GOLDFIELDS MEASURES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VII, Issue 316, 1 December 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

GOLDFIELDS MEASURES.

Two short Acts affecting gold-mining industry were passed during the last session —"The Goldftelds Act Amendment Act, 1875," and "The Gold-mining Districts Act Amendment Act, 1875." The first has reference to water courses, the second to size of claims. By the first it is made lawful that the Governor may, on application, proclaim or withdraw any watercourse as a watercourse into which mining debris and waste waters may be discharged from any mining claim. Any proclamation of this nature to be duly notified for ninety days in the New Zealand Gazette, and at least one newspaper circulating in the goldfield whereon such watercourse is situated. Compensation to owners of land through which such watercourse may flow, or person having lesser estate or interest therein, will be made by arbitration, each party nominating an arbitrator, and the judge of the District Court \uthin the goldfield in which the matter for arbitration may arise to be umpire, or if there be no Judge of the the District Court within such district, then any District Judge or Resident Magistrate whom the Governor may nominate. All claims for compensation must be made within six months from the date when the same shall have arisen, when the claimant resides within the colony, and within twelve calender months when the claimant shall reside elsewhere, and no claims will be allowed if not made within the respective periods. Compensation and costs of arbitration, when awarded, will be paid out of the goldfields revenue of the province wherein operations causing pollution of the watercourse shall be carried on, as also all charges and expenses incurred in carrying out the provisions of the Act. The purchase or

acquirement hereafter of any waste lands of the Crown will not be subject to water rights, and no purchaser will be. deemed as having any right or title to the flow of any watercourse which shall have been at any time proclaimed under this Act, to the interference with or prejudice of the rights of any holder of a miner's right or mining lease to discharge into such watercourse any tailings, mining debris, or waste water produced in any mining claim. Power is also given the Governor to set apart for goldmining purposes exclusively any portion or class of Crown lands within a goldmining district, and to revoke or alter such exemption from time to time. The second Act under notice provides that whenever, after the passing of the Act, a Gold Mining District shall be constituted, claims as first taken up shall be limited in area to five acres, after six months from the date of license amalgamations may be made to the extent of ten acres, and after twelve months to the extent of thirty acres. Provided that no amalgamation will be permitted unless it shall be first-proved to the satisfaction of the Mining Inspector that the claims sought to be amalgamated have been worked during the whole time of occupancy by at least one man for every thirty thousand square feet comprised in such claims. Abandoned ground, taken up under certificate from the Mining Inspector, may be amalgamated to adjoining claims, provided the aggregate area does not exceed thirty acres, and the Governor may grant a lease to any holder of a " prospecting license" who may discover gold on Native land, not being within any goldfield or mining district, on the cession of such land to the Governor for goldmining purposes, or the sale of such land to the Crown by the Native owners.