PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 290, 21 August 1873, Page 6

PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA.

(From a Correspondent.) On Saturday, the 9th inst., a public meeting was held in the Library, at Alexandra, for the purpose of memorialising the Waste Lands Board to bold a general inquiry as to the auriferous nature of Bald Hill Flat. Mr. W. Beresford was called to the chair. The Chairman read the advertisment convening the meeting, and said that he would leave it to persons who were, more conversant with the merits of the question at issue to explain the object of the meeting, and he had no doubt they would receive a fair heariug. Mr. W. F. Forrest said the meeting was doubtless aware of the dispute that has been going on for some time past with respect to the sale of land on Bald Hill Flat. He said that although the regulations provided safeguards against the leasing of auriferous lands for agricultural purposes! yet in practice the rule had been to grant every lease applied for unless miners consented to come forward to sacrifice their time in opposing the applications, and the present unsatisfactory state of affairs was the result of the want of care displayed in granting these leases. There were several sections on the Flat that the most cursory examination would have at once shown that they ought not to be leased for agricultural purposes; he referred more particularly to sections 1, 2, and 3, enclosing a partially worked dry gully. and the workings running through one of the sections ; section 27 had workings right in the centre of it, and would have been leased, as a matter of course, had not miners come forward and opposed it. He considered that a general inquiry should bo held, as it caused a constant irritatior having to object to the various applications in detail, and, in order to obtain a settlement of the question, he would move the following resolution : — " That a memorial be drawn up and forwarded co the Waste Lands Board requesting them to hold a general inquiry as to the auriferous nature of Bald Hill Flat, with a view to reserve from sale any auriferous land." Mr. Simmonds seconded the motion. He said he had no doubt that there was land on the Flat that would pay wages by sluicing it, and such land ought not to be sold and locked up from tbe miners. Mr. J. C. Chappie spoke strongly in favor of the motion. He said that the present state of affairs was satisfactory to neither party, and it would lie far better _to have an inquiry at once, ao that both the miners and farmers would know what to do. Mr. R. J. Webb moved, as an amendment, that the word " payably " should be inserted before " auriferous land " in the last sentence of the motion. The mover having consented to the alteration, the motion as amended was carried. Messrs. Forrest, Chappie, and Simmonds were appointed a committee to draw up" a memorial in accordance with the foregoing resolution ; and a vote of thanks to the Chairman teminated the proceedings.

Professor Bushell, the conjuror, has ' turned up in the Delhi district. He writes . from Podeyporo, March 18 :—: — " Still in India and doing well. Smallpox raging fearfully in this place, still lam safe and sound. lam now with - his Highness the Maharajah of Meywar, who has taken a great liking for me ; and as it brings me in Vargent and gold as well, lam content. My electro- - biological entertainments please him i vastly, and here I am likely to remain fßome time." • Averyimportantjudgementhasjust been delivered by Judge Dunne at •Sandhurst, and one which completely substantiates the soundness of the principle that mining companies should be held responsible for tbe damages , sustained by their workmen from accidents occurring in claims through • want of foresight or caution on the part of the manager.. A miner named " Fallover had been precipitated to the ; bottom of a shaft through the breaking of a ladder which proved to have been s insecurely fixed by ropes that were unequal to the strain put upon them. -. A plea was • put in by the defendants .'that the manager did not know of their ■'condition, but the judge very properly ruled that he ought to have known, 'and that the means of knowledge must be considered equivalent to knowledge. Judge Dunne has not rated the responsibility of the Shenandoah Co.* a bit too high in awarding Fallover £100; and his decision may be regarded as a valuable boon by the mining community generally." It is not generally known that Lady Shelley, who died a few days ago, was indirectly the cause of the first of Air. Oobden's " Three Panics," and was the author of the fortifications which now gird Plymouth and our other naval ports. She it was who made a copy of the confidential letter which the Duke of Wellington wrote to Sir John Burgoyne on the defenceless state of the kingdom, and she sent it to the papers. Both the Duke and Sir Johu were intensely annoyed, the latter all the more so because the former iiispected him of having commited a breaoh of confidence. Lady Shelley prided herself on what she had done when she saw the prodigious impression which the DnkVs letter produced on the public mind. Bnt both officers wrote to her in as itrong language as gentlemen could use to Jady deploring her indiscretion. She was the wisest of the three, — " Court 'Journal! 0