ARROWTOWN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 815, 30 November 1877, Page 3

ARROWTOWN.

(from our correspondent.) r< The weather since the late rains has been 'Moat favorable 'both for agriculture and mining pursuits, and in both instances either ■ party has cause for congratulation. The Rhotover bridge has been rendered available for traffic once more ; also, the tracks as : far as Macetown, but above that, they are in a'terribly bad state and impassable, ex--1 cept for pack-horses lightly laden. ■ 1 In the Law Courts there has been nothing worth recording, with the exception cff the decision in the Premier case, which Mr Warden Stratford decided on Tuesday last; as the matter is of much interest to your Cromwell readers I,‘give it in full. The verdict was :—“That defendants have been gui'ty of trespassing on (by occupation only) a certain portion -of the complainants’ claim, commonly called the “ Premier Prospecting Claim,” situate on a hill to the west of Sawyer’s gully, Macetown, and that plan A. attached "to and impounded with the complaint is sufficiently correct to indicate $ ve nature of the trespassprovcd. The Court finds that the yellow painted diagram, with the letters A and B on its lower line to be a plan of complainants’ claim, known as the “ Premier Prospecting Claim,’’and that the red bound diagram a plan of defendants’ ordinary quartz claim, situate in the same locality, and that that portion of the complainants’ claim aforesaid inserted on the plan as the part of a diagram marked yelubw intersected by the red line, being a diagram of defendants’ claim is the part that has been trespassed upon by the defendants’, who are hereby ordered to remove from such trespass and pay complainants L 25 6s. Od., costa, and L2 16s. Od., Court costs.” The Warden in summing np said that Mr Cope had been very shabbily treated by defendants, who had clearly pone to prospect the ground while in his employment. and he had no doubt but that Mr Cope had a good case in a Court of Equity. I believe the finding of Mr Warden Stratford will be appealed against at the next sitting of the District Court. If Mr Warden Stratford’s ruling is correct, unless a quartz claim is held by a Mining Lease there is no security whatever for persons employing labor when not immediately resident upon the ground, as the men so employed, having discovered gold, have only to mark off another claim, taking in that portion of their employers upon which the discovery has been made, and by their own and secondary evidence swear them clean out of it.

In the matter of prospecting claims the Law should bo interpreted in its most liberal sense. In the Regulations of 186S— Otago Provincial Gazette, No. 540, 29th ■April, 186S, it is specially provided that—- “ The discoverer of new quartz workings shall be entitled at any time within three months after recording the discovery with the Warden, to readjust his boundary, so as tn take up his claim along the course of the lode.” The Regulations of 1872 substitute a different system and read thus—“ No person shall alter the position of any trench nor remove any peg from a claim in the occupation of any other person," leaving the meaning pretty clear that when no other tight interferes, alterations of boundaries may be made.” It would appear from the evidence that lhe Premier Company at some time or another did alter their boundaries, the jumpers, while in their employ,

did so feu* them. The act must therefore c oarly b# that of the Premier Company themselves, and as a matter of equity the workmen cannot hold adversely to the Company, where such holding affects their interests. So far as I can see the Premier Company do not claim all the ground claimed by their late workmen, but only such a pirtion.as they allege belongs to their original claim. JHs Honor Judge Williams has decided that a prospecting claim is not held by virtue of a Registration Certificate, which therefore means nothing, os it does not convey any rights which might be held without it.