NEW MINING LEASES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1235, 13 July 1872, Page 2

NEW MINING LEASES.

I In the Nelson Gazette it is announced that at the expiration of, two months from June 27th it is intended .to grant gold-mining leases of the following blocks of land in the inangahua 'district. With the exception five, the whole of the .areas' applied br have been seriously^reduced :— . Francis Walker 1 and .other,:; Golden Fleece Company ; Italian Gully, a tributary of Boatman's Creek ; 10 acres., v Silas Levesay, and others, Golden Crown Company ; No. 2 \North,., on Thompson's line of reef,* Boatman's Creek; '7 acres/ '' ' '',: .' John Quinlan and others, Evening Star Company; No. 3 and 4 North, Gaffney's line of reef. Boatman's Creek; 9acr.es. "" ; ■./ V.^'V.. ' -William Pitt and others, New Zealander Company ; head of Murray Creek ; 6 acres. -,'. , >*- John Melville and others j Little and Good Company ; German Jack's Gully ; 1 acre 2 roods 24 poles. - ■, : - Edward Waters and others, Just in Time Company; No. 2 and; 3 south o£ Caples, ; Boatman's Creek ; 6 acres. , R. Nancarrow and others, known as Gaffney's Prospecting Claim ; Gaffney's Prospecting Claim, Boatman's Oreek^; 13 acres 0 roods 34 poles. ; , • ' '; »<• Thomas Brown and others, Alexandria Company ; Caples' line of reef, Boatman's Creek ;■ 8 acres 3 roods 32 poles. lw'* Walter Williams and' others, Hit or Miss Company ; No. 1, No. liv : Np. 2 north of Baigent and party's application, Boatman's Creek ; 10 ' acres. , ; -;.^ Thomas Baxter and others, Caledonian Company ; No. 1 South, Baigent's line of 'reef; Boatman's ' Creek ;= 6 acres 2 roods 32 poles. . ' P. Q. Caples and others, Eldorado Company, Caples Creek, -Boatman's ; 5 acres 3 roods 7 poles. , James. M 'Redmond ; and others, Maori Chief Company ; adjoining Keating and party's claim, Boatman's; 10 acres. Alexander Meffin and others, Golden Lodge Company ; south-east of Southern Alps lease, Shiel's line of reef i ;v8 acres.

On the subject of the mining leases previously granted by the same Government, and on the subject of Judge Harvey's decision at Westport, there are some remarks in both the Nelson papers. The Colonist says :— -"It follows that the Superintendent, after this decision of the Court, will, as Governor's" delegate}, require to retrace his steps; and reinstate the applicants. He can, if he thinks proper, refuse the application absolutely, as he is entitled to do without reason assigned; but that course would be apt to cause a great deal of confusion^and probably much litigation and loss .on the part of many miners, and of actual embryo cbmpaniesi The chief error seems to be in the resolution to restrict the areas of ground having been made to affect applications existent prior to that resolution being adopted. It is evident, from the finding of the Judge, that the Governor's delegate has only the: power of absolute refusal, or absolute granting of the application ; and that no power to lessen the area of ground applied for legally exists. If, therefore, as is set forth in a letter of the Superintendent to the Colonial Government of the 26th ult,, the object of his Honor is to ' arrest the improper and mischievous locking up of block 5 after block' of the reefs in the hands of mere speculators,' the only legal method by which such a course could be successfully pursued , was, to intimate the intention to refuse all applications which exceeded a certain limit. That would have been exercising a kind of despotic power, and, in effect, would, practically, be a new and delegate-made law. The Act says sixteen and a half acres may. , be applied for on lease, and the Legislature must have had some reason for arriving at this area. The statement that the average; area of mining leases on, the Thapies Gold Fields is only 'five acres, is perfectly true; but the | reason of that limit is, not that ; the areas were restricted by the Governor's dele* gate, but that the applications themselves were restricted, because the < applicants took up ground close to successful claims, and that ground was necessarily limited, sometimes to only two or three acres, always to a much smaller quantity than the law allowed. The Superintendent, to our thinking; must gracefully retire from the position he has occupied. If he takes to the Scylla of refusal all round, he falls upon the Charybdis of destroying : : the prospects of promising companies, and causing additional expenses and probable litigation to the applicants." :_ Regarding this article in the Colonist, the Examiner is " authorised to state that it is founded to a great extent oh misapprehension," and it is added : — ' ( The District Judge has not decided that the Superintendent has no power to grant a lease for a smaller area of land than that , applied for, no such question having been referred, to him. The District, .Judge cannot, as i reported, have ' expressed an ' opinion that ihe proclamations in Gazette, made by the Executive, were totally valueless,' for no proclamations have

been issued by the Executive in the Gazette, or elsewhere. The Judge probably referred to some minutes of the Executive Council, published in the newspapers for general information, but which were never supposed to have any legal effect. The decisions of the District Judge, so far as they go, are in an opposite direction to those indicated in the article referred to.' 1