The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2573, 17 May 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1871.

Amongst other subjects that must engage the attention of the Mining Conference is increased security to companies who after investing a large amount of capital in prospecting for deep leads, succeed in discovering one. Under present arrangements they are not by any means certain to reap the reward of their enterprise. This branch of mining industry has not been thought of as one that could be followed successfully in New Zealand ; the general impression being that gold has been deposited under conditions that render it unlikely to be found in the beds of old watercourses. To this prevailing belief, and still more probably, because thus far more easy modes of obtaining gold are found sufficiently profitable, but little exploration has been instituted for deep leads. In addition to this, the failure at Wetherstonos to find payable gold tended to damp prospecting in that direction. But later experience shews that gold deposits are not confined to the surface. A few weeks ago we were enabled to report the bottoming of a prospecting shaft upon a rich lead at a considerable depth below the surface, by the Ida Yalley Company, and this discovery affords an excellent illustration of our faulty regulations in regard to deep leads. The party held a mining lease, which entitled them to all gold obtainable in its area. Geological indications led them to believe that if successful in reaching payable gold, the lead would be in a certain direction and therefore they took up ground that seemed to them most likely to include it through the length of their area. But the merest smatterer in geology must know that no sufficient indication is to be found on the surface to point out whether, if found, the lead will not be somewhat north, south, east, or west of the boundaries. If, therefore, some other parties, mere lookers on, should mark out ground immediately adjoining that of the explorers; and, if instead of the lead falling within their ground, it fell within that of the watchers, the fruit of their enterprise would be liable to be filched from them ; every penny they had invested might be wasted, and the whole of their expenditure of skill, time, and money, be made the means of enriching those who had not risked more than the cost of their lease. In the instance to which we refer even the very workmen employed were in haste to put in pegs when the discovery was made, and to take up claims no matter whether they interfered with the interests of their employers or not. When the lead was reached there was reason to think the course of the old river had been di verted at that point, and that it would only run a very short distance within the area of the lease, and this rendered it necessary for the prospectors to take up another portion of ground extending in the opposite direction to secure themselves. This is no new experience in gold countries. In Victoria, it was a difficulty that very early presented itself. If rivers ran in a straight course from their sources to the sea, the matter would be easily dealt with ) hut since they bend and turn hither and thither, it was found necessary, even after sinking a shaft, to drive considerable distances before reaching the lead. In one or more instances, if our memory serves, as much as 1600 feet has intervened between the shaft and the ed"e of the wash-dirt. This was not allowed to interfere with the right of investors to a section of the lead. The frontage system was adopted, by which each party sinking in succession was entitled to a certain length of the lead, no matter whether the shaft was sunk within the surface area or not ; and if we, in Otago, are to derive any benefit from deep sinking, similar security must be given to investors. There must be pioneers in enterprise, and to every branch of industry our Government professes itself prepared to give encouragement; but we know nothing more discouraging than to have the result of effort transferred from those who invest their capital to a set of ! wily loafers, whose sole employment

chiving the operation of prospecting is to stand by and watch, to gain information by fair means or foul, and when it is obtained, under color of law to appropriate to themselves, by mere cunning, the profit for which other men have labored. This may in the end prove a much move important subject than it now appeal's. At any rate, abstract justice requires that every man should reap the reward of his labor, and provision should be made by law to secure it to him.