SEIGNORAL RIGHTS CONFIRMATION BILL.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 350, 19 November 1875, Page 3

SEIGNORAL RIGHTS CONFIRMATION BILL.

LA.TKOOLnFtKI.DS ACT AMEITOBTBtfT ACT, 1875, ■ . • -,.. i ■ ko 1. - ■ •

On River Pol Iti tiOn Bill, as amended for consir derafion in the "Assembly, andon the 24th September triced thV same measure iW' second reading in ' j&e Legislative 'Counbth ,/VVeclrcl not tnOvr, uuti' the 'bill reached us, jprbat form thealtgra- . far ■ thp- Premier, \Mfc! Buckley, and others, actually took. ..

.yhe-Act now-to, hand does not recognise any. rights except those of the land* owners, which it establishes and confirms; As it passed the Lower House it contained a clause protecting miners' property to a certain extent. : * -

The' clause was- printed any watercourse shall be withdrawn from the operation of this Act then any person being the holder of a miner's right, or of a mining lease witliin anj proclaimed Gold.field, whose-f.ights or interests shall be in-; jijriously affected by such withdrawal, .shall be entitled to compensation in re apbet v thereof, and such compensation shall be ascertained and paid or tendered iti the nianner provided in the fourth and sixth sectioi s thereof."

This is the clause which' Mr. Buckley thought " was very objectionable." Legislative Councillors were evidently of the same opinion, for the clause was wiped out and does not appear in the Act as passed. From beginning to end the.e is not tho Slightest recognition of any right attaching to mining property. , The clause providing for compensation to landowners, was not thus forgotten, and is made to extend to all having the remotest interest in land —in the actual words of the clause " all persons being owners ttf or having any lesser estate or interest in any lands through in or past which atiy such watercourse may flow whose rights may be injuriously affected by any such proclamation shall be entitled to receive compensation for such injury, &c " It will be seen,that doubtful rights of one kind are recognised, arid valid property rights of another kind are entirely ignored.

Another alteration made in the Council doubles the 'length of time before any stream or watercourse can be proclaimed. Ninety days was the term in the Act as it went to the Council. It was then altered, and made to require ninety days' notice before applications can be entertained, and a further term of ninety days before a proclamation could take effect—--180 days in all. . More vitakstill was the amendment insisted on by the Premier that the Goldfields revenue should bear'the cost of all compensation awarded. The Bill, if ope rative at ali, merely amounts to an endowment of the landowners and pastoral tenants with the'greater partof the Gold fields revenue for suppositious injuries they at present 'flourish under without payment at all. Indirectly under the Act every landowner or tenant can now claim that the streams or rivers runningthrough his property shall be 'unpolluted unless such istreams are proclaimed. Immediately upon proclamation he can step in and seize the Goldfields revenue in his district. The arbi; ration clauses were even ,not allowed to pass without being rendered more conservative : The District Judge was appointed umpire in lieu of an impartial umpire selected by the parties themselves. ' The Act as it passed the Coiiucil is a piece 'of legislation un ' worthy'of the autocratic despotism Of .Russia or Turkey. It is, perhaps, a fitting coinage from the mint in which it was Haal}y moulded. .