The Clutha Leader. THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1875.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 34, 4 March 1875, Page 4

The Clutha Leader. THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1875.

The General Assembly in : its last session passed an Act; the short ~ title of Which is " The Otago Reserves/ &^ W#.^ -b#' which, among certajta other" reservations ol; land for specified puEpoßes,:there was set aside for an endowment for ,the]Vioiutha ..liver Trust, "all that area in thep^oymce of Otago, containing; b^"esti^a^|^i^^[xi acres (more or less), heingTuna.nujpafeered i respectively 139, 258; -'and® "pari ,;of { rrin | number 90, the boundaries '#£ wlu<jh are laid down im the ,^^tf^^^4^t'v^'saWjAct*" and .theLlpjctdityjrof which .mayj be j sufficiently d escr^ed *by stating th^rthey 'aTesitnatednear the sources of T the- rivers !TO^e,and^^*roi«; 3 :;slMp^ws.

■' ' " followed by another, entitled " The Clutha River Trust Reserves Act, 1874 " which enacted as follows : — " That so soon as the Superintendent and Provincial Council shall have passed an Ordinance constituting a Board of Conservators for the district of the Clutha River, the said Board of Conservators shall bave the lands described in the schedule for such purposes as shall be specified in the aforesaid Ordinance, such lands remaining subject to any existing license or lease ; but the moneys payable on such account to be paid to the Board in such manner as may be specified in the Ordinance." As there was an indisposition in Parliament to lock up so much land as was comprised in the first-mentioned Act, there is a clause inserted by which the Superintendent, on the recommendation of the Provincial Council, may declare these lands opened for' sale or lease under any of the provisions of " The Otago Waste Lands Act, 1872," and any other Acts amending the same ; or for sale or lease under any provisions of " The Goldfields Act, 1866," and any other Acts amending the same ; and from and after the time fixed for the pnrpose in such proclamation, such lands may be sold or leased accordingly, the proceeds being made payable to two or more trustees appointed by the Superintendent, who shall invest such monies in Government securities for the purposes for which the land had been set apart previous to sale. The objects contemplated by the Act are conservation of the banks of the Clutha River and the improvement of the navigation thereof. We are not in a position to state at the present moment what is the exact annual rental of this reserve, or how long the licenses or leases have to run; but we imagine that we should not be far out were we to put it down between L4OO and LSOO. Again, we find from a cursory inspection of tbe map that the main road to Invercargill runs through run number 90, and probably the railroad takes a similar course, so that this -portion of the road may be considered to be very valuable. If we should be correct in this view of the case, it would be worthy of consideration whether a part of the reserve might not be sold in small allotments, as land of special value, laying off a township in the neighborhood, at a reasonable distance from Clinton, and another portion made available for settlers under the system of deferred payments, leaving the remainder, if purely pastoral land, to be let, on the txpiry of existing licenses, to small farmers holding some 5000 acres each. We would commend these suggestions to the favorable consideration of the Government, so that power may be taken by Ordinance to carry out the same. We should be glad to see that the Ordinance more clearly defines the objects contemplated by the Trust, for at present they are somewhat obscure. In any other country but New Zealand steam colliers would be plying up and down the river from the rich coalfields at and near Kaitangata; but it seems that because Providence has been so lavish in her gifts, we seek other means to develops our resources. To Mr Thomson, ably backed by the Superintendent and Mr Reid in the General Assembly, we owe the present position of this Trust ; to them and our juembers-^-Mr Henderson and Mr M'Neil— we look for the effective carrying out the objects contemplated by the resolutions of the Provincial Council and the Acts of the General Assembly. Doubtless the projected railway from the main south line will effectually tap this magnificent coalfield as described by Dr Hector, and distribute coal along the line both in the direction o f Dunedin and InvercargiU, to the great comfort and convenience of the settlers; while ajfleet of steam colliers will ship coal almost at the pits', mouth, and disgorge their contents almost in the heart of Dunedin. The removal of snags from the river will much improve its navigation, and convert the river into a branch line feeding the main line. We doubt not that a proper representation to the General Government would result in obtaining the services of an engineer to survey the river, in order that the means placed at the disposal of the conservators may be judiciously expended. We express this conviction because a river described in the language that the late amented Mr Balfour, the Provincial Marine Engineer, described the Clutha River cannot but be considered as one of the chief arterial communications of the Colony. The assistance thus rendered would be inexpensive, yet most valuable ; but should our expectations be disappointed, we may assuredly expect, as in the case of Mr Uerich's inspection of the goldfields, that the Provincial Government will seek the assistance of the neighboring colonies. If we mistake not, the General Government Engineers have been similarly employed ; and we know that Victoria engaged the special services of an officer ot the Bengal Engineers^to examine into the subject of the water supply for Melbourne. « Tsb meeting held on the evening of Monday to consider the action of the Town I Council re the Clutha Bridge, so far as that matter was concerned, ended as might have been expected in smoke. The one or two panic- stricken ratepayers who managed to get a few names to the requisition calling the meeting, apparently did not know what they wanted, and although they had sufficient opportunity, they gave -no reason whatever why the meeting should be called. Evidently tney had some nameless dread that if the collection of the bridge revenue were entrusted to the Town Council the ] structure Irom that moment would crumble

to pieces and become a total wreck. It seems to have a foregone conclusion with them that the collection of the " passover " sixpences by the Corporation would be followed by the immediate dissolution of the piles. Foremost among those who were afflicted with this hallucination, Mr Ritchie distinguished himself in his usual way. We do not know whether his double qualification of banker and deacon accounts for the humility of his views. Certain it is that, at the meeting on Monday night he was inclined to be extremely grateful for small mercies. Like Lazarus under the rich man's board he seemed quite content with the crumbs which fall from the Government table, and he altogether and effectually out-lazared Lazarus by proposing to return thanks tor the crumb which had not fallen. Mr Ritchie's attempt to cast a slur on the Town Council by proposing a motion which was simply a gratuitous insult to that body came, we may remark with very bad grace, from one who, if a ratepayer at all, is only such, as the paid servant of a public institution and not from the possession of any property of his own. The appalling danger to which the Council subjected the ratepayers by applying for the control of the bridge was equal to that which this gentleman would incur were he to apply to his directors for an increase of a few hundreds a year to his salary, with this important difference, however, that the Council had a much greater chance of its request being granted. Tbe fact of the Government preferring to keep the bridge in its own hands is sufficient proof that tbe application -made by the Council if complied with would have been advantageous to the town. The Government apparently have no intention whatever any more than the Council had, of spending more on bridge repairs than what is derived from it in tolls. We will watch with much interest for the expenditure of those vast sums by the Government which we are told are now required to put the bridge in a fit state of repair. If we are not much mistaken tbe outlay for the future will bear the same proportion to the revenue that it has done in the past, something like the current rate of interest on deposits, viz., six per cent v To revert to the meeting of Monday, however, there are always wheels within wheels, and the ratepayers are quite well aware that the sham agitation about the bridge was only a cloak for a grievance of another nature. What that special grievance is requires no explanation to those who are familiar with the financial history of the Balclutha Town Council.