THE NEW GOLD MINING BILL!

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1279, 4 September 1872, Page 2

THE NEW GOLD MINING BILL!

MrGisborne, iv moving the secondreading of this Bill, said the first recommendatory .feature of the Bill was, .that! it consolidated about ten. Ada relating .'to gold fields into one. The subject of fand settlement on gold fields .was left as it was at present, and was not affected by the present Bill, which merely repealed those parts of the Acts which related to mining operations on gold fields. The first point of difference was in respect to miners' flights. Under the pr-esent law, a miner's right was an essential element of title. In transfers took place, he believed it was very questionable " wheElierjlf" one link in the chain was broken by the absence of a miner's right, at any time afterwards any transfer made woiild be valid iv law. In the Appendix td the Journal? of the House of Representatives, A. No. 8, there was a letter from Mr Wilson Gray, containing some very valuable remarks iipon that subject. It went to show that he was right in saying that at presenfcjthe absence at any time of, the miner's right would probably invalidate the whole title. Under the present Bill, a miner's right would have to be taken ontrto- enable the holder of it to~avail himself, .of -.the; privileges; of the Act; indeed, every person engaged in mining pursuits was required; ; tp: take out a miner's right under a penalty, butit was propoged to remove any doubt as* to the Special necessity for a miner's right in the establishment of title. The next of the Bill to which he would refer contained the occupation clauses. The principle adopted in the Bill was the same as that contained in the Gold Mining Districts Act of last session, a measure which waslimited to the Auckland gold fields in its operation: la the present Bill there were different classes of claims,; naniely, the, ordinary shallow alluvial deposits, and the quartz workings. With regard to : the ordinary alluvial and deep-sinking alluvial deposits, the claims were to be dealt with by regulations, and the quartz workings would be dealt with in the manner prescribed in the Mining Districts Act passed, last session. Of course, the House would see that it was very necessary that the occupation provisions should be secured under penally and forfeiture, and to aid towards that object, Inspectors wore appointed under Part HI. of tho Bill. The duty of the Inspectors would chiefly be to see that the provisions of tho Act were carried into effect in regard to occupation, and to inspect the underground workings of miners generally in reference to the safety" or otherwise of those workings. The appointment of the Jnspec: era would, undo.)? delega-

tion, be left to the Provincial authorities. With regard to the water-rights, instead of the present annual registration sertifi;cite under : rwhjcti water - rights were granted, the Bill provided that licenses should be issued, giving to the licensee an indefeasible right to the exclusive use of !theLi;ace.,^da.m>. or_reservoir, and jthe^water in respect of which the same is constructedy and; of so much land jpn/boih side 3as is sufficient to secure the safety of .the race, dam, or reservpir,, fpr jiuch time as ho shall fulfil the conditions on ■which the same is granted. One of those conditions would be the payment of a fixed annual rate. Another important part of the -Bill >yas that relating to mining en private ; properly. He need nob trouble the House with the origin of the title of the Crown to the previous metals on private property ;'/. but • ho thought, he was right in saying that it was questionable whether the Crown bald access to the land of private owners for the purpose of obtaining the precious metal, arid that it was also held that the Crown could not give access to other parties to obtain the precious, metals, and the result was that such . lands - were , in some measure locked up from public use. Now, the Queen could only during her lifetime waive her right to these precious metals, and he did not think^ the Governor had the power to do so ori behalf of tho Crown, for such a power- was! not conveyed to him by statute -or' by ; his commission. It was, therefore, clear that if mining on private ground' was to be conducted with benefit to the public, it should be conducted under, some "statutory regulations. Due consideration for the rights of the public rendered it proper not to allow land to be locked up against gold mining, while, at the same time, he thought it was only right 'to the private owner that there should be some regula- • tions settled by law under which the public should be admitted, ;on certain conditions, for the purpose of prosecuting mining operations on v that land. It was proposed to ex erupt altogether ,fr,om the operations of that part of the Act land on which private persons had buildings, gardens, or orchard's ; - and with 1 regaijT to other land, the Inspector should decide .what compensation should -.be paid to tho owner for any injury he might sustain, in accpr dance with the provision contained in section 107 „:— ' ! ', ; /, ! ."Compensation shall be granted in respect of the matters following, and none other :— (1.) The deprivation of tho possession of the land. <(2.) Any injury reasonably lip; be anticipated to any such land by .means of operations to be carried oh thereon or thereunder^ (3.) ! Any injury or depreciation in value reasonably to be anticipated to any > adjacent land* or property of the same oWrier arising from or caused by any such Operations." •*• There would be an appeal' from 1 fte decision of the Inspector to; the W,arden,,with respect to the amount of compensation to be given . Under the existing law, .waterrights were allowed to be carried through private land under the authority of section 21 of "The Gold Fields.Act, 1866," which gave authority to construct waterraces for mining purposes through private land. There ,was no provision with regard to mining for gold on : private property, except that contained in " The Westland Waste Lauds Act, 1865," one of the sections of which provided thst suburban' or country land sold after that date should -W subject to entry for mmmg [purposes under certain conditions contained in the schedule to that Act. There was also an important part q£ the Bill which would be different from the present law— the part relating to, the, administration of justice. At present, although the Wardens had power to determine what dam--age was dove by any wrongful act, they had no power to order that certain things should be done to prevent or remove the special cause of damage; ; a powe/essential to the proper administration of justice in the case. There was 1 also power given to hear certain cases arising out of partjr nership. In " The* Nelson Waste ' Landg Aot AmqndinqHt, Aotj 1870,'Vthere were certain provisions with regard to mining on land outside gold fields. In certain cases the claim is protected and is allowed to bejlworked under regulations, and it was proposed to adopt those provisions in the present Bill. He believed such provisions were only contained in tho Nelson Act, and that all the various Gold Fields Acts had no reference to that subject. With regard to mining districts, it^gs* proposed that they should be coterminous with the gold fields in each Province. There was also special provision made for the drainage of mines. He thought he had gone through the principal poinjs in the Bill, whioh onntained provisions different from those in the existing law. The object was to regulate and to do full Justice to that industry, the interests of which were so" vast and of such great"importance to the Colony:.