GOLD MINING BILL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 203, 30 September 1873, Page 7

GOLD MINING BILL.

It will be remembered that this Bill, after having previously been thrown out oft the motion of Mr White, of Hokitika, was placed on the order paper for further consideration, mainly through the exertions of Mr Shepherd, Who had been absent from the House when it was first brought up. Hansard supplies us with the following speeches made during the discussion evoked by its second appearance:— Major Atkinson moved that the order of the day for the further consideration, in Committee, of this Bill be discharged. Mr Pyke seconded the motion, for the reason that he thought the time of the House and the time of the country would simply be wasted in discussing the Bill, for if ever there was a measure laid before the Parliament of New Zealand which was thoroughly unpleasant, unpalatable, and obnoxious, it was the Bill which was at present before the House. Time should be given to the people most interested in the measure to consider its provisions before it was passed into law. He had been requested to ask the House to pause before it passed this measure. The miners would prefer that the existing law, however imperfect it might be, should remain in force until next session, rather than that this Bill should be forced upon them. Mr T. L. Shepherd said he was dad that an opportunity was at last afforded him to express his views upon the Bill, and he trusted he would receive a patient hearing. A large amount of abuse and misrepresentation had been heaped upon his shoulders in the lobbies, because he supported the Govern* ment in this measure; but he hoped to be able to show that the abuse w as undeserved. The honorable member for Wakatipu had told the House that the people of that important portion of the gold-fields which he had only represented for a few days, desired that this measure should be postponed ; but he had good leason to know to the contrary. He trusted the honorable member would give some reason, before the debate terminated, why such a course should be adopted. The honorable gentleman had led the House to believe that he was not quite sure that the present law was perfect. He did not believe that the honorable gentleman was qualified to express an opinion that would satisfy him or that would satisfy the House. They were aware that candidates frequently made promises to their constituents, that when they came to the Assembly they would make everything right. The only misfortune was, that some honorable members had but a short time to fulfil their pledges. A fortnight would not afford them much time to put matters relating to the gold-fielda right. The opponents of the Bill affirmed that it was not a good measure, and at the same time stated that the present law was not perfect. The Bill was prepared by one of the most eminent barristers in Otago, Mr Haggitt, with the assistance of Mr John Mouat, —a gentleman who had had twenty years' experience of gold mining, and was a practising barrister on the gold-fields of Otago,—and himself. He was aware that the honorable member for Auckland City West had an utter contempt for all lawyers but himself, and was of opinion that no person could frame a Bill as well as himself. He (Mr Shepherd) did not feel such disrespect for the Bill because it had been prepared by the gentlemen he had named ; on the contrary, he considered it to be a measure that would advance the mining interests, and therefore would be well worthy the attention of the House. It had received the general approval of the miners in Otago, and had been reported upon in the most favourable manner by six or seven mining associations, who had also made many valuable suggestions, several of which had been incorporated in the Bill. None of those associations had raised an objection to the principle of the measure. In fact, one of them, in the part of the Province from which the honorable member for Wakatipu came, supported the principle of the Bill, yet the honorable member now opposed it. "He believed the honorable member was endeavouring to qualify himself for the position of Minister of Mines ; but if the honorable member had served an apprenticeship in the House for three years he might claim that position, but certainly not after seven days' probation. He (Mr Shepherd) very much regretted that he was debarred from speaking upon the provisions of the Bill, because it was his intention to have gone through it clause by clause, and to have shown that it was ohitly a consolidation of the present

law, with the exception of certain amending clauses incorporated from the Victorian Mining Act of 18C5, which had stood the tests of all the law Courts in Victoria for the last seven years without amendment, and amendments which experience had proved were necessary. He was quite sure that the gentlemen entrusted witk the framing of the Bill had discharged their duties in the most deserving manner, and in the belief that they were rendering good service to the country. The fact of the Bill having passed through the Gold-fields Committee—consisting of sixteen members, three of whom were Superintendents—with very few amendments, should be a good proof to the House that the Bill had been carefully framed. . . . Most of the amendments were negatived } and Vet the Otago gold-fields members Were lobbying and canvassing against the Bill after it had been considered for three weeks in Committee, the sittings commencing each day at ten o'clock. What would the people on the gold-fields say of this ? They would say the sooner they got rid of some of their representatives the better, It was quite clear that they were not competent to deal with a Goldfields Bill when it was remitted to them. After having found scarcely any objection to the Bill when before the Select Committee, they now came down and said, " Don't let us consider this Bill this session ; let us have it circulated, and considered next session." What could the people on the gold-fields point to as having been done for them during the last five years ? What benefit had they received by the representation they had had in this House ? The very first Bill that had passed through a Committee that might have benefited them, some Of the gold-fields members tried to throw out. Those honorable members utterly destroyed the work of their own hands, after three weeks' labour. It was not his own Bill; it was a Government measure ; but, as was his duty to do, eeeing that he was a representative of a mining constituency, he had given his attention to the Bill, feeling that it was one of very great importance, and much required, since it consolidated ten Statutes, scattered over seven or eight Blue Books, besides two others dealing with the administration of the Wardens' Courts The honorable member for Nelson City (Mr Curtis) was an old Superintendent nf a Province, and he thoroughly approved of the Bill, and when he first read it, told him (Mr Shepherd) that he considered it to be a very carefully prepared measure. In fact, the honorable member had on the previous day spoken in very favourable terms of it, and he had given most valuable assistance when it was before the Committee, There was not a clause he did not carefully consider, &nd he moved several amendments, nearly all of which were carried. Thus, this Bill, which was such a monster of iniquity, according to the new broom, had met with the approval of so experienced a judge of mining legislation, and so old a member of the House, as the honorable member for Nelson City. ... He might remark that the drafters of the Bill, in making use of the Victorian Act of 1865, were influenced by the recommendations of a mining commission, elected in Otago, evidently thinking they could not do better than to accept the clauses prepared in a Colony where the inhabitants had had so much experience in mining matters, and whose Mining Bill stood a crucial legal test for many years. He repeated that the Bill had been carefully prepared. It had met with the general support of the miners throughout Otago, and had passed through a Committee of all the mining intelligence which the House could send to it. He would not say what was the amount of that intelligence, because that would require time to explain, but the result was this Bill, which honorable members now wished should not be considered this session. Tn conclusion, he would point out that no one had directed attention to a single provision in the Bill that was bad or faulty, and not in the interests of the gold-fields. Mr T. B. Gillies would move, as an amendment, that the order of the day be made an order for that day three months. Mr Pyke would ask the honorable member for Auckland City West to reconsider his amendment. Nothing was to be gained by it, and in a matter of this kind they were entitled to ask for an expression of opinion from the House. In spite of the turgid flow of eloquence from the honorable member for the Dunstan, he still said the miners of Otago were averse to this Bill. They regarded it as very much Worse than the Act now in existence, and that fact was forcibly impressed on his notice during a recent visit to a district which the honorable member tried once very hard to represent, but without success. The, miners in that district wished him to oppose the Bill in every possible Way for many reasons. One reason for their opposition was, that the honorable member for Dunstan had a large hand in framing the Bill. The honorable member had resided in that district, and was no new broom there ; he was so well known, in fact, that the inhabitants doubted his capacity for framing a Bill. He (Mr Pyke) was called a new broom. He was not averse to the appellation, and hoped he should preserve the character of a new and clean broom as long as he held a seat in that House. The old broom seemed pretty well worn out, He was aware that his honorable friend held the opinion that he (Mr Pyke) knew nothing about, the old Act, but there were many members of the House, including the Speaker, who knew that the Act was one of his own creation. The honorable member for Dunstan said that the gold-fields members had done no good to their constiuents during the hast five years. That could not be a reflection upon a new broom, although it might upon an old one. No harm, but a great dual

of benefit, would accrue from postponing this subject until next session, because the Bill before the House was so complex, more especially in regard to the administration of jus* tice—about which he professed to have some knowledge—that it was inevitable, if it passed, that a Bill of an entirely different nature would have to be brought in next session ; therefore he asked the Government to postpone the consideration of the Subject alto* gether until another session. If the Bill were a good one, he was perfectly satisfied it could never be carried whilst it was intrusted to the hands of the honorable member for Dunstan, to whom he meant no disrespect, but it was very clear he had not the sympathy of the House with him. Mr T. L> Shepherd explained that he was not in charge of the Bill. Mr Pyke thought the House and the Government would only be taking a proper course by saying at once they would drop this Bill, and bring in another heXt session, after the people affected had had time to con* sidcr it. Mr T. B. Gillies, by leave, withdrew his amendment. Mr White wished to say one or two words before the question was put, as he had been referred to personally by the honorable member for the Dunstan. He was not in the habit of taking any notice of what that honorable gentleman'said, and in that respect he thought he was like all other honorable members. , . . (Mr White proceeded to say that he wished the Bill discharged because he had had no opportunity to study it, nor had his constituents, Mr Shepherd of course knew all about the Bill; during the prepara* tion of the Bill he had sat side by side with the eminent lawyer and the eminent practical man who had been referred to, and to whom he referred day after day and hour after hour, Because others were not so well up in it, he called them delegates and not representatives. i The member for the Dunstan was the heavy father of the mining industry, and might be termed the '' Claimant." Perhaps (Mr White hinted) the honorable member was hankering after the office of mining registrar, which the Bill would create.) . . . With regard to the Bill, he (Mr White) undertook to say that not a single momber of the House de* sired to see it passed into law this session, except the honorable member for the Dunstan. Mr Macandrew would state, in answer to the insinuations that had been thrown out against the honorable member for Dunstan With reference to the action he took in framing the Bill, that the honorable member had not been paid by the Provincial Council of Otago, and it was hot intended to pay him, The Bill was prepared by the honorable member and two gentlemen in Otago, and the latter would be paid. He very much regretted that the measure had come to such j an untimely end, and ho thought it said very little for the House that for five years they had been attempting to legislate for the goldfields, and all attempts had proved but mountains in labour. If honorable members expected to get a Bill that would be satisfactory to every miner in the Colony, they would meet next session with no better measure before them than that under consideration. Mr Vogel thought it fair to the honorable member for Dunstan to say he had not received any remuneration from the General Government for his services. Motion agreed to, and order of the day discharged.