The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, May 2, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 1, 2 May 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, May 2, 1863.

In presenting the first number of the .Wakatip Mail, it may not be amiss to say a word or two as to the line of policy we intend to pursue, and the quality of matter we shall furnish to our readers. It will be our special duty to watch over all matters affecting the gold fields and the interests of miners, and also all mat ers regarding the settlement of land. There cannot arise at the present time in the province of Otago two questions of greater interest than these, and while lending our hearty support to any measure for bringing about the proper settlement of the agricultural lands in the Province, we shall always respect existing rights. When we see, however, that the monopolist or the large landholder has either attained or is in the way of attaining undue advantage over the many, we shall do our utmost to obtain measures of reform and prevention. There has just been elected a new Superintendent for the Province, and in all acts calculated to produce benefit to the country inaugurated by him he shu.l have our hearty support. He will shortly have an opportunity of selecting his advisers from among the members of a new Council, and we hope to see chosen those only of progressive and liberal views. Two members will enter the Council to represent the interests of about 14,000 miners and residents on the goldfields, and we would direct the attention of the miners to the necessity of securing the return of those only whose interests will be identified with the interests of the goldfields. We shall take every opportunity of urging that an addition be made to the number of representatives of the mining districts. We shall also urse a revision Of the tariff, the introduction of vote by ballot, the necessity for the establishment of a central government for the Middle Island, and a better act for the selling and settling of mining townships and the land adjacent to them. The necessity also for having telegraphic communication throughout the Province, the Panama or any route that will place us in more immediaie contact with the home country, and the opening up of the Province by the making of roads and bridges, shall all in their turn come under our notice.

We shall endeavor to procure the latest English and Continental news, and we shall also furnish the most interesting particulars concerning America.

Our advertising columns will be found a capital medium for making known to the diggers and those on outlying stations the character of goods to be had in Queenstown, Frankton, &c., as we intend that the Mail shall circulate through the various goldfields

in the district of the Lake. Our local news will be found to be of the most reliable character, and reports of cases, and other entertaining news Will always be found in our columns.

Mb. lUbbis, who at present occupies the position of an autocrat, has commenced his actings towards us by the performance of a most ungracious act. Utterly regardless of the fact that we have on the Walfatip Goldfields two of the most energetic and efficient Wardens in the Province, he has sent here Mr. Saint John Brannigan, Commissioner of Police, with power to enter into contracts regarding roads, &c, and generally to supervise all that may be going on. The Wakatip Goldfields are thus under the vicarious government of the Chief of Police. Irrespective of the slur cast upon the worthy gentlemen who hold office in this district, we must protest against such an act as this on behalf of the whole public. It is repugnant to an Englishman having the police fingering any pie other than those which are specially meant for their department. It is contrary to 111* spirit of English law to permit a policeman to do anything with the administration of the financial aSues of the country. Thonas Carl vie, in his history of the Freuch Hevoluuun, has shown the baneful effects of

I poliee supervision, And if Mr. Harris means to- govern a Trainee in New Zealand hy» the staff and baton, wd have no hesitation in saying that order cannot be maintainc 1 nor peace preserved. We have no feeling in the matter, so far as Mr. Saint John Brannigan is concerned; we believe him to ho a very good police officer, and an active official in his owa particular line. But we do think that he should have had more regard for the proprieties of things, than to sit upon the Bench and act as a magistrate. If we mistake not, Mr. Brannigan made a similar error once before. It is positively indecent to see an Inspector of Police sitting on the Bench. Can any one conceive a greater anomaly than the head of* the department that prosecutes sitting in judgment on a case. Is Mr. Brannigan from his position not a part and parcel of the prosecution ? The Magistrate is and always ought to be one who calmly weighs and decides between parties, not one who is at the head of the police who apprehend .and prosecute, and,in the case of Mr. Brannigan, judge and punish!:.