THE GUM INDUSTRY ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11151, 25 August 1899, Page 3

THE GUM INDUSTRY ACT.

TO THE EDITOR. "Fancy Free's" reply to Mr. John Anderson aud myself shows the extent to which even intelligent electors can be duped. 1 He says that Mi. Houston has had nearly all Crown lands proclaimed reserves " for British subjects." He ia entirely in error. No British subject can, as such, dig on a reserve. Paragraph A of sub-section 2 of section 5 of the Gum Industry Act prohibits any person from digging on a reserve unless "he is cither a member of tho settlement mentioned in the Order-in-Council creating the reserve, or a native of the Maori race, residing in tho vicinity of such settlement." Section 8 makes tlu position even still clearer by declaring that "no person shall be entitled to receive or hold an ordinary or special license, which on its face is expressed to extend to a reserve, unless he satisfies the local authority to which application therefor is made that, in addition to being qualified under sections 6 or 7 hereof, as the caso may be, he also possesses the qualifications prescribed by paragraph A of sub-section 2 of section 5 hereof." I have already quoted that paragraph. From this it is quite clear that to dig on a reserve a man must, first, be a member of the particular settlement mentioned in the Order-in-Council creating the reserve; and, secondly, he must hold a license extended to tho reserve. Section 15, too, provides that it shall not be lawful to dig within a reserve, " excepting pursuant to the provisions of this Act, and a special or ordinary license, which on its face is expressed to extend to such reserve;" while section 23 imposes a penalty of £1 for the first offence, and £5 for any subsequent offence against any of the provisions of the Act. If, therefore, the Man gonui County is issuing licenses extended to reserves to persons who are not settlers in the particular settlements, the Council is breaking the law, and the diggers are also breaking the law. (In a county controlled by a politician, this is just what might be expected on the eve of an election, but wait till the election is over, and we will find this Act, clearly intended to benefit the small cockatoos, enforoed, and all British and other diggers will bo chased off the reserves. The term British subject" is not mentioned at alt in tho sections dealing with reserves, and under section 6, providing for special licenses, au Austrian who was digging three months before the Act came into force is in as good a position as a Britisher. If Mr. Houston is administering the Act otherwise, then he is breaking the Act, which he himself drew up, and, however capable a county chairman he may be, the fact that in that capacity he has to break his own laws to carry out what lie says he intended to bo their effect shows him in anything but a good light as a legislator. It is useless to blamo the Upper House, because that body did not (see Hansard) make a single alteration in the sections referring to reserves. Messrs. Houston and Thomspon, by their Act of Parliament, have prevented any but settlers of particular settle merits from digging 011 reserves, and by constituting vast areas as reserves they mil ultimately drive the British diggers entirely out of tho country. Let "Fancy Free" study the Act and last year's Hansard for himself, and not listen to idle tattle from politicians I am, etc., Disgusted.