INDUCEMENTS to SETTLEMENT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 174, 8 June 1871, Page 7

INDUCEMENTS to SETTLEMENT.

So much are we impressed with the necessity of settlement being coupled with all our legislation, that we would

see without sorrow minors allowed to become the owners in fee simple of their claim by purchase after a certain amount of work h;is been performed, or at liberty to hold their claims without risk of forfeiture, for a long period at a nominal rent. No money can be made out of the ground without men working it. This is precisely what we want. A. permanent mining population can be only obtained by security of tenure. The now Groldfield Leasing Regulations in Victoria have this idea firmly d lineaied throughout their length. The inducement to miuers becoming setLlers in California has been carried to such an extent that in hydraulic workings the expenditure in money or labour of the sum of 500 dollars on a claim entitles the holders to secure possession for two years by renewal of notice. In quartz workings twe nty days' labour in a claim secures possession for a year, while a contract for the crushing of stone from the reef to the amount of LIOOO bein^ entered into, entitles the holders of claim to a title deed, euanm teeing its possession to them and their heirs for ever. The Recorder, of course, ascertains the hona file diameter of the contract before granHn^ the deed. One alteration in our h\v relative to quartz mining is urgonHy demanded. Lodes should be granted to the discoverer wherever they uuy run. In Victoria, they run almost vertically-— here, at every angle of inclination, and consequently, by so doing, often run from one claim into another, depreciating the value of the claims where discovered, and ten ling to prevent work being done in such a manner as permanence and stability demand. Otherwise, working at great depths, where so running is prevented. In New Zealand, as far as experience has hitherto guided us, giving possession of a certain area of the surface for quartz mining purposes is a very crude and unsatisfactory mode of granting the privilege of lode working, and defininej the boundai'ies of a claim. In California, the law allows " the right to follow such vein or lode, with its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition." — " Wakatip Mail."