The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1863.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 58, 18 November 1863, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1863.

The miners on the Wakatip field have every reason to be proud of a certain portion of the Dunedin press. The call made the other day by the Telegraph upon the miners to hold a public meeting, and speak their mind upon the "celebrated Petition" ha s been responded to with a vengeance. The meeting at Arthur's Point, however, did not exactly fulfil the desire of the Telegraph. They rather looked upon matters from quite another point of view. If our contemporaries are not now satisfied, then all we have to say is, they ought to be ''The Solons of the Wakatip Mail'' and the "three tailors of Tooleystreet" have resolved themselves into several hundred diggers; men strong of will, and earnest of purpose to carry out what they have begun. The Telegraph persists in dinning into our ears that the circumstances of Otago will bear favorable comparison with other colonies. Mr. Gillespie in his speech on Monday night, answers that argument very satisfactorily, and we now beg to say further that the argument is not much needed. It was never known in Victoria that a whole district was held at the mercy of one man for the staple article of food. It was never known in Victoria that the lands were held so as to prevent population settling, long after they were virtually in possession; and in addition, we take the liberty of saying that it is a fool's argument to tell any man to grin and bear it, because he chances to be only a little better off than a very badly used neighbour. The insinuation that the miners here are disloyal is best met by the conduct of those at that meeting. It will be long before the Queen receives in any portion her dominions a more spontaneous tribute of respect than the one then paid her. " The old rocks" did ring, and we hope that the echo of that ringing cheer will tell to our rulers that the days have long passed for miners taking any but legal steps to redress their wrongs. It is unjust and untruthful to establish a charge of rowdyism against a body of men who are seeking redress for their grievances in the way that the law prescribes. So far as regards the somewhat ridiculous charge against ourselves, we have only to say that the allegation that the Petition emanates from us is best refuted by the declaration of the miners themselves on Monday night. We do not think that recrimination is conducive to polite literature; and while doing our best, therefore, to shew the fallacy of our contemporaries' arguments, we will refrain from saying anything personal; we can generally manage to expose their bad logic, and knowing this, religiously refrain from calling them bad names. With reference to the " Wakatip agitators" we can only say that such do not exist; we can assure the people of Dunedin that there never appeared in the world a more long-suffering race than miners in general \ and we can say for the miners of this district after a good deal of daily contact with them* that they are the mildest men in the Province. Half the iniquities of which they have to complain, would have driven the citizens of Dunedin mad. We further say that no taunting of the Dunedin press will ever provoke the miners here into breaking the law; but that they will fight, and win their battle through the means of "peaceful and constitutional manifestations." That they will win their battle we feel assured, and our contemporaries feel the same assurance, notwithstanding their attempt to throw ridicule upon the miners and their Petition. It will be long before we again see so many hard handed men leaving their work, and conducting a meeting in the way the Arthur's Point men did. The speeches may be criticized, and if our contemporaries choose to put them in juxtaposition with the forensic displays in tha Provincial Council, we do not think that I

they will lose much by comparison. Is it likely that the men who addressed that meeting are " rowdy and unthinking ?" We have one word to say to the parties who got up that meeting. They have managed to bring upon themselves a most signal defeat, and it is very likely that their popularity will suffer amongst their fellows. We advise them henceforth to make the interests of their class their study, nor think that all their compeers are fools. There is not a miner in the district but is capable of judging of the necessity or otherwise of signing the Petition; and to attempt to drive into the heads of a whole district that they have been making fools of themselves is a hopeless task. One word more to our contemporaries, the Witness and Telegraph, and we have done. We advise them to get up their next meeting to oppose the Petition at the Dunstan. Let it, for instance, be held at the place which the diggers have so much reason to remember in consequence of the monstrous Hill charges for crossing—let them try their chance there, and send timely word to Arthur's Point of their intention, and we will guarantee that they will be met, and as signally defeated, as they were on Monday night.