THE NEW GOLDFIELDS BILL.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 233, 22 August 1873, Page 3

THE NEW GOLDFIELDS BILL.

(To the Editor of the Mount IdaChkonioi/e.) Sib,—-I was much pleased to see by your issue of the Bth inst. that a correspondent signing himself " A Quartz Miner " had written you a rather, voluminous letter on the insufficient encouragement afforded to quartz mining by the framers of the new G-oldfields Bill; and seeing I am now en-

I gaged in that branch of mining, tlie'sub- ' ject is the more interesting to me. Believing that I could add in an humble way a remark or to in support of "A Quartz Miner's " object, I trust you will overlook my presumption in seeking to figure as a correspondent in public print. I. will "begin by pointing out to you that good and almost unanswerable as,are the arguments of your correspondent, they are by no means new, and I had almost gone the length of saying he had been guilty of plagiarism in one or two of them, as you will see if you refer tjg|the report of the Mining Conference of 1871, on which I had the honor to represent this district. It was at that time recommended that gold mining leases should be increased in area to forty acres, that the rent should be very considerably reduced, that the expense of obtaining leases should be also lessened, and with this view the Conference recommended that it should not be compulsory on the part of applicants to incur the expense of advertising their applications in a local paper. Suggestions would also have been made with a view to improvement in the mode of marking, but it was thought to be a detail they would possibly have to deal, with at a future date, after the passing, of the Act, which it was anticipated would be' submitted during the session of that year. I have not made these remarks to weaken or reflect on " A Quartz Miner's" arguments, but "rather to show that the necessity for the change sought had long been.admitted, even by that exceedingly .dull body, the Mining Delegates of 1871: though, some time since, you in your profound wisdom were pleased to draw : a very unfavorable comparison between that body and the Conference of the Miners' Associations of 1872. Had you taken the ; trouble to compare the reports issued by both, you must have admitted that the latter, after eighteen months additional experience of the requirements of gold miners, and with the report of the former in their possession, only dealt with the matters not discussed by (may I sayp) their predecessors, arid these notably of secondary importance. I am truly surprised (in view of the fact that the Mining Associations are so generally organised, and the Central Association consequently in a position to command the fullest information on all questions affecting the interest of gold miners) to observe, on the subject of quartz mining, the exceeding meagreness and paucity of their report just issued on the contemplated Groldfields Bill. This is, however, somewhat of a di-. gression. Referring to the subject dn hand, I may say that when in Dunedin in the month of April, I met both Mr. J. Mouat (Chairman of the Mining Conference, 1871), and Mr. T. L. Shepherd, who, at that time, were engaged in drafting the G-oldfields'Bill to-be submitted to the Assembly now in session ; and having been associated with"them in the Conference referred to, was invited to look through the Bill as it then stood, and make suggestions where I thought improvement could be effected. The. time at my disposal being very limited, I was unable to do more than cursorily glance over the draft, and in doing so observed the absence . of some recommendations which had been made by that body. I pointed these out .to them, and left them-fully, believing they agreed with me; indeed Mr. Shepherd went so faras to say it was an i oversight that they were not embodied, and he would take care to rectify the omission in the revision the draft was being subjected to. My astonishment was therefore great when "I subsequently learnt that in the multitude of his engagements, he had again overlooked the omissions, and forgotten his promise, notwithstanding that some of the matters referred to were propositions of his own in the Conference of 1871. That the very limited area at present allowed has the effect of discouraging enterprise, I think there can be no doubt, and am fully persuaded that the great difficulty in floating a company is largely due to this cause. There is positively not room in such an area to employ sufficient men to keep a large battery going; and as it is doubtless by the employment of more powerful and labor saving machinery that quartz mining will eventually become generally remunerative, operations ill that direction will have to become much more : extensive, and as this will involve the employment of largely increased capital,, greater encouragement must be afforded to those willing to. embark in such ventures, or it will take no prophet to foresee an indefinite postponement of so desirable a state of things as I have indicated. Operations in reefing have hitherto been carried on so near the surface that small companies, and comparatively small capital, have accomplished what has been done ; but the very fact that operations have been confined to surface workings points unmistakably to the conclusion that to re-open and penetrate the reefs to similar depths as the present workings in Victoria, will involve an outlay hitherto unknown in Otago. To ensure this I need not be a wiseacre to say greater security

and greater encouragement must be held out to adventurers. I would ask what profit is it to the country or to individuals for the capital of persons embarking in such enterprises to be wasted/or so much of it spent on-necessary dead works as to preclude the possibility of the undertaking yielding 'a profit on the investment, as well as recoup the outlay? The minor detail of cost of. survey is scarcely worth notice ; - but in the interest of the Province and the district, by all means increase the area, and decrease the rent. Though the subject is far from being exhausted, my letter has attained a length I had not intended. I will therefore leave it for other pens to continue. —I am, &c, CHAS. F. B.OBEETS.