THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 148, 10 September 1872, Page 7

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

GOLD MINING BILL. A Bill, of which the above is the short title, has been introduced to the House by Mr Gisborne, having for its object the consolidation of the various Acts relating to the gold-fields, and including a number of rather important points of difference. We have not seen a copy of the Bill; but here print from Hansard the speeches made by several members at its second reading, which may serve to give our readers some knowledge of a few of the alterations proposed. The Bill has been referred to the gold-fields Committee for consideration:—

Mr Gisborne, in moving the second reading of the Bill, said the first recommendatory feature of the Bill was, that it consolidated about ten Acts relating to the gold-fields into one. The subject of land settlement on gold-fields was left as it was at present, and was not affected by the present Bill, which merely repealed those parts of the Acts which related to mining operations on gold-fields. The first point of difference was in respect to miners’ rights. Under the present law, a miner’s right was an essential element of title. In whatever transfers took place, he believed it was very questionable whether, if one link in the chain was broken by the absence of a miner’s right, at any time afterwards any transfer made would be valid in law. Under the present Bill, a miner’s right would have to be taken out to enable the holder to avail himself of the privileges of the Act (—indeed, every person engaged in mining pursuits was required to take out a miner’s right under a penalty, but' it was proposed to remove any doubt as to the special necessity for a miner’s right in the establishment of title. The next part of the Bill to which he would refer contained the occupation clauses. The principle adopted in the Bill was the same as that contained in the Gold Mining Districts Acts of last session, a measure which was limited to the Auckland gold-fields in its operation. In the present Bill there were different classes of claims, namely, the ordinary shallow alluvial deposits, the deep-sinking alluvial deposits, and the quartz workings. With regard to the ordinary alluvial and deep-sink-ing alluvial deposits, the claims were to be dealt with by regulations, and the quartz workings would be dealt with in the manner prescribed in the Mining Districts Act passed last session. Of course, the House would | see that it was very necessary that the occupation provisions should be secured under penalty and forfeiture, and to aid towards that object, Inspectors were appointed under I Part 111. of the Bill. The duty of the InI specters would chiefly be to see that the provisions of tire Act were carried into effect in regard to occupation, and to inspect the underground workings of mines generally in regard to the safety or otherwise of those workings. The appointment of the Inspectors would, under delegation, be left to the provincial authorities. With regard to the water-rights, instead of the present annual registration certificate under which waterj rights were granted, the Bill provided that ; licenses shou’d be issued, giving to the licensee !an indefeasible right to the exclusive use of : the race, dam, or reservoir, and the water in respect to which the same is constructed, | and of so much land on both sides as is sufficient to secure the safety of the race, dam, | or reservoir, tor such time as he shall fulfil | the conditions on which the same is granted. : One of those conditions would be the pay- j ment of a fixed annual rate. Another im-1 portant part of the Bill was that relating to ; mining on private property. Due considcra-! ;tion for the rights of the public rendered it I proper not to allow land to be locked up I against gold mining, while, at the same time, ! he thought it was only right to the private! ! owner that there should be some regulations I settled by law under which the public should j I be admitted, on ceitaln conditions, for the, purpi so of prosecuting mining operations on I that land, it was proposed to exempt alto- i jgether from the operations of that part of the i : Act land on which private persons bad build- j ings, gardens, or orchards ; and with regard ' to other land, the Inspector should decide what compensation should be paid to the : | owner for any injury he might sustain, in' accordance with the provision contained in section 107 : —“Compensation shall be | granted in respect of the matt rs following, ! and none other (1.) The dej rivation of the j land. (2.) Any injury reasonably to be anti-1 cipated to any such land by means of opera-1 tions to be cair.ed on thereon or thereunder. I (3.) Any injury or depi eciation of value rea | sonably to be anticipated to any adjacent 1 laud or property of the same owner arising! from or caused by any such operations.”! There would be an appeal from the decision : of the Inspector to the Warden with respect! to the amount of compensation to be given. There was also an important part of the Bill j which would be different from the present | law—the part relating to the administration i of justice. At present, although the War-1 dens had power to determine what damage j was done by any wrongful act, they had no! power to insist on specific performance,—that ' is, they had no power to order that certain:

things should be done to prevent or remove I the special cause of damage : a power essential to the proper administration of justice in the case.

Mr Mervyn desired to accord the lion, the Colonial Secretary his meed of praise, and to i congratulate the Government on the able and j comprehensive measure they bad submitted i to the House. No doubt the want of a mca-! sure to consolidate the existing statutes had 1

been much felt throughout the Colony. To J a very large extent the Government had on- S deavoured, by the present Bill, to meet that want, but he thought at the same time, they ihad endeavoured to do too much in that direction. They had striven to adapt the mea-1 sure to the circumstances of the whole Oolonv, i whereas in some of its parts it was only adapted to quartz mining districts. Clause j 13 provided that, — “ For every district con- j stituted under this Act the Governor shall appoint some fit and proper person to be In-1 spector, whose duty it shall be from time to time to visit and inspect the mines within his district, and generally to see that the provisions of this Act, and any regulations made thereunto, arc complied with and carried out.” The provisions of this clause might be necessary in a district like the Thames, where quartz mining was carried on extensively, but he submitted that no such necessity existed as regards the gold-fields of Otago, or wherever the mining consisted almost entirely of sluicing. He thought that if this clause was passed in its present shape it would lead to a large number of unnecessary appointments. He submitted that the appointment o f such persons in some districts would be entirely uncalled for, and to that extent he would endeavour to have the Bill altered. There was another part of the Bill which differed very essentially from the present Act; —he referred to the clauses under the heading water-races, dams, reservoirs. Under the existing law, two heads of 'water, when required, might be diverted for other purposes than sluicing. If it were desired to work the bed of a creek, the owners of the water-races would be compelled to let it flow down the natural channel ; and if the water were required for domestic purposes, the two heads must be sent down the natural chanMe thought it was not right to charge £5 annually for the license, as it was proposed to do by this Bill, payable in advance, j although he thought it desirable for every : sluice-head of water brought in by the j miners they should pay one pound. At one time he was of a contrary opinion, but he I found from experience that persons applied for water which was not beneficially used, and that led to an objectionable monopoly. He thought the payment of the annual sum of £5 was rather too much of a tax on the miners. Mr Bradshaw said there were clauses in the Bill whicji required some explanation. ; In clause 12 the word “exploration” was I 'i-sed. He would like to know if by that expression “ mining” was meant. Further on, where the different inodes of occupation were |classified, he found that “class number one j comprises shallow alluvial deposits,” but there was no definition us to what depth 1 should be the limit of shallow workings or I whether they should be wet or dry. Class j three was stated to comprise “deep alluvial deposits, river beds, and all other claims not I comprised in number one and two,” but no mention was made of tie depth. In Victoria, the depth of the wet workings was in isome cases 300 feet, while in this Colony it was often only five feet. Clause 13 provided for the appointment of Inspectors. He understood the Hon. the Colonial Secretary to | state that those Inspectors would have a right to gm into the mines for the purpose of in--1 spection. It that was to he done an army of ■some oUO Inspectors would be required. There was no provision in that Act compel- ' ling miners to have plans of their workings deposited in some place for reference, so that it could be seen whither the mines were worked in a safe manner. Those, however, were matters which could be decided in ; Committee. By late telegrams, we learn that the Bill | has been returned by the Goldfields Oommit- | tee to the Government for considerable altcI rations. Meetings have been held at Waitaluma, Clyde, and at Arrowtown to take the ; Bill into consideration ; and at all, strong j condemnatory resolutions were carried. It i is believed that there is little chance of the | Bill passing through the House during this session. I MINING ACCIDENTS IULC. Mr Bradshaw asked the Government, i “ V bother it hs their intention to bring in a 1 Mining Accidents Bill tbs pres nt session >" and said that lie was induced to put thi - question on the paper in consequence of th number ol accidents which were occurring in j the Otago and other mints in the Colony. I Ihe Colonial Secretary had stated, when the I Gold Mining Bill was before the House a few j days previously, that that Bill gave power to | Inspectors to examine mines, but be (Mr Bradshaw) had carefully examined the Bill, and could find no effectual provision for that purpose, as it only said that the Inspector could examine mines. What was uullv w,'iiited was a simple measure, providing that when application was made fora mil e, a plan of the working should be sent to some central authority, and that plans should he kept up from time to time as the work progressed. Power should also be given to dismiss auv manager of a mine if found iucmnpet lit, and the Inspector should have assistance when requiring to enter a mine, otherwise obstructions would be placed in bis way. Air Gisborne said that the measure already before the House gave power to appoint aii Inspector, whose duty it would bo to see if mines were safe, and if be penormed that duty that was all that was required. li, however, it was necessary to extend that power, or make provision for the other purposes referred to, clauses to that effect might be introduced into the Bill now before the House. ,

Singular Fatal Accident. A sad accident occurred at Wanganui on Tuesday last, by which a son of Mr P. Ward lost his life. From the evidence given at the inquest, it appears that Mr Ward and his son were engaged in digging a well. The son was working below, and Mr Ward was at the windlass drawing up the earth from the well at the time of the accident ; the well was about 14 feet deep, the entire depth being of nothing but sand. Mr Ward called on the boy to come up, as he wished to leave off; the boy replied that he wanted to send up another bucketful, just to clear up the bottom of the well, and he was engaged in doing so when a portion of the side of the rvell lell in, covering the boy up to the knees. Mr Ward at once called for assistance. Mr James Laing, echo was making the road close by, ran with his men to the well, and a man named Joseph Harwood went down and sent up a few buckets of sand ; but finding it was coming in faster than he couid send it up, a rope was sent down and made fast to the boy. Those on the top began to pull, : but the poor boy could not bear the pain, and begged of them to desist. All this time ! the sand continued falling in, and it became | evident to those on the top that both the boy and Harwood were in extreme peril. ! Again they tried to pull out the boy, but : without avail. Harwood then requested to ! be drawn up, which was no sooner done than there was another fall of sand which buried ! the boy up to the chest. By this time a i large number of people were present, and the i scene was described by those who were pre- ! sent as being terrible in the extreme. A ; number of people now laid hold of the rope, , determined to pull the boy out if possible. : The poor fellow now bore the pain, which must have been excruciating, without a mur- ! mur, but all efforts failed to move him, and lat last the rope broke. The rope was then doubled and made fast on, and more and more strength applied, when the double rope : broke, and almost at the same moment an : immense fall of earth covered the unfortunate ! boy several feet. Harwood again went down, land endeavoured to remove sufficient sand to give the boy a chance to breathe, and had actually got down to the boy and removed , his cap when there was another fall, and Harwood had another very narrow escape. : He was immediately pulled up again, and 1 shortly after nearly the whole of the well fell in. I should have mentioned that the well was sunk on the side of a hill, and all hands l set to work to take down the side of the hill; I and after working at it for some time it became dark, and as all hopes of getting out the boy alive had ceased, the people left off ! till next morning, when a large party set to, I and after remot ng an immense quantity cf sand, they rtc.,vc edthe body. The deceased I was a fine lad about seventeen years of age, and was very much liked by all who knew : him.