The Miners & the Political Situation.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 63, 23 September 1875, Page 6

The Miners & the Political Situation.

♦— Shakespeare says that there is a divinity which shapes . our ends, rough hew -them as we may. .Truly it is to be hoped that this , ; divinity may perform, its office .of mercy in .this our hour of need, for never was it. more required. - The political position of agricultural Otago requires it ; that of gold mining Otago, nay more the gold yielding districts of the whole of the North and Middle Islands, require it, and wherefore ? -, Why should the agricultural and gold mining resources •require this interposition ? Why should not the abolition of the provinces be sufficient to shape our course towards a prosperous and even a glorious future ? Why should not the abolition of the tangled paraphernalia of provincialism produce such golden effects? Why should it not be the means ot throwing open more land for settlement on the deferred, payment , system, and of repairing the muddled laws of the gold-, fields water rights, which have. been, the cause of the ; decrease mi our export revenue of upwards of £800,000 since ] 870 ?' Why should not the Abolition Bill dp all these things is a question whichmay.be met and perhaps answered by another as cogent. Why should it ■? Why should a bill of this sort be forced oh . the country through an expiring legislature— an administration . elected for "the purpose of directing the affairs of the country, not for obstructing them? Why. should,' tlie House of Assembly be delegated with the power to destroy, a. system of Government which has been in active operation for the r last 25 years by the forced passage of a bill through its benches ?. ; Whose, may we ask,, is the privilege to amend one constitution and setu p another ? Whose but the people, and are these the people? or the. peoples representatives on this question? . Let r .the legislature go to the] people, and they will find that the people' Will 'choose a, new team- of representatives. But. why should abolition destroy land monopoly, set . free more lands, than the Herriot Hundreds, and frame fresh laws for. the ; goldflelds, touching in an especial manner the i( reparian water rights question," repealing the iniquitous laws of Old England as applied to the manhood sufferage of the Otago gold miner j apportioning in a wise and just fashion the land fund of Otago to the, disbursement of , the General Gof vernment debts as t salaries, &c.,. and in other ways proving, the i divinity of their wisdom? At the present . time, where is the,lib'erty,'.-of the gold, miner to come from? ' Will they receive' the right. . to „wat;er ppltiti6;n[ i ' ; as 'a ,spp ?. l/Vfho: has promise^^heiri' Jhis t^6f. felii'fc ■ vague l nope^rjwhose > distance ioisr/so j lar I away that the heart '° sick ] to •

S^__Z_____!^^mi ■> . -o-^ m/i l*;Jif!--jy J itji>*i Oii'i.'i VA dJil — Tf<r :thinkjbf i.tj?i:«ihWdiQjW?V; o^peot sucjb ; an ; eniftomfthefpbHtolTsitjia^n^^^^^ it npt.bpiacmote afripihlei thing for ; the: gold?tniriera jtojexpeQtjthat-,the, Abolition Bill .wasi intended ito/jobtain the, , inithe s sbape of{ therland.funds,, .Jthe - sale , of : : -the! twaste •■ lands^r. and the .-surplus salaries ip'^idiournprpvincial; officers 1 ;; but j ralso! thei;goldfieldM>! themselves, . as the,. ;quickest;and- ; mbst- efficient; method of i getting, rid > ofr, thei question ; I r ajad : from, ; the /mineral wealth of the country at* once^ Nor, would ja , . mineral! monopply :! end. there. , The ( perpetuation' sof, the; ; gold ; .export. r tax could ; then; be, carriedi ; on ; as. a. . mineral; land tax-rrra sort of; counterfeit to, coyer, the institution , of a,- mineral land, monopoly. yWhy .should; this ; not be the case? ; Why should not the. General . Government ■■ view . ; : with alarm .the , political situation j and sacrifice : tp : its i necessities; the mineral interests :. of the country, as it purposes ,to do with . thp landed, revenue ly Are the of Otago so gulled by a false hope that they should fancy themselves by a .change .like-,this, r when , instead of one . adversary they r would , find , five At, Instead of five champions for, their; ; representation they would have but: ;onV Have we not ; before ,ius ,the history t of other countries — fine -Republics \n : the West owned by a few hungry;.monopolists,, whose estates extend hundreds of miles across continents, whose agri- : cultiirists are a tenantry,, and. whose, laborers are serfs. These land owners have vast mineral resources on their estates, which they let to miners, who extract mere, existences from .their, niggard masters. Would the miners of central Otago seek such a result? / ;If not, let them weigh carefully the political situation as regards, abolition, and insist that constitutional changes shall come from the people.