STONEY LEAD.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 477, 4 February 1869, Page 3

STONEY LEAD.

Report of the Select Committee appointed to Enquire into the Circumstances of the Sale of Auriferous Land at Stoney Lead. * The circumstances of the sale of auriferous land at Stoney Lead are as follows : Stoney Lead is a patch of amiferous ground about half-a-niile in length, situated about 300 yards back in the bush from the Railway Reserve, and included in that block of land shown on the maps as Block No. 2. The same lead also runs almost throughout the entire length of the said block. So far back as October, 1867, there were about 200 men working on the ground, and, according to the evidence of the delegates sent down by the miners, there has never been less than from 80 to 100 men working on the lead. There was a considerable rush there on or about the 28th August, the number of men then being about 300. On the 11th May the Waste Lands Board threw open for sale the whole of Block No. 2 as " first-class rural land," which block, as before stated, included the whole of the auriferous land known as "Stoney Lead." The only information which the committee can ascertain was obtained by the Board as to the quality of the land, or as to the fact of its being occupied by miners and likely to be required solely for mining purposes, is contained in a letter from Mr Cooper, the district surveyor at Greymouth. On the 18th April, 1868, Mr Cooper wrote :— " As far as I can see and hear there are only very few miners working near the railway reserve between here and the Saltwater, on the east side. There was a good number, but nearly all have left some time ago." The Board does not appear to have consulted in any way the Warden of the district (Mr Revell), who would have been able to afford the fullest information. The land remained open for sale until the 6th October, 1868, and xip to that time the miners, owing to the insufficient publicity given of the land being open for sale, were not aware of the fact. Further, it appears that the Wardens Revell and Keogh did not understand that Block No. 2, as advertised in the Gazette, in;luded the auriferous ground known as ; ' Stoney Lead." This is further evident : roin the fact that extended claims were ipplied for and granted in August and September. No report of these extended :laims having been granted was furnished )y the Warden to the Chairman of the Council, nor by the District Surveyor to :he Chief Surveyor, prior to the 6th October, on which day the land was sold. Mr Warden Revell explains that he has not been in the habit of reporting concerning his district excepting at the end of each half-year. The information supplied by the District Surveyors to the Chief Surveyor is contained in monthly reports, giving in detail all the work done, but in this instance Mr Cooper's report, containing the list of extended claims surveyed, was not received by Mr Fraser until "the latter end of October — after the sections were sold to Mr Roberts. The Committee regret that they have been unable to trace the means by which the purchaser became aware of the peculiar character of the sections he purchased. That Mr Roberts had special information the Committee cannot for a moment doubt. The sections were chosen so exactly as to include the whole of the ground proved to be auriferous, and which at that time had just been surveyed and granted to the miners in the shape of extended claims, and for the survey of which about L 65 had been received by the Warden. Further, the sections, or one of them, was so carefully laid off, and even increased in size so as to include that portion of the lead wherein there was a proved double lead. The Committee are of opinion — Ist. " That no person without accurate information could have selected land as the sections in question have been selected. Although the evidence did not enable the Committee to ascertain how Mr Roberts became aware^flf the value of the ground, yet it discloses a large amount of carelessness and most culpable negligence on the part of the Waste Lands Board, the Survey Department, and, in a minor degree, the Wardens of the district, to which may be.directly ascribed the sale complained of. 2nd. ' ' The Waste Lands Board did not, as stated by the Chief Commissioner of Waste Lands in his letter to the Secretary of Crown Lands, ' obtain as much information as possible with regard to the existence of mining claims, and the probability of any part being taken up afterwards for mining purposes,' before declaring the land open for sale. .As before stated, the only information the Waste Lands Board did obtain or seek to obtain was from Mr Cooper. The Board did not give sufficient publicity to i^he fact of this Block being open for sale, it being simply announced in the Gazette and not in any | local paper, nor was any notification posted at the Warden's offices, other than one map at the office at Greymouth. Even the Wardens themselves were not aware that Block No. 2 included the ground in question. 3rd. " The Board appears to have either misunderstood Mr Cooper's report concerning the ground, or to have totally ignored it. Mr Cooper, in his evidence, says : — ' I did not consider it to be my duty to make any special report, for I knew that the Waste Lands Board were aware of the fact of the block being auriferous.' 4th. " The Chief Commissioner did not invite the attendance of Mr Moss, one of the Waste Lands Commissioners residing at Greymouth, on the occasions of declaring the land in his district open for sale, and of receiving applications for the same. Had Mr Moss been present, probably the sale in question would not have taken place. sth. "The Committee consider that Mr Cooper's report — meagre as it was — should have induced the Board to pause and seek further and more detailed information. 6th. ' ' The Committee consider that Mr Fraser (the Chief Surveyor) is much to blame in not representing to the Board, of which he is an ex-officio member, the fact that the survey departmental monthly report from the Grey had not been sent in, and that in consequence he could not avouch the v fact that the land was then (even if it had been once so) eligible for sale, and that he should have taken steps to procure such information as was necessary before the application was entertained.' 7th. " The District Surveyor's informa-

tion to the Board was of a most unsatisfactory nature, and must have been derived only from the most cursory observation. Had Mr Cooper visited the ground and walked along the course ©f the lead, instead of along the railway reserve, he must have seen — first, that there was a large number of men employed on the ground ; second, that they were working very good claims, and had years' work before them ; and generally ,■ that the true state of the case was totally different from that given in his report. The Committee consider him much to blame in not forwarding his usual monthly report at its proper time. Had that report been in the hands of the Chief Surveyor the Board could not have entertained the application of Mr Roberts. " Bth. " The Committee consider that Mr Warden Revell has been guilty of great remissnes3 in not reporting more frequently concerning his district to the Chairman of the Council, who was also a member of the Waste Lands Board. Had he made a regular monthly report, the Board would, no doubt, have received information that would have restrained them from selling the land, as Mr Revell was aware, not only of the fact of a considerable population being on the ground, but also of the fact that he himself had granted several extended claims on the ground now in question." The Committee would strongly recommend, as means for preventing the sale of auriferous lands, that for the future, — Ist. No land should be sold until three months after it has been declared open for selection. 2nd. That notices with rough plans and descriptive notes be posted in a conspicuous place at the office of the Warden of the district, and the principal stores in the vicinity of the land open for sale, and that they should be advertised from time to time in at least one local paper circulating in the district. 3rd. That no land should be declared open for sale until the Waste Lands Board have received such information from the District Surveyor and Warden as will satisfy them that it is not auriferous. 4th. The Committee are also of opinion that the Waste Lands Board, as at present constituted, does not work and has not worked satisfactorily, and would recommend that at least two members of the Board should be persons well acquainted witlithe interior of the country. - : (Signed) F. de las Carreras, Chairman of Committee.