MINING BOARD.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 264, 28 March 1874, Page 3

MINING BOARD.

The following petition for the establishment of a Mining Board, under the powers contained in the Goldfields Act, 1866 clause 56, and recommended by the Mining Conference held lately at Clyde, is now being circulated through the Province of Otago for signature : To his Excellency the Governor of .New Zealand in Council: The petition of the undersigned mi ners, Humbly sheweth: 1. That your Petitioners are Miners, and pursuing their occupation as such under the authority of Rights, in the Province of Otago. 2. That the Goldmining industry has grown up in advance of Legislation. 3. That, though representations by your 'Petitioners of such deficiencies have from time to time been made, all remedial Legislation has been deferred, *4. That your Petitioners have very generally formed themselves into Mining Associations, from which—through a Conference of elected delegates—suggestions may be arrived at suitable to the protection and development of the different Uoldlields interests. Suggestions thus arrived at have been submitted upon several occasions to your Government, which it was (and still is) supposed would form a broad basis upon which, with the aid of jour advisers, satisfactory Legislation may be shortly arrived at. 5. That, though your Petitioners have so 1 acted at considerable cost to themselves of both time and money, and your Governments have frequently intimated their willingness to accept and be guided by such recommendations, yet your Government has neglected to take any definite action based upon such admitted practical authority. 6. That the Otago Goldmining Commission of 1871 recommended that provision should be made for the compulsory establishment of one Mining Board ior the whole Province; and your Petitioners through their Delegates assembled in Conference on two consecutive occasions (1872 and 1874) coincided in that recommendation. 7. That provision for the establishment of a Mining Board already exists under the Goldfields Act, 1866, clause 56. 8. That your Petitioners believe that the establishment of a Mining Board for the Province of Otago—enabling the miners to frame their own regulations and byelaws—would tend to facilitate and simplify all mining business, and put a stop to much needless litigation. 9. That, for the above reasons, your Petitioners humbly pray that you, under the powers_ conferred by the above mentioned p- Act, will be pleased to proclaim a Mining Board for the Province of Otago, and issue such instructions as may bo necessary for the election of members for such Board. And your petitioners will ever'pray.