PEGGING OUT AT GULGONG.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 984, 21 September 1871, Page 2

PEGGING OUT AT GULGONG.

The:scene that was witnessed recently on the; Happy Valley lead— when the holders' of the claim No. 9 North on that lead, blocked off in accordance* with the regulations — after the red flag had been hoisted — was one of those extraordinary ebulUtionspf human nature tha^cju^only 'be'seen 6n*the gold fielals^aridwfeir only when a> gold field istworke^npder the abominable code of regulations now in force governing the. occupation-of irontace claims. Under these regulations it is held by justices who are presumed to know the meaning of them— seeing that they are invested with a finjil jurisdiction in hearing mining disputes arising under them— that any person occupying a frontage claim holds absolute occupation of the whole area of that claim until they have "blocked off" on finding rntyable gold and, all previous markings §c tinlawful. Whether this view is the correct legal meaning of the regulations — read one with the other— we will not now discuss, but we will simply point out the grave difficulties that arise in carrying this interpretation of the law into practical effect, and use the scene at the claim previously mentioned as au illustration. On that claim np less than one hundred and sixteen men claimed one block claim of four men^s ground adjoining the frontage block chosen. Atone corner of the block claim in dispute, twenty-nine boundary pegs had been put in the ground, . every one of which, pegs-repre-sented four men. Each party claimed to have their pegs in first, and .consequently they alone ' .were ' entitled :to - the . pjaim. As each of the; tiventy^m^.^jartjttte of owiTeri'were^prepaf^drto assert most positively their priority of right, it was of courseutterlyabsurdJor the Commissioner to attempt toHear evidence on that point. He therefore -pursued the simple but somewhat t irregular^ of allowing the whole of the disputants to. have a "shake in the hat" for the prize, and as might be expected from such a primitive mode of creating a title, the losers were loud in their complaints of the injustice done them, as it so happened in this "Game 'Of chance" that those who- had shepherded .the, holders of ■ the. enviable frontage claim day and night, for nearly a week, lost the reward of their sleepless vigilance, the prize falling to men who had shepherded for an hour. '- i '- >