MINING JUDGMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 25 May 1932, Page 4

MINING JUDGMENT

BY MR MELDRTJM AN IMPORTANT DECISION.

In re application No. 20/32 J. S. Langford, for an ordinary prospecting license, Mr J. A. Murdoch for the applicant, Mr Warden Meldrum has made the following judgment : 'This application includes (inter alia) an area of .6 acres 2 roods 14 perches of Freehold The title is under the Land Transfer Act, The last registered transferee is The Stafford Gold Dredging Company Limited. This Company was finally dissolved by the filing of the liquidators report to the Register of Companies at Dunedin on the 13th July, 1920, and on the expiration of 3 months thereafter, viz. on 13th October, 1920, under Section 231 of “The Companies Act 1908.” Them is no method provided by statute to revive a company so dissolved. The question is whether the land reverts to the Crown arid i s open f° r mining under the provisions of the Mining Act 1926, as “Crown lands” or as “private* lands” as defined in Section 4. The question is of importance in w far as it affects the steps to be taken, in entering and marking out the land in order to obtain a mining privilege.. jf “Crown land” an applicant can enter without consent and mark out etc.,, without the consent- of the owner or occupier. If “private land” the cours& laid down in Section 93 (b) (ii) must be followed. The authorities seem clear that personal chattels for which no owner can be found vest in the Crown as .bona vacantia. So “any assets of a Company upon its final dissolution become vested in theXrown” (TophanPs Company Law 1908.,.page 218). And “land vested in a Company on .its dissolution passes to . the Crown by escheat” (Gore Brown on Joint Stock Companies 1922, 35th. Edition, page. 609).. Halslnry Volume XI page 25 says: “real estate would appear, to vest the Crown.” There appears to be no case in New Zealand directly bearing on tlie subject. Part 2of “The Public Trust Office Act 1908” dealing with unclaimed land dens not appear to affect the case. The title issued from-, the Crown to a private owner. The last, private owner, the Company, ceased to exist and as above stated cannot he revived, and it has left no successors. Tlie title has come to an end as far ns private ownership is concerned and goes hack to. its source—The Crown. The land is tlrrefore “Crown land” for the purp se of t’ e Minin -r Act.—App’ication granted.