COMMONAGE QUESTION.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 785, 26 November 1873, Page 3

COMMONAGE QUESTION.

Sir, —Having taken some interest in the above question since it began to absorb public attention, given the matter some consideration, and been resident in the district since its early settlement, with your permission I would venture a few remarks on this important subject so far as it affects the miner. Under the system which has now been in existence for a number of years, and which is about to belong to the past, I have failed to discover any advantages accruing to the individual above alluded to. For animal food he has had to pay a higher price than is paid in any other part of the Province. This cannot be attributed to deficiency in the grazing capabilities of the country, as for pastoral purposes I believe it will compare favorably with any part of the Island. The unlimited and indiscriminate stocking of this district with sheep has been in a variety cf ways productive of inconvenience and loss to

the miner. There is not a square acre of CrOwn land in the habitable part of the district from which I now write that is not infested with sheep. This surely will be acknowledged as highly detrimental to the class I refer to, as it deprives them of the enjoyment of a right to which they are entitled under their miners' license, leaves no inducement for the investment of their savings in great cattle, and prevent participation in any benefit from the commonage. To whom can this state of things be attributed but to the parties who have from time to time constituted our Board of Wardens — themselves engaged almost exclusively in pastoral pursuits, and enjoying the uninterrupted possession of the country, easily explains the five or six years' delay in discovering the extent of their legal powers, and will probably account for the aversion to the proposed leasing system. It requires no great strain of the imagination to conceive why there are many who strongly advocate the continuation of a system that has enriched them at the public expense. Their effrontery in endeavoring to enlist the howling propensities of the miner on their behalf is something to be admired. Let the miners see that such provision be made on their behalf, as is stated in Mr Bastings' letter on the subject. This accomplished, advantages hitherto unknown will be conferred on that class of the community.—Yours, &c, Miner. Upper Shotover, Nov. 24, 1873. Sir, —In justice to the miners of the Upper Shotover, I wish to distinctly state they are not represented by the Miners' Association of that place, and that their (the miners') confidence is withdrawn from it, as proved by the number of its members ; for at the annual meeting, out of 120 former members only 17 rejoined it, and at the present time but 20 are on its books as subscribing members; so that this body cannot possibly represent the miners of the Upper Shotover, and publicly they disown participating in the traitorous act of Saturday, 22nd, committed intheirname. When nine at a meeting of thirteen members voted for the sale of the runs, the miners are not so false to the district, to their calling and to themselves as to league with its enemies, and bring misery and ruin upon the settlers of the district. The springs of their nature are not so barren as not to feel and sympathise with the district. It is a libel on his (the miner's) nature to league with the acknowledged, the inveterate foe of mining—no matter where he comes from—he may be within the district, or some other land—it is immaterial. The moment he becomes a squatter by right of lease the spirit of opposition to mining animates and burns fiercely within him. He is then the enemy as the miner is the friend to the means that progress uses for its ends and purposes, and yet the miner is loaded with injustice while this withered, sapless limb of the community is pampered and even petted by our free and enlightened Government. But would they that seem so resolved upon the question dare do to the Maori of the North what they threaten to the Wakatip in defiance of its wishes ? His wild free nature would appeal to his mother earth, and as the war dance raged it would awaken and inspire him with her freedom. Is the white man of the South inferior to the Maori of the North ? Wakatip, awaken ! for the chains are forging that must eventually cripple and depopulate unless by your unity you break them and be free. W. Baillie.