New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5032, 10 May 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1877.

The Goldfields Wardens lately assembled iu conference here have submitted to Government rules and regulations on which they have agreed, and which are intended, if given legal effect to, to have general application to the goldfields of the Middle Island. With this object in view they have to a certain extent incorporated the various advantages of the present rules and regulations. The Wardens recommend as far as possible the withdrawal of restrictions on miners, by dispensing with unnecessary surveys and the necessity for renewal of registration, except in the case of ordinary water licenses. They also recommend the reduction of the registration fee from £2 10s. to £l. They have framed a series of regulations enabling miners to take up special water-race licenses for periods not exceeding fifteen years. The object of this latter provision is to promote the settlement of miners, and to put them in a position to carry out extensive waterworks’ schemes and other works for developing mining resources. They have adopted what is known as a lien clause from the Westland rules, and have also adopted, with some slight modifications, the gold-mining lease regulations now in force in Otago. The Wardens recommend that these gold-mining leases be, in the matter of rent, reduced to £1 per acre. An important recommendation, and one that will at once commend itself, is that the miner’s right should run over the whole'Middle Island, no matter where it may have been originallyiasued,and that in certain cases miners’ rights should be issued for a term of years. Also that there should be issued consolidated miners’ rights, to embody the interests of a number of persons in one document. Of course it would be impossible to obtain such advantages in the North Island until the native claims on goldfields ceased to exist. A recommendation is made for the introduction of a measure providing for the temporary occupation of land (where doubts exist as to the auriferous nature of the same) for agricultural purposes, by short leases or licenses, not giving a power of purchase. The Wardens suggest an assimilation of the mode of enforcing judgments in civil cases in Wardens’ Courts to that under the Resident Magistrates’ Courts Acts. To prevent the alienation of auriferous or other mineral lands, they recommend that the several Wardens of the Middle Island should (as is the practice in Otago) be the medium of communication with the Waste Lands Boards for the reception of applications for) land within their respective districts. They suggest that the whole .of the goldfields in the Middle Island should be proclaimed as one goldfields district, and that the survey charges upon agricultural leases on the goldfields should be assimilated to those of Otago.