THE WAY PUBLIC OPINION IS DONE NOW.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 4 March 1882, Page 23

THE WAY PUBLIC OPINION IS DONE NOW.

TO THE EDITOR.

# Sir, — I would respectfully crave of you a little space in the correspondence columns of your valuable journal, and thus enable me to ventilate a grievance of long-standing, and which, if not redressed very shortly, will continue to extend over a further series of years. I feel sure that you will willingly accord to me the desired space, for during the many years that I have read your paper I have particularly noticed that your voice has ever been raised against the oppressor and the tyranniser. To "begin at the beginning," as 'tis said m the plays, in 1862 1 prospected in and around Dairy Creek (or Cooper's Gully) for gold. I obtained the colour only of the glittering ore, but I also discovered indications of the presence of coal in exceedingly large quantities. Disappointed in my hunt for gold, I shortly afterward retired from Dairy Creek and sought fresh fields and pastures new. For some nine years I was absent from the district, but getting tired of the precarious calling of gold-miner in 1871 1 gave up that branch of the business with the object of returning to the Creek and to work the coal seams which I had discovered in 1862. In due course I applied < for and obtained a coal lease, and forthwith commenced opening out the seams, making roads and improvements thereon, einkjng phaftJ, making cuttings, &c; mi very soon rman»se4

by these v means to get rid of about £3000. , In 1875 I applied to the Warden at .Clyde for a lease of section 119, block ! 11, Leaning Rock district. I deposited the surveyors and other fees, ahd after an "insignificant" delay of six months' the local surveyor graciously surveyed the section I refer to. When my application came on for hearing, there being no objection to it, it was granted without demur. But — and this is where matters began to go wrong with me— about two years after this the local surveyor— who, by-the-bye, is paid by Government, and manages, with great exertion, to fill up his time in playing cricket and croquet, cattle-dealing, &c— came on to my ground and informed me that he intended to make a fresh survey of the lease that had been granted to me by the Warden, because in the former one he had made a gross mistake. He also told me that he would do his level best to prevent roe having possession of the land much longer. I asked him what he meant by insinuating such a base thing, but he refused to tell me anything further. However, Sir, I strenuously exerted myself to get the lease of section 119, and Warden Simpson, in reply to a letter from me, informed me that I would not be able to obtain it, because the surveyor aforesaid had reported that indications of coal had been found on the section, so he had recommended that it be not leased for agricultural purposes.^ Consequent upon this foolish recommendation my application was refused.

Now, Sir, the surveyor could not have known if coal really did exist in the said section.' He Was not a practical coal-miner — in fact, he has not even a superficial knowledge of mining. To. put it broadly, he was simply a puppet worked by strings pulled by a certain clique which then had its headquarters in Clyde. To prove that the Government surveyor's theory re the presence of coal in section 119 was fallacious, i;sank a 90-feet shaft on the land, and, by the aid of a boring-rod, I tested a farther depth of 40 feet, making a total depth in all of 130 feet j but I failed to discover the slightest indication of coal. I even went further than this, and offered to pay the expenses of a prospecting party that snould discover coal in the lease, but if the reverse was the case, the prospectors should pay their own costs. I need not say, Sir, that this liberal offer was declined—a further proof that the surveyor was not in earnest when he stated that coal existed in the lease. However, time rolled on, and one day I learnt from the Wan} 611 that the surveyor had withdrawn his objection to my application. I did not have to go far to find the cause of his withdrawal. Some time previously I had written to the Government on the subject, who had moved in the matter, and given- the officers a pretty good hint as to the pleasant things in etore for them should they go beyond a certain boundary. In 1875 1 applied for a lease of section 119. and it is now 1882, but the land has not yet been granted to me, neither has it been surveyed, and it is impossible to get it marked off. Ab I before said, Sir, the local surveyors have Bo little time to spare because of their croquetplaying and cattle-dealing propensities that they cannot make up their minds to do the work for which they are paid. For thela'sV six weeks two surveyors have been " doing the heavy" in 1 Clyde at the Government's' expense, and, despite the large amount of spare time they have on their hands, they will not put themselves a little out of the way and come and survey section 119. Don't talk about red-tapeism after that lot !

Sir, to give you a good idea of the tyranny and oppression I have been subjected to for the last 11 years at the hands not only of private individuals but also, of public officials,- 1. publish a letter which I received from Warden Simpson on October 4th, 1878 :— "Mr G. T. Marie : Sir,— l am informed that on several occasions you have declined to supply coal to persons who have gone to "your pit for it and tendered the money, and particularly that you did so yesterday. Should you persist in so acting, I must take steps to inform the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and request him to cancel your lease.— l havej &&i W. M. SimpiON, Warden." , # Did you, Sir, ever have such a tyrannical' threat as that applied to you by a Government officer 1 Ido not think so. The plain 'facts of the case were these. At the time alluded to in the letter a flood of terrific force was raging, and not only had it partially swamped my coal-mine, but it had also caused the banks of the main cutting to almost meet, and I was thus excluded from the mine, besides having to work day and night to give free ingress to the flood -water. Two individuals — both had threatened me that they would either by fair means or by foul strip me of my property — came up in the drenching rain to buy a load of coal from me, and also tendered me money for it— with them a very unusual circumstance indeed. I told them that I should be only too happy to comply with their requests ; but in the face of the fact that the mine was inaccessible it was impossible to oblige them. The result was that the spies— for spies they were— returned to Clyde and complained to the Warden (who was always working against my interests) that I had refused to supply them with coal. Hence this letter to me.

The clique to which I have already alluded, finding they could not seriously harm me by pursuing such questionable tactics, adopted ther persecuting measures. James Holt, the holder of a lease adjoining that held by me, and who also possesses a coal-mine, applied to the Vincent County Council to have a road surveyed through my, lease, to be devoted to his own private use and benefit. During the discussion on the question by councillors Mr Pyke suggested that I should be informed by the clerk that unless I conformed to Holt's demand, and removed my house and stables from off an old surveyed road, the Council would give instructions to have it razed to the ground. Thanks to the foresight of Councillors Colclough and Jolly, who foresaw the ex-chairman's drift and his objects, this suggestion i was not acted upon. At a later meeting, the'question again came up for consideration, arid at' the, instance of Mr Pyke (the then chairman of the Council) a road was ordered to be surveyed right through the best of my land, and written instructions given to Holt to knock down all the fences and improvements that should obstruck such line of road. Macgeorge, the Council's engineer, verbally instructed Holt to the same effect.

Well, Sir, these instructions— which were worthy of a Nero or a Sandwich Islanderwore carried out to the " T." The road was made, my fences knocked down, and my fruit and vegetable gardens destroyed, by the unsparing hand of the ruthless road-makers. The road as surveyed crossing the main cutting by which I obtained egress to the mine, I had the satisfaction of seeing this cutting closed up (not bridged over, mark you, Sir), and the safety of my mine endangered, and rendering it liable to becoming flooded in case of a heavy downpour of rain. The closing up of this cut ting precluded the air from ventilating freely in the mine, so I had to sink a shaft to qbtain pure fresh air, Mr Arthur, chief surveyor, was up here some time ago, and he visited my mine. I, of course, complained to him of the way in which I was being treated. In the course oi his reply to me, be poiatod to ft ih&ft

that 1 had sunk to the north of the pit's mouth, and observed that that was quite sufficient for the requirements of the mine. Of course, Mr Arthur knew all about it it, whilst I was only to " stuff" him, to make use of a plebeian phrase. Sir, " the proof of the pudding is the eating thereof." We all know that. Let Mr Arthur, or any one else, take a candle in the mine, and upon visiting one of the drives leading to the seat, he will at once find himself in utter darkness. There is no air obtainable therein, so lights of course will not burn. lam diverging from my subject. Before Holt's road (as I'll term it for distinction) was constructed, I had a splendid growing crop of wheat on my land, besides some grain in stack. The former was quickly destroyed by cattle that were nightly turned in by my enemies ; and the latter, after half of it had been destroyed, I had to give away. My fruit garden is in a dilapidated condition, ana the supply of fruit therefrom is small compared with the yields of former years. Some of the trees have been uprooted, and others have been covered under by the debris from the road. I possessed some of the healthiest trees in the district, and some taken from them were acknowledged by Messrs Clark and Green, of the Dunedin Land Board, to be the finest they had ever seen or tasted. The water supply for my domestic use is cut off. I cut a race starting in the ranges, but the road lately made has obliterated nearly all traces of it. The fruit and forest trees languish for a drop of water, but it cannot be got for them; and it is almost a daily occurrence for me to walk a mile for a couple of buckets of water for domestic pur.poses. I shall, Sir, now draw to a close, but with your kind permission I shall in a future issue of this valuable paper take up the "thread of my discourse," provided you accord me .space for it. — I am, &c, Collins Toussaint Marie, Dairy Creek, near Clyde, Otago, February 27th.