RUNHOLDERS' PREROGATIVES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 30, 12 August 1863, Page 5

RUNHOLDERS' PREROGATIVES.

A case of unparalleled hardship and injustice has just been brought before our notice from the Nokomai, involving a question of the rights of squatters, which lately caused such a stir in this district. We will refrain from making any remarks on the subject, as our opinions on similar occurrences are pretty well known, and we prefer leaving it to the unbiassed judgment of our readers. The circumstances as they have been reported to us, are as follows:—" The miners of the Nokomai goldfield were, till a short time back, supplied with the necessaries of life by two stores—one of them kept by a Mr. M'Donald, who also had a slaughter-yard attached, and who killed and sold beef to the miners without any objection from Mr. Cameion, the runholder, for some five or six months. The yard was originally erected by Mr. Howell, and used by him for slaughtering purposes, he being in partnership with a Mr. Daniels, who kept the store that M'Donald afterwards occupied, and who sold the entire premises to him. The other store was Mr. Cameron's, not held in his name, but in that of the person who retailed the goods, and who also sold meat that was killed at, and sent up from, the station. One of the prospectors that caused the last rush to the Nokomai, named Austin Chamberlain, finding his claim not so good as he expected, and possessing a little capital, horses, drays, &c, and a good deal of energy and perseverance, determined to open a store in opposition to the above-named parties. He did so, lowered the price of stores, raised that of gold, and to a certain extent prospered. In conjunction with him, but not a partner, was one Frank Fielding, who bought a couple of bullocks, killed them at M'Donald's yard, and sold them. He also in some degree prospered, doubtless at the expense of Messrs. Cameron and M'Donald, for about three weeks ago, the latter, having had some losses, and finding ! trade too dull to support three stores, sold his stock-in-trade, store, and slaughter-house to Chamberlain* and left the Nokomai. Fielding has since that used the yard, and proved such a formidable rival to Mr. Cameron, that that gentleman sent his bullock-driver (an Australian aboriginal), on the 4th inst., to destroy the yard, alleging, as his reason, that parties had no right to slaughter on his run, and that ! he would put a stop to it. The work of destruction was well carried out, the principal parts of the yard being literally chopped to pieces, and the loss, as a consequence, to I Chamberlain and Fielding is a heavy one. i Chamberlain intends to take what steps he j legally can to obtain redress, and try whether such a cruel and unjustifiable act can be perpetrated with impunity on land proclaimed a goldfield; and whether the miners are com-1 pelled to buy their meat from a squatter who can charge them what price he may think fit."