The Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2707, 20 October 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1871.

The memorandum alluded to yesterday, detailing the action taken in accordance with the resolutions of the Joint Committee on Colonial Industries, contains a couple of letters in which the right of mining on private property is involved. Mr Chamberlain, a member of the Legislative Council, addressed two questions to the Colonial Secretary. He represented that on his property at Drury, near Auckland, he had reason to believe gold existed, and that if it were decided that the owners of the soil had a right to the precious metals, it was his intention to prosecute the search. The second question was, whether or not the Government had power to proclaim private property a goldfield, in the event of gold being discovered on it. To the last question only a definite reply was given. The answer to the first virtually leaves the matter in as unsettled a state as before. The reply is as follows

In reply, I have to state that the Government are advised that gold has been worked on private land, without objection on the part of the Government, at various places, and there is no power to proclaim such land a goldfield without the consent of the owners.

In every Colony where the precious metals are procured this difficulty has occurred. In Victoria it was debated long and. anxiously under different administrations, and was the cause of many contests legal as well as strategical. The miners have invariably claimed the right to take the gold ; the owner of the land as invariably claimed the right to prevent their disturbing the soil. We know of several instances where a lead has been attacked from without the boundaries of an estate, in spite of the resistance of the owners of the land. On one occasion there were mining and countermining. The land owner had sunk a shaft, and was working a lead some thousand yards from the boundary of his property, when a party of miners determined to share the prize, and it became a race between him and them which should reach the line of the outer fence first. They had to sink ; he had to drive : and he beat them by a few days. It is a difficult matter to deal with under our present system of parting with the fee simple of land, and really forms one of the gravest political sins committed by the Kkid Government, when they sold the Island Block. Mr Chamberlain points out that in his Crown Grant there are no reservations; but in Victoria it was held that these are not necessary, for gold and silver are the rights of the Crown, and no sale of land can affect those lights. The social difficulty to be dealt with is, that it is unwise to place, in private hands, the power to close gold or silver mines, ns by so doing the development of the Colony would be retarded. It by no means follows, for instance, that because the precious metals subsist upon a block of land, that the owner of the soil will consent to have its surface destroyed and rendered useless for agricultural and grazing purposes ; while on the other hand, it is not likely that the Colony can submit to the dog-in-the-manger stylo of treatment involved in, “ I will neither mine f ‘ myself nor allow others to do it.” It must be very evident that to remit such a power to any individual, would be, to a certain extent, to give him control over a most important national industry. That Island Block, for instance, is supposed by many to cover vast auriferous deposits. Why, with that belief patent to most, it was ever sold, must remain one of those mysteries that are inexplicable to all not behind the scenes. What, and how much pressure was brought to bear on the Government of the day to induce them to offer it for sale, what considerations induced them to yield to the suggestion, must remain untold. It is too late to remedy the matter now ; but it is plain, should the popular idea be true, that gold in quantity lies in the old river-bed on which the Island has been formed, the chance of obtaining it has gone except by special permission of the purchaser. Whether or not the goldfields administration will be improved by coming directly under the control of the General Government, as proposed by the Mining Committee, remains to be seen. We regret that the short-sighted-ness and apathy of the Provincial Go-

vernrnent have invited this step. A splendid opportunity of conducing to Provincial prosperity has been thrown away, and another instance is added to the rapidly accumulating evidence, that faction and mismanagement have invited a heavy blow at Provincialism. The feeling on the goldfields and in the Colony is that it will be better toremove administration from local inlluences as then there is a chance of the difficult questions connected with mining being resolved.