The Evening Star TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2632, 25 July 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1871.

In former articles we have dealt with the more stinking portions of the Report of the Mining Commission, with their recommendations upon the subject of tenure of mining property, and the administration of justice. We now propose to take up the more important of the points considered, which come properly under the category of matters of detail, but which are by no means unimportant in the face of impending legislation with regard to the goldfields. As might have been expected from a body consisting solely of miners, we find a recommendation for the practical institution of Mining Boards ; these, it must be understood, are provided for under the Goldfields Act of iB6O, but the provision that five hundred miners in a district must petition before a Board can be appointed, bas hitherto proved an insurmountable difficulty, and indeed would appear to have been introduced for this purpose, from the known opinions of the goldfields members at the time. The Commissioners record their opinion in the following words :

That it is necessary to have some permanently constituted boay to legislate on such details of mining law as may well be regulated by bye-laws. They arc of opinion that such a hotly should not be left to be constituted by the mere will, evidenced by petition or otherwise, of perhaps a small section of the mining population. If the institution be a good one, it should be compulsory and permanent. They are well aware of the defects of the first attempts in the Colony of Victoria to give effect to a system of local legislation, and desire to be taught by that experience. They consider that sucli bodies should be constituted on a large basis ; that the number should not exceed one for each Province or County ; that a certain number —but never the whole of the members—should retire annually; in short, they consider that the provisioils of the Victorian Mining Statute of 1865, with such modifications as may be necessary to make it suitable to the circumstances of New Zealand in the way above-mentioned, is exactly in accordance with their views.

Now, we are inclined to think that there is another side to this question, and that the Legislature had sound reasons when they hedged with difficulties the appointment of Mining Boards. It has been found from experience in Victoria, that the construction of bye-laws being vested in elected bodies, whose personnel is constantly shifting, leads necessarily to perpetual changes of the law, and consequent uncertainty as to provisions of tenure of property. We are of opinion that the commission itself is a conclusive argument against this section of their Report, and that a body similarly constituted meeting once in three or four years—their functions limited to the making of recommendations to the Government—will better answer the purpose than the institution of a permanent Board who would he for ever tinkering at the bye-laws, would constantly be passing such as would he in conflict with Acts of Parliament, and whose organisation would be without doubt made use of for political purposes, and its usefulness prostituted to the exigencies of electoral agitation. Such things have been in other Colonies ; such things, under the same conditions, we must expect here—we may rather expect in even a more ex treme degree. The subject of the special taxation under which the goldfields population labor would appear to have met with very considerable attention on the part of the Commissioners ; and wo find suggestions for the reduction of the rent of mining and agricultural leases, and of the fees for miners’ rights and business licenses, together with a strong condemnation of the export duty upon gold. We quote from the Report : In addition to the Customs duties, the stamp and other duties and taxes, which the miners share in common with the rest of the community, they have to pay the gold export duty—a tax upon their labor and upon the employment of capital, which is felt the more seriously the larger the capital which i« employed^-a tax upon the gross produce without regard to the coat of production. The impolicy of this tax has been fully recognised in tho neighboring Colonies, and led to its abolition. Your Commissioners recognise under present circumstances the difficulty of reducing a tax upon which the revenue of the other Provinces and of the County of Westland so largely depends, but trust that some provision for its gradual reduction and final abolition will recommend itself to the 1 egislature os a matter of good policy and sound political economy. The miner’s right is another special tax which the miners ore required to pay, and without receiving, under the present law, any compensating advantage. Your Commissioners are of opinion that the time has arrived for

a reduction in this charge by one-half, especially as the issue of miners’ rights for terras of years would prevent any immediate falling off in the revenue. The rents charged for mining leases have already been referred to in this report, and in connection with them the amount of deposit required from applicants is felt to be a hardship, especially as delay always occurs in refunding such part of it as may be repayable. The fees charged in the Courts on the goldfields are considered too high, and capable of considerable reduction.

Upon this we would simply remark, that whilst admitting the impolicy of the duty upon gold being retained at its present rate, and the desirability of its gradual extinction by gradual reduction, as above recommended —we cannot go with the Commisssioners in their wholesale propositions to cut down all rents and fees upon the goldfields, which we are not disposed to consider too high at present, considering all the circumstances of the case. The only exception, perhaps, might be made with regard to mining leases. £2 10s an acre is certainly high ; and considering the necessity of large areas being taken up in order to render outlay of capital remunerative, the rent presses upon large companies with undue severity. In all other cases we think the present fees and charges may well be retained, at all events, for some time. At the same time we hold that the residents upon the goldfields have just cause for complaint in the undoubted fact that they have not had their fair share of this special taxation expended within their districts. This is really the sore point, and we are somewhat surprised that it has not been more prominently noticed in the report, especially as the Commissioners included an -eminent member of the “ League,” one qf whose mottoes assumes to be “ expenditure within the goldfields “ of nil special taxation levied upon »miners.” The establishment of a mint is rather a large question, and is dealt with, we think, very sensibly; its desirability is acknowledged, but, in the face of the necessary expense and oar financial position, the Commissioners recommend that to meet present exigencies there should be an assay and melting office ip the Province, where miners and others could bring gold, for the purpose of being melted and assayed, and the Government could then undertake to forward the gold to the neighboring colonies for coinage,—the shipper paying all expenses, and the Government guaranteeing payment by a written document. In concluding our notice of the Report, we have to acknowledge its great value in the way of suggestions ; a value which will no doubt be duly appreciated by the Select Committee, to whom, in the ordinary course, the proposed new Goldfields Bill will be referred. We do not know that any one point of importance has escaped attention, and where we have not been able to agree with the Commissioners, we quite admit that their conclusions do not appear to have been hastily or unreasonably drawn; and we think the Government may be congratulated in having obtained the services of such an intelligent and practical body of men, who, if we mistake not, will leave their mark upon the goldfields legislation of the Colony.