ARROW MINERS’ ASSOCIATION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 96, 12 September 1871, Page 3

ARROW MINERS’ ASSOCIATION.

ADMINISTRATION ON GOLD-FIELDS. At the monthly meeting of this Association, held at Arrow town on the 2nd instant, the following resolution was passed : ! That the present mode of administration j m gold-fields docs not meet the requirements \ tiie minors,—for the following reasons : j 1. The mining populations on the gold- j fields, especially of the Wakatip district, are scattered over such a wide extent of country that no staff of officials—unless unreasonably large—can attend to their wants in a reasonable time. 2. Despatch in the settlement of mining disputes is a consideration second only to! that of justice, for the simple reason that! during disputes the disputants are generally | compelled to suspend operations,—which sus-1 pension is in itself a great loss to the parties affected, and therefore to the country. 3. The decisions are at present arrived at upon purely verbal evidence, which evidence is often incomplete—sometimes erroneous. 4. The ends of justice are often frustrated by the want of technical and local knowledge in the parties giving decisions, although those parties are often otherwise highly qualified for the office they fill. 5. That the Legislature which instituted j the present syst em of administration by War- j dens, evidently intended them to deliver | those decisions, where practicable, upon the ground in dispute, assisted by their own observation, and also (if needed) by assessors chosen from experienced miners ; and, in cases where the Warden’s presence on the ground was impracticable, tbeu plans, drawn by competent persons, were deemed essential supports to the verbal evidence. 6. That the most simple, efficient, and economical mode of settlement for all purely mining disputes would bo, arbitration by the miners, effected on the site in dispute ; the evidence thus taken being chocked by objects and circumstances in the sight and knowledge of the arbitrators, —the cuds of tj justice being thereby as nearly as possible r attained.

7. Travelling expenses, nuder the present system, often amount to more than tiro foes and other expenses of a mining cose ; and t ns often produces much hardship, the losing party sometimes expiating his inability to pay by insolvency or imprisonment. 8. Toat your petitioners therefore pray that, in framing the new Gold-fields Act, the settle;! ont of mining disputes b/ arbitration may bo m ale compulsory, so far that any mi' lag disp ite taken to a Warden’s Court must bo supported by the evidf no s of arbiI trators who 1 av i previously investigated tire | case on tho disp ilod ground, and that idl I cases Ihrs t iki n t>o tr-;at-od as cases of appeal.