MOUNT BENGER,

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 69, 5 June 1869, Page 5

MOUNT BENGER,

(From our Own Correspondent)

A case of claim-jumping occurred at Miller's Flat on Tuesday the 25th ult., which demands prompt decisive action on the part of our legislature, to remedy a serious defect in the Groldfields Act, and prevent similar occurrences throughout the province in time to jgome. A strong party of Chinese took possession of a beach claim held by three of the oldest resident miners in the district. On being requested to leave the ground, an altercation ensued, during which one of the Celestials drew a sheath knife, threatening to use it on the person of one of the claimholders, while at the same time a menace was made to cut him down with a shovel. A large number of Chinamen now crowded round, seemingly well prepared to show fight in case of a row. One of the shareholders at once started for the Teviot, and procured a summons and an injunction to cease working on the ground. On presenting them he was simply laughed at, that convenient phrase " no savey " given in response, and work resumed. Constable Carter was sent for yesterday (26th ult.). He arrived there at an early hour this morning, and ordered them to leave the claim. They have done so in the meantime, but may again take possession for ought that is known after the departure of that officer. The Warden is at Switzers ; and it appears that none of our J.P.s can interfers in such matters under the G-oldfields Act — a state of affairs not very conducive to the safety of mining property in an emergency, as a police officer cannot undertake to protect it unless authorised by a magistrate to do so. Jumping, as the law now stands, is only a v civil " affair ,• rhe sooner it is inacle a felony the better. The Celestials are shrewd enough to perceive that before the law, can be put in force against them they can easily extract a considerable quantity of gold from a shallow beach claim and betake themselves elsewhere, thus setting it at defiance, from its 'laxity, it being sufficiently notorious that after-identification is, as regards them, almost impossible. In the present state of things, the Warden can only grant a summons, injunction, and the like. Were jumping made a felony, he could proceed against the offenders with summary justice. . It t is terribly galling to a European miner to Bee a horde of Tartar barbarians come into his claim and with brazen -faced impudence,, place, their alongside of his owi; fond plundering, ay,

robbing Kini of the gold that" of right belongs to him, in broad daylight — the gold for which he has- paid his license for right of such, whilst he must remain Bnnply a spectator, without lifting a hand to protect what is indisputably his property, his source of living — it may be, his all ; or should he do so, he knows — every experienced miner knows, yes, and says it too — that the Chinamen will get the best of it from the authorities under the form of what is miscalled law. Should he go for a summons, the pilfering still goes on without hinderance, whilst he is put to endless expense and annoyance, besides loss of time. A tardy decision in his favour is all the redress he obtains. He never gets back his gold at any rate ; the Mongolians manage to stick to that. Our humane and beneficent laws are no match for their duplicity and cunning : all they desire to know is how to evade theaa whenever such may suit their purpose. With all our acquired experience in the art of governing a colony ; with all the dearly-purchased lessons taught us by the Maori War, we have yet to learn how best to legislate between a community of Europeans and a handful of Asiatics, at best""semi-barbarians. It never appears to have entered into the heads of the sapient framcrs of the Groldfields Act that with a sparse population of Europeans, scattered over a wide area, small parties of isolated miners might possibly have their claims taken possession of wrongfully by numbers of a race such as the Chinese, who, however harmless they may be as individuals, are, in large bodies, overbeai'ing and insolent. Taking all these things into consideration, it is no wonder that at times the miners should be much inclined to take the law into their own hands in cases like that with which I commenced this letter; and should Constable Carter not have gone down and ordered the jumpers off the ground, it is every way likely that the residents would have mustered en masse and turned them off the beach. It is to be hoped that the press throughout the province will vigorously take up the subject, until such time as miners be put upon the same footing, in point of law, as other owners of property.