PENTITION AGAINST SALE OF RUNS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 784, 19 November 1873, Page 3

PENTITION AGAINST SALE OF RUNS.

The following is copy of a petition now being extensively circulated and signed throughout the district, protesting against the proposed sale of the Wakatip runs in January next. It is to be hoped that all who have the permanent well-being of the district at heart will strengthen the prayer of the petition by attaching their signatures to it; and, by so doing, let the Government see the people are not half-hearted in the matter, but thoroughly in earnest in opposing the iniquitous step proposed : To his Honor James Macandrew, Esq., Superintendent, and the Provincial Executive of Otago. , . , The Memorial of the undersignedFarmers, Miners, Storekeepers, and others being residents of the Wakatip District: Respectfully sheweth, — 1. That the Wakatip Depasturing District has been purchased for the people, aud paid for by them. ~ 2. That the sale of the said District, as contemplated by your Honor's Government 111 January next, it effected, will be productive ot serious personal loss and ruin to many of our choicest residents; will mar the well-being, and curtail the prosperity, of the District generally; and be a breach of that compact originally entered into between the Government oa the one side, and the rniuers aud settlers on the other. ~ „ , „ ,1 3. That the loss will chiefly fall upon tlie pioneers of the District—men who have borne the beat of the battle in settling it—whose indomitable energy has been crowned with moderate success, and which success is now wholly represented in the carcasses of a few hundreds or thousands of cattle or sheep. 4. That, on the faith of the determination of a previous Provincial Council and Executive not to sell the Depasturing District, your Petitioners, in very many cases, myested their all in stock; brought into the District their wives and families ; and are now so thoroughly bound up with it and its institutions, as they at present exist, that any interference—such as is proposed bv your Honor's Government in January next—will undoubtedly be a deathblow to the result of years of toil and anxiety. 5. That the sale, if effected, will undo that which both the Government of the Colony and that of your Honor have striven so zealously, and are still striving, to accomplish; and to effect which the money of the people has been lavished with a most princely hand—namely, the settlement of human beings up«n the land. 6. That your Memorialists have always had the fullest confidence in the honesty, integrity, and desire to act justly—in the interests of the Government, as well as of the people—of those gentlemen who, as a whole, have formed the Board of Management. 7. That your Petitioners pray you to reinstate thej)epasturing Board, and to furnish it with tb&t power necessary to enable it to administer effectively the Regulations of the District. 8. Your Petitioners are sincerely of opinion that, if the leases are sold, a repetition of those most unfortunate occurrences (the impounding of stock) so frequent on Mount Pisa run (Mr Loughnan's) will ensue, but in a much more aggravated form. 9. That your Petitioners respectfully submit that the unsatisfactory management of the Depasturing District in the past is largely, if not wholly, owing to the hollowness of the ground-work upon which the Regulations of the Board were based; or, in other words, to the defective constitution furnished to it by the Government itself. . 10. That the late Board of Wardens objected to do duty on the ground that they had not the powers to deal fairly between Government and the people, inasmuch as the Board was desirous that the Government should receive the full assessment for the stock on the runs, and that those parties should also receive value for the assessment. . 11. That, notwithstanding the apparent liberal provision made for owners of large cattle, the results as described in section 8 are sure to follow if the sale is accomplished, inasmuch as the entire District is dotted (though in some cases thinly) with the homesteads of miners and other residents. 12 Your Memorialists, therefore, most respectfully request that you will act upon the recommendation of the late Depasturing Commissioners, as set forth in Plan No. 1 of their Report.