THE WELLINGTON EVENING POST AND MR SHEPHERD’S GOLD MINING BILL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 700, 17 September 1875, Page 3

THE WELLINGTON EVENING POST AND MR SHEPHERD’S GOLD MINING BILL.

—o— In the Legislative Council yesterday,’the Pollution of Rivers Bill, commonly known as the Goldfield Act Amendment Bill, was read a second time, after a debate which served to show how fpersistently a certain class of ; the members of that Chamber object to anything which may tend to render the country useful for purposes other than the grazing of sheep. After the decision of the Court of Appeal in the Maraewhenua case, gold mining must become practically a forbidden pursuit, if some such Bill as the present one does not pass. That decision was we believe, obtained at the expense of the country, the Colonial Treasury, by arrangement, paying the costs on both sides, as the question'at issue was one of such great public importance; and the point having been determined, the Government was, we think, very much to blame in not having introduced a Bill this session to put matters on a more satisfactory footing. It was left to Mr T. L. Shepherd to do so, and he did it very well; hut still the fact of the Bill being introduced by a private member was used against it yesterday in the Council. We quite agree that it was the duty of the Government to have taken the matter up, but it was a matter of no importance to the. country for the Legislature to neglect it, because the Government chose to do so. Dr Pollen certainly voted for the Bill yesterday, but it was w ungraceful of him to damn it with faint praise as he certainly did. He should rather have acknowledged the obligation the Government was under to the private member who had remedied their neglect and introduced a hill of ten times more practical value to the colony than fhe wretched abortions on which Dr Pollen and his colleagues have staked their political existence—no very'valuable stake, certainly, but still all they had to lay as odds. We were glad to see that a majority of the Council affirmed the principle of the Bill, and we trust that it will pass into law, so that gold mining may he carried on without fear of actions for damages by the ruaholders who have acquired riparian righ's by lease from the Crown. The latter will really benefit also by the Bill, as it enables them to claim compensation without the risk of bringing expensive law suits against miners, who might, when they found the action going against them, leave the Colony for other goldfields. The San Francisco Bulletin says that one part of the great West is agonised with the question, “ Can’t the Chinese be trained to eat grass-hoppers !" While another is riven with anguish over the great inquiry, ‘‘Can’t they train tho grass-hoppers to eat the Chinese.” A ricaly Girl.—The Milwaukee News says ; There was a young girl at ths police station recently, not over sixteen, with prepossessing face and good figure, whose body and limbs ai e covered with scales about the size of and similar ir appearance to the scales of a fish. Medical gentlemen who have examined her say that she presents the most extraordinary case of malformation on record. These scales have tho chameleon-like function of changing their color. Tho scales on her arm, while tho writer was present, changed twice from a pale amber to blood-red, and back again. They do not overlie each other as in the case of fish or flesh—in a sort of mosaic work; and in color changes, the transformation does not take place at once in all the imbricated plates, some turning red, while others retain the amber color, which seems to be tho primary hue.