PUBLIC MEETING AT GIBBSTOWN.

Lake County Press, Issue 67, 13 September 1872, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING AT GIBBSTOWN.

A meeting of miners and other residents of this locality was held on Saturday, 7th inst.,at the Deep Creek Hotel, to consider the provisions of the proposed Gold Mining Bill. About forty persons were present. A much larger number would have attended but for a misapprehension which had obtained as to the date of the meeting. Mr Thomas Kinross was voted to the chair. He said—l have to introduce to you Mr W. M'Whirter, the Vice-presi-dent, and Mr Symonds, the Secretary of the Arrow Miners' Association, who appear as a deputation to make you acquainted with the provisions of the proposed New Consolidated Gold Mining Bill which has passed its second reading in the General Assembly, in order that you may give expression to your opinion upon the measure. The Chairman then called upon Mr Symonds, who read the principal clauses of the Bill and Hansard report of the second reading. During the reading strong feelings of disapprobation to the measure were evinced by the meeting. Mr Jas. D. Leece (of the Cambrian Race Co), proposed the following resolution : That this meeting of the miners at Kawarau Flat, Arrow district, concurs with the opinions expressed throughout the goldfields of Otago condemnatory of the Gold Mining Bill, 1872, and thoroughly agrees with the miners of Arrowtownand other fields in opposing the Bill, as portions of it are tyrannical as well as extortionate—nay, ruinous to the interests ot the miners. They think that a committee of miners from various goldfields should be appointed by the Government to assist in framing any new Act for the Goldfields ; and they censure the representatives of mining districts for not opp, sin"the second reading of the Bill iu the Assembly. He said that the clauses of the Bill just read spoke for themselves as to the oppressive nature of the measure. The Government bad offered bonuses to encourage the developement of vaiious industries, but it was evident that they considered that Gold Mining should be prohibited. Miners would remember the riot iu Victoria in 1852 the result of oppressive direct taxation. Although the good effects of that struggle had been felt for years in checking tyran nical measures, it seemed that it had been forgotten by the framers of this Bill, which would reduce the miner to the position of a serf. The clauses defining the duties and powers of Insp.ctors were arbitrary and despotic in th 'ir tendencies—in fact intolerable to free men. Then with regard to residence ureas. It w»s only the presence of an industrious population which made lands valuable and for conferring that value the miner was to be churned at an enormously increased rate for mere occupation more than the value of the freehold itself. Look at Clarkes' purchase of 50,000 acres at about 14s 7d per acre and compare it with the injustice of charging the miner at the rate of £3 per acre per annum for residence a'one. The suggestions of the delegates who had been invited by the Government to give information and suggestions for a Goldfields Act had been ignored; but instead the Government had again committed themselves to a piece of that same kind of experimental legislation which had proved so unsatisfactory in all previous measures affecting the Goldfields. The speaker referred to other objectionable clauses of the measure and concluded an earnest and spirited address by remarking that although Russia had abolished serfdom aud America had lavished blood and treasure to let four millions of people free, yet this, the youngest daughter of the land where freedom hud been cradled, was making itself conspicuous by retrogressive legislation. The resolution was seconded by Mr Richaid Holden, who called upon all present to protest against such an impracticable measure as the proposed Bill. Resolution carried by acclamation. Mr Robert Mitchell referred to the services which Committees of Miners Associations were able to render in showing up the defects of such measures as the one in question, and called upon those present to enrol themselves as members of the Arrow District Miners Association, and a large number responded by subscribing. A vote of thanks to the Chair and to the deputation closed the proceedings, which had been most earnest and orderly.