MINING LEASES,

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 968, 2 September 1871, Page 2

MINING LEASES,

[to the editor.]

Sik — My knowledge of your^ readiness at all times' to ventilate through the medium of your journal any matter bearing on mining interests; induces me to crave space for the expression of opinion entertained by a very large majority of, if not by all the miners in this neighborhood, relative to the granting of applications for leases of portions of the Murray Creek Qnartz Reefs. I may inform you that three applications have already been made for the leasing of portions of the above reefs — two on Shield a lino, and one on Kelly's— and one, I am creditably informed, to be forwarded to his Honor the Superintendent, accompanied by Warden Giles' recommendation. It is not; my intention at present to argue whether the granting of such leases would be attended with benefit to the community or not ; but simply to state that the miners, as a class, aro very averse to the initiation of such a system in this district : and also to acquaint you, cursorily, with the grounefs of their objections, leaving it to such of your readers as may be interested ■ ~ ■»•■»■ .pi-— , ■». « -« te "V »..»'•«,,. overthrown in favor of the capitalist. The main objectipn hinges upon the facts that the ground embraced in the applied for leases forms a very ; considerable portion of what may safely be deemed an established line or lines of reefs, as is evidenced by the fact that immediately on both sides of the ground applied for, the line of reef has not only been discovered; but what is of greater importance, declared to be payable ; that such ground has never been abandoned by any working party ; and that there is no reasonable foundation for a belief that such portion of the reefs would have been allowed to remain dormant ; on the contrary, were it not for the existence of such applications they would mouths ago have been taken up and worked a3 ordinary claims. One of these applications'! embodies a portion of Kelly's line, amounting to a space of twelve men's ground or thereabouts, and immediately adjoins a claim which is not only in full working order ; but actually crushing the stone, thej return from which is of itself sufficient guarantee that the projected leasehold would have been readily taken up and worked as ordinary claims.

That this identical portion of Kelly's line has been taken np and abandoned by a party, or oveu parties, will not be disputed, but by a class of "diggers"— l suppose 1 must call them — which are readily to be found on alluvial as well as quartz, but who ought more properly to be called " dummies," being- without means, and devoid of any intention to turn grouud taken up by them to advantage where physical energy is brought into requisition, nevertheless monopolising a claim which would otherwise be selected by bona fide miners, and only awaitiug an opportunity to "raise the wind" by meeting with a speculator and disposing of their shares to him. Unfortunately for this same class, the Murray Creek .^QfSfnoitj being sufficiently enticing to speculators, or the storekeepers "on tick," .or through some other pet scheme "of ""making a rise," had to be abandoned, and alon# with it the claim taken up by them, which was immediately pounced upon by the applicant for a leasehold, and by whom the fact of abandonment would, as a matter of course, be promineutly brought forward. . Does an abandonment of the nature above described constitute sufficient grounds whereon to establish either tho application or the granting of an application for a lease ] My experience teaches me that a miner without means ought not to aspire to reefing, for struggle as he may, he is sooner or later compelled to give way to the capitalist ; but at the same time there still exists— aye, even on the Wqsfc Coast of New Zealand — a medium in the shape of a miner with a sufficient amount of < fun s to justify hiai engaging in qiiartzreefing. It is to him I would, say give a chance as Well as to the capitalist, and especially when the latter has plenty scope to display his speculative turn of mind, without doing so at the cost of the miner of humbler means, in the shape of leaseholds. The matter is certainly deserving of earnest consideration on the part of the Government, and 1 venture to hope that only after ample and mature deliberation the leasing system will either be established in this diatrict or negatived. I am, &c, No Monopoiy. Reef ton, August 28.