REDTAPISM.

Otago Witness, Issue 769, 25 August 1866, Page 1

REDTAPISM.

{From the Daily Times, August 17.)

At a time when, in the minds of a few miners and others on the Goldflelds, there is a desire to transfer the management from the Provincial to the General Government, it must be a matter of some interest to form an idea of the advaxtages to be gained from such a course. Governments of all descriptions — Municipal, Provincial, and General — are proverbial for delays; and the further removed they are "from the scene in which their powers are to be brought into action, the less prompt are they in attending to necessary duties. The miners are apt to imagine that the Provincial Government neglects their interests, and that the delays of which they complain are owing wholly to this. Without for one moment attempting to exonerate the Prorincial Government from blame in the matter, a few facts will prove iocontestably that dilatory as may be its motion", it is active compared with the General Government. It so happens that a fair estimate can be formed of their comparative merits in some matters in which botli are concerned, by a return recently prepared which has reference to Mining Leases. The process of obtaining these appears -simple enough, and may thus be sumsnarised. On a number of miners having decided to work a piece of auriferous ( ground on lease, app'ication is made, twenty pounds is deposited to cover the probable cost of survey, the ground i^sur--veyed, and the surveyor's report cent in to the Warden. Of course all the prelimi-' -naries prescribed by the Goldfield^ Act are supposed to have been attended to, such as posting notices on the ground and marking out the claim, These having been duly attended to, the Warden recommends the Superintendent to grant the lease, and the Superintendent forwards a recommendation to the Governor to that effect. There car be no question with such a recommendation, that the ]ease will be granted, and, as by the Goldfields Act, the form is prescribed, and is very simple, containing perhaps, as much writing as a very young schoolboy would write out in an hour, it might reasonably be anticipated at the utmost, it would be returned signed, and duly executed in a week, or should the Governor be absent, say in a month at furthest. Thi< little lati tude, too, may be allowed for contingencies, as every lease has the Seal of the Colony attached to it. and is also signed in due form by three Ministers, as witnesses. The return alluded to, forms a curious illustration of the effects of this process. It is a return recently prepared by the Government showing the date of applications for Mining Leases ; the date of recommendation by tb.e~War.len ; the date on which they were forwarded for the Governors signature ; and the date of their return to the Receiver of Land Eevenue, in Dunetfin, for execution by the applicant?. It is but fair to remark that when the first applications were received, they formed 3 new feature in mining operations, that the Wardens were inexperienced, that the Regulations and mode ot dealing with Leases were imperfect, and that the Survey Staff was not organised. It is also fair to observe that the applicants are interested in most cases in deferring their execution as long as possible, as they pay no rent until the lease is duly signed. Still, after making all allowances, the delay in dealing with these Leases indicates a serious loss to the Revenue, and has probably laid the foundation of many dis - putes. The first application recorded is that of the Nelson Company, on 6th November. 1862. The next is in January, 1863, followed by three in May, and two_ in August, of the tame year. These applications appear to have been settled and recommended by the Warden on 16th May, 1864, forwarded to the General Government on 13th June, 1864, and returned on 14th November in the following year. These are the most startling cases. Those which succeeded them, were applications made in January, February, and March, 1864, recommended by the Warden on 2nd June, aud forwarded on 13th June to the General Government, by whom they also were returned on 14th November, in the following year. After these we find another batch, of which the applications were made at various times, between June and December, 1864, settled by the Wardens between August, 1864, and June, 1865, forwarded to General Government between Decemb r 1864, and July

1865, and all returned with the Governor's signature, on 15 th February, 1866. The list after this contains but few completed applications. On 29th April, 1865, an application was made, settled by the Warden on 1 4th June, and forwarded to the General Government or». 27th June, 1865. On 13th March, 1866? it was returned with five others, forwarded respectively on 16th and 18th August, and 10th October of the previous year. Since the 27 l b June, 1865, thirty-six leases appear by the return to have been forwarded at vaiious time 3 for signature ; namely, two on 10th Oetnber and two on 15th December, 1865 ; six on 25th January, 1866; four on 27th February, seven in March, two in April, five in May, five in June, two in July, and one in August. Ail of these leases are still awaiM'n^r pig. nature. When returned to the Receiver of Land Revenue it might be supposed an easy matter for him to advertise their recfipt, and give notice that unless executed by the applicant;, (frequently twelve to a lease) they would be cancelled. But there is a difficulty in the way. The Goldfields Act makes no provision for cancelling leases in such cases, and as a practical result, the important documents duly signed by His Excellency, in presence of three Ministers, and sealtd with the Feal of the Colony of New Zealand, in proper form, lie useless and unknown. The next thing heard of many of them will probably be a new application from the original partie3 for the return of their deposit made two or three years previously, they having worked out the ground, and declining therefore to execute the lease.

The same system is pursued with Agricultural leases, although the Superintendent has the power to sign them ; but as soon as they are signed, the collection of rent becomes the function of the Receiver of Land Revenue, who is represented on the Goldfields by the Gold Receivers, and not by the Wardens, whose office is altogether distinct. As a matter of course, the Gold Receivers' duties are principally indoor, and there is little likelihood of their going round to obtain signatures to Agricultural leases. It is plain, from these simple facts, that the true interest of the miners is identical with that of the rest of the inhabitants of the Province, and that is, to increase, rather than diminish the powers of Provincial Governments. Over their doin£3 they can exert an influence for good; but all the Acts of the General Government prove that they consider the Colony a something apart from the Provinces — a sort of aristocratic institution, for the aggrandisement of which each individual Province must submit to be fleeced, and its interests sacrificed.