazlett, ~"| Henry John Cora, kown Councillors. David McConnochie, Charles Goodwin, J L. Wm. Carter, Town Clerk, and four hundred and eight other signatures.