Lake County Press. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY Arrowtown, November 3, 1910. COUNTY COUNCIL AND MINER.

Lake County Press, Issue 2349, 3 November 1910, Page 4

Lake County Press. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY

Arrowtown, November 3, 1910. COUNTY COUNCIL AND MINER.

The trust that's given thee guard, and to thyse'j be just.

At the County Council meeting, as will be seen by the report in this issue, application was made by the Arrow River Company for some assistance towards shifting the road opposite the Billy. It was pointed out that the deviation would be made in rock and would be permanent, whereas the present portion was liable to floods and damage. Several of the Councillors were opposed to any assistance being given beyond the use of the Inspector’s services to lay off the work. In the course of the discussion Cr McDougall said everything should be done to foster mining, seeing that all the farm lands had been taken upland the industry was one of their chief assets. Cr Collins said if the work would mean a permanent road for the County and be less liable to damage he would certainly favor assistance being given. Now, if these two members had gone a step further and asked for a return of rates and-rents paid by the Company, the Council as a body could not have ignored the request. We certainly expected that such information would have been asked for. Duriag the past 10 years this Company has paid into the County funds something like £lßl in rates and £ll6 in rents-or an average of close on £25 a year. In our opinion very few agriculturists pay anything approaching this amount in rates, and we certainly think the Councillors had a perfect right to give some aid. They all know, or at least should know, that to the miner they owe a debt of gratitude for their present roads and tracks. It was with Goldfields’ revenue, principally, that the roads of the County were, in the first instance, constructed. Wakatipu would not have been the veritable garden of Eden it .is to-day—with its smiling homesteads and prosperous farmers—had it not been for the pioneer miner. We are apt, for inconvenience sake, to forget these things. Whether a Mining Company is dividend paying or not is not the question. It is entitled to consideration and assistance. Every encouragement should be given to develop the mineral resources of the district, and the path made as easy as possible for the man who is prepared to invest his money in a mining enterprise. Frequently the self same County Council very properly assists in making roads and tracks to farm lands and runs, and it should extend, with equal generosity, the same assistance to the miner, whose hardships, generally speaking, are greater than those of the farmer. To get to the bed rock of life the farmer could not exist were it not for miners and other of that ilk making a market for his products. We hope that on reflection the Council will in future, and in the present instance, extend to the miner that assistance he so justly deserves.