The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1501, 21 August 1880, Page 17

The Otago Witness.

WITH WBIOH IS rcrOOKPOBATBD THE 'SOUTHEBIN MBROUBY.*

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, 21st AUGUST, 1880.

The Parliamentary paper recently issued containing the recommendations of the Select Committee on the subject of the position and prospects of deferredpayment selectors is a very important one, and the scant attention it has received both from House and country is somewhat curious. It has been generally known for some time that many of these selectors wore in arrears with tneir annual payments but, looking to the period of severe depression through which we have passed, or are passing, such a circumstance was hardly to be wondered at. Bufc if there is reason to believe — and we think there can be no doubt of it — that the crippled condition of some of the deferred-payment selectors is due . not so much to unfavourable circumstances of an incidental and tomporary character common to their fellow colonists of every rank and degree, as to the nature of the industry in which they have engaged, and the conditions into winch they entered wi tli the Crown when first they entered upon it, the whole subject becomes one demanding the gravest and most careful consideration that can be bestowed upon it. It is impossible not to recognise the hardship which certaift of these settlers are now imder-

going; they have paid too high a price for the land, and find themselves unable to meet the annual instalments, and while the Select Committee to which we have alluded evidently sympathised with their condition, it was equally impossible for them to come to any conclusion other than that expressed in their report. Their opinion is that " compliance with the request of the petitioners would be open to the most grave objection, as setting up a dangerous precedent, the possible application of which might lead to general repudiation." The Committee, therefore, go on to recommend that "the law Bhould take its course, and that the land should be dealt with in some such way as that indicated by the Surveyor-general." Now, forfeiture and expulsion from the land is the statutory penalty for non-payment of rent. At the present moment most of the defaulters could by law not only be evicted, but the process of eviction could be carried out without the refund to them of a single shilling of the amount they had expended on the requisite improvements. Some few of them would be entitled on eviction, and at the option of the Waste Lands Board, to 75 per cent, of the value of their improvements. To take advantage of such a provision as the former would be a most barbarous and unjußt proceeding, the propriety of which no one would for a moment entertain. To allow defaulters under the same unhappy circumstances the full value of their improvements and give them the right of re-selection at a lower price would be at once a mischievous tampering with the law, and an act of gross injustice to others who might originally have willingly competed for the land, but who were restrained by adverse conditions or prudential considerations. Mr M'Kerrow's method alluded to in the report of the Select Committee is a much better one. His proposal is " to declare the present deferred-payment selectors who are in arrear defaulters, and simultaneously revoke the proclamation classifying these lands as deferred-payment lands. The status both of the settlers and the land would be altered : the defaulters would become, in the language of the Act, occupantß, and the land would then be open to be dealt with as land of special value. If this were done the Government would then have the improvements of the settlers carefully valued, and also the prime cost of the land. It could then be offered by public auction as land of special value ; and if the occupier could make arrange ments to raise money so as to buy th.and he would still remain in poases p sion ', but if he could not make such arrangements, and another person bought the land, he would then have to retire from his occupancy, but with the full value of his improvements paid over to him." The method here suggested is, under the circumstances, the best that could be adopted. It is not entirely satisfactory, but it involves a greater measure of fairness both to the State and to its settlers thaa any other we can think of. At the same time it should be emphatically expressed and distinctly understood that this process of relief is not to be taken as a precedent, and that for the future the provisions of the law will be regularly and strictly enforced.

Thb reduction of the already too meagre vote for the Otago Central railway by £20,000 will necessarily cause much disappointment in thia Provincial District. If he ia correctly reported by telegram, ihe Hon. Mr Olivkr informed the House that the Government were only keeping the ' ' unemployed " on the line till they could find them more profitable employment, and that it would cost £358,000 to carry the line to a point that would make it at all useful for traffic purposes, and this sum could not be afforded. Are we to regard this as a virtual abandon ment of the vHayo Central railway, after it had boon apparently accepted by the Public Works Statement as a necessary and proper line to continue 1 The mero continuance on tho sole ground that it finds employment foe men who would otherwise ba unemployed is not justifiable. If tho lino is one that ahould not be wado, then it was tho duty of the Government to say so, and to seek for work for the men elsewhere ; but they have not done this. Tho Public Works 'Statement was, it ia true, singularly wanting in any indication of a definite policy ; but if words mean anything, thfi Otago Central was approved one of <!i« lines to' bo gono on with, an the vote proposed would have gone good way towards completing the Hindoi section. On inquiry we find that tho estimate for that section is as folio wo :— To*i-1 c-*l. '.nmation £180,000 Perrons -ml 'vuy ... ... 85.000 £205 000 Le s • xv.adeJ '18,003 £157,000

And we hold that the completion of this section would have opened up a considerable scope of country to the right and left that is now almost inaccessible, though we admit that it would not do nearly as much for the country aa would be effected by carrying it on nine miles farther— to the Sutton. The Wingatui section is under contract and must be proceeded with, and we do not believe the whole cost of the three sections as far as the Sutton — the Wingatui, the Hindon, and the Nenthorne sections — would amount to £358,000 including the £100,000 already expended. We regret to think that there has been any appearance of indecision in this matter on the part of the Government, and the more so as we had been disposed to regard our present Public Works Minister as a man of firmness and decision, who would take a line of action and stick to it, and give it firm support in the House. It is right, however, before apportioning blame in the matter, that we should remember the temper of the House, and the fact that the demands of Otago were large and the enemies of the Otago Central in the House numerous. Though we think the Government should have put so important a railway in a more favourable position, and rather sacrificed in its favour such lines as the Orepuki and Livingstone branches, we cannot yet believe that they will consent to abandon it altogether, and on this point we think an explicit statement should be made, to correct the impression produced by Tuesday's telegram.

A tblegkam from Australia, recounting that nearly 10,000 people are already assembled at the Temora rush, recalls the days of Gabriel's Gully and the Thames, the days when El Dorados were as common as creeks, and the whole world ©f Auatralaßia was consumed with raging yellow fever. Since those times of furious excitement, when fortunes, reputations, lives were staked and lost in a brief hour, there has been nothing like this Temora rush in New South Wales. Small finds have been made, have attracted a few hundred miners, have had their heyday, and sunk into their former oblivion without attracting much notice ; but Temora, with its 10,000 people in a few weeks, eclipses all such spurious excitements. We are told of 500 diggers only ; but who cannot picture to himself the other 9500 1 The storekeepers by dozens, with tento, or corrugated iron shops, or sod huts run up as if by magic, and filled with the products of Lhe four corners of the earth as by a touch of Aladdin's lamp ; the hotels (save tho mark !), bars, sly- grog, and beer ahop3 put up in frantic haste, occupying fivesixths of the frontage of the hastily-im-provised street, with flaming signs : "ifl Dorado Palace," "Teuiora's Pride," "The Miner's Rest," and so on. Their bars crowded with a restless, excited crowd ; the babel of tongues ; the splashing of the "drinks" ; tho sudden quarrels, and the inevitable row all round. Then the clatter of the detachment of mounted police, and the cheers thrice renewed as the first escort goes down, and the next return shows a new name : "Temora, ozg." Everyone, however, knows the picture presented by the 9500. A word as to the 500 who bring them there. We believe the Tomora reefs to be a real discovery. They extend for quite two or three miles in length, and there is no doubt they are auriferous, but whether richly so or not there has not yet been time to provo. A recent passenger from Sydney tells us that no doubt is entertained there of the soundness of the place and the genuineness of the discovery ; but it would be rash for New Zealand miners to rush over to Temora without further reliable information, which wo hope soon to be able to give in these columns. We are inclined even to warn them against so doing. They will arrive anyhow second in the field ; and we still hold to our belief, frequently and emphatically expressed in those columns, that there are in this province just as good fields as Temora is likely to prove, awaiting only an intelligent and industrious development, and affording a means of real competence to our discontented working classes, whose indifference to the treasures that lie at their feet argues a want of enterprise and a dislike to hard work that together are the parents of many of the evils of which they so bitterly complain.

The case of i itchison v. The Waitaki County Council, which has just boon heard before Mr Justice Williams, is of considerable interest to local governing bodies. This was an appeal from the decision of the .Resident Magistrate at Oamaru. The question at isaue was substantially this : Are county councils liablo for the damage done by the flooding of natural watercourses or streams, not being navigablo, within the county boundaries 1 The plaintiff was owner of land which had been damaged by the overflow of a stream in the County of Waitaki. For this damage he sought to render the defendants liable. The Resident Magistrate decided against him, and an appeal was made to the Supreme Court. AL the outset it is obvious that tho quostion raises a somewhat important issue. If ovory landowner who happens to be flooded out by the caprice of the weather has a right to domand compensation from the council of his county for the loss lie has sustained, clearly the financial responsibilities of these bodies have received an alarming extension, The argument for the plaintiff

on appeal rested mainly on the 165 th and 166 th sections of "The Public Works Act, 1876." The former of these two sectionß defines a drain to be " every passage or channel on or under ground through whioh water flows, except a navigable river." A public drain is defined thus: --"Any such drain made by the Government, or by any public board or commissioners, before the passing of this Act, or made or declared to be a public drain under this Act, or made upon, above, or under any road or other land vested in the Crown ; and every natural watercourse, stream, and river not navigable is a public drain within the meaning of thia Act." The next section provides that all "public drains" shall be "under the control of and shall be constructed and kept in. repair by " the county councils. Mr Stout, for the plaintiff (appellant), contended that the words of the Act were unequivocal and conclusive. There was a duty imposed by the Act upon county councils — viz , the keeping in repair of "public drains," which included natural watercourses. They' were bound to provide means for carrying off storm-water, and if they did not do so were liable for damage done. Mr Smith, for the defendants (respondents), urged that such a construction would saddle his clients with a liability which was "absurd and oppressive." The only responsibility which it was intended to confer upon the defendants related to "those drains whioh they as a public body had constructed." His Honor Judge Williams, in affirming the decision of the Court below, said that the words "construct and repair" were incapable of application to the management of natural watercourses, and that the liability of the Council under the 166 th section must be taken to refer specifically to artificial drains. There can be hardly a doubt that this is the only satisfactory explanation' of the words of the Act. It seems preposterous to suppose for a moment that it was the intention of the Legislature to render liable those who, under the circumstances of this oase, cannot either directly or indirectly be considered contributors to the loss of the individual. If, as his Honor said, the Council in any way interfered with the natural watercourse the whole question would assume a different aspect. But the facts were uncontested, and no attempt was made to seek a remedy outside the provisions of the two sections quoted, the meaning and intent of which may be stated thus :— The 366 th section does no more, a3 far as concerna the present case, than specify " natural watercourses " aa being one class of public drains. Several other classes are mentioned, viz., those mide by the Government prior to the Act ; those specially so declared, <fee. The next section is then capable of being construed intelligibly. The words " under the control of " are meant to apply to "natural watercourses," by which it ia probably intended to bring these watercourses under the jurisdiction of the councils ; whilst the words " construct and repair," being utterly senseless if the plaintiff's contention was correct, naturally connect themselves with those words in the 165 th section which complete the definition of a public drain j that is to Bay, speaking in general terms, tho3e of artificial construction.