Tupeka Times AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 342, 28 March 1874, Page 2

Tupeka Times AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1874. " MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Although the state of the laws regulating the gold mining industry has received considerable attention during several years now past, it is somewhat to be regretted that the prospects o£ amendment are as remote as ever. The Ministerial \itterances do not indicate any intention on the part of Government to deal with the subject in a, way commensurate with its importance. This is to be attributed in part to the little interest taken in the subject by j^epresentatives not directly representing ~goicT mining constituents ; uut chiefly to the utter disunion of those who do represent them. The member for the Lakes condemns without investigation any amendment which does not emanate from himself. The members for Teviot and Mount Ida, although generally disunited, unite immediately to^ condemn anything in the way of reform which any of their colleagues may propose on this particular subject. Each is in his own estimation the only doctor who can cure, and the rest are nobodies. Session after session the original Act of 1866 has had a plaster applied to it to amend some supposed defect, and the climax was reached in the session of 1872, when, unable to agree to anything better, a retrospective law was made "to validate the proceedings of Wardens' Courts, and to indemnify the Wardens and officers of such Courts from proceedings in respect of any illegality in the holding of such Courts;" thatistosay.someof the Wardens having done wrong, the Legislature does a second wrong in order to make things right. The law as it stands at present is comprised in no fewer than fifteen different Acts, fourteen of which have been passed to amend supposed defects in the original Act of 1866 ; and yet, as will be pointed out hereafter, those defects which have led to the greatest amount of dispute and uncertainty have not in any case been touched. A cursory plance at the Act of 1866 will show that it was not drafted by any person of legal experience. The enacting part of the Act immediately preceding the first section, " Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent' Majesty," is not the proper formula, and was shortly after the passing j of the Act the subject of a sharp legal argument in the Supreme Court, but which had not the result of leading to a final decision as to the result of the phrase. In the inttrpretation section the draftsman has apparently striven to do the very thing which a lawyer would have avoided. Wherever the same phrase had to be repeated, he has studied to find a new and different form of expression. For instance, in defining the meaning of the first word he says, " the verb mine shall be understood to include ; " in the next phrase is changed to, " shall signify as well ; " in another instance, " shall be held, taken, and construed ; " and in another case, "shall be held and deemed." Now it is an accepted rule of construction generally that where the words are varied it was intended to vary the sense, and it is eaßy to imagine what a field even this one section presents for drawing subtle distinctions of meaning. A good draftsman would to a certainty, knowing this rule, have made upe of the same phrase in each case. Then the meanings assigned to the words and terms interpreted are in cases obscure, and in others absurd. Take for instance the definition of a sluice head of water — v Forty snperficialinches of flowing water."- What does it mean? Why should it be flowing water ; or, why should the measurement be applied to the surface ? Every one knows that volume can only be measured by three dimensions at the least, generally spoken of as length,

breadth, and depth. It ia clear that the most eminent mathematician that ever lived could not calculate the volume .of water by means of the 1 data afforded, by this definition ; and yet this has never been noticed in any of the amending Acts. The above- are two examples of the^inartistic drafting of .the Act, but others equally as flagrant might be selected from any part of it. The deep obscurity of the sections dealing with the occupation of goldfields has never been thoroughly plumbed in our Courts ; and the man is to be pitied who is ever forced to attempt it, unless he has fortunes to expend m elucidating obscure legal points. The 6th Section has evidently been drawn from the precedent of Shylock's Bond — a pound of flesh, but not one drop ©f blood. He is to mine for gold and take and divert water for that purpose, but it is doubtful whether he can lawfully soil the water ; and it is quite clear that he could not lawfully take one stick of firewood to boil his billy. If any one who employs labor wishes to know how many miners' rights he ought to take out, let him consult the Amendment Act of 1869, and he will then see that, not only must he hold a miners' right himself for every claim he owns (and by-the-bye that would include one for the ground, another for a headrace, another for a tailrace, another for his residence, &c), but he must hold a miners' right for every man he employs, as well. This provision has never been given effect to — at least in this Province — the Government having wisely forborne to press for their full revenue rights ; but it is a dangerous state of the law, and ought at once to be amended. In fact it is clear that the Act of 1866 is chiefly an imdigested adaptation from the legislation of other colonies, which the draftsman has not had the intelligence to adapt to the circumstances of this colony, and that those parts which owe their existence to the draftsman himself, manifestly show that he was entirely incompetent for the task. AYe shall resume this subject at an early occasion.

Our Dunedin contemporary, the "Daily Times," would have its readers believe that the reception recently given to Mr. Holloway by the Progress Committee at Roxburgh was simply for the purpose of dissuading him from reporting favorably to the agricultural laborers in England as to the advisability of their emigrating to this country, with a view to better their position in life. Such, however, is altogether a misrepresentation of facts. What the Progress Committee wished to explain to Mr. Holloway was the manner in which they had been treated by the Government in reference to obtaining land for settlement. The address presented to Mr. Holloway. and which appears in our present issue, will, if our contemporary takes the trouble to calmly read it, place the matter in its proper light. The gentlemen comprising the Roxburgh Progress Committee are fully aware of the present prosperous condition of the province, and of the want of labor in many parts of the colony, more especially near the seaboard, and would certainly prefer for brother colonists the class of men of whom Mr. Holloway is the representative to those whom Dr. Featherston in numerous cases is securing, to all appearances from the dregs of the home manufacturing town population, and who as a class are totally unfitted for the usages of a new country. The men Mr. Holloway would send are on the contrary honest, thrifty, hardworking, and. cleanly, the very class of immigrants that would prove a permanent benefit to this country, if settled on the land. But from the " Daily Times " it might be supposed that Mr. Holloway intended sending out these English favm laborers to this country "to continue in the position of laborers. The colonial instinct, however, teaches a man to seek a home for himself, and not to spend the sweat of his brow all the days of his life for the entire behoof of others. This is the point the Roxburgh people endeavored to impress upon Mr. Holloway during his recent visit amongst them. The more thrifty among tlw present population of Roxburgh have saved a few pounds, and wish to invest it in land ; so that in slack times, when work is scarce, they may have something to fall back upon. Each succeeding Government having denied them their wish, the course they adopted suggested itself to them as one likely to bring a pressure upon the Government, which, if it did not result in their own benefit, might Have a beneficial effect upon other districts. Previous to the best of the land being sold" to capitalists, the Teviot district was one specially adapted for the class of men Mr. Ilolloway proposes to send to better themselves and improve their present condition. The climate is excellent ; the soil, if not the best in the province, is very productive in ordinary seasons ; and in the slackest time of the year, when employment is scarce, there are hundreds of acres of auriferous country which will always repay a. man for liia labor. The banks and beaches of the Molyneux in winter time would afford payable work for years to come to a class of men who had other occupations in the summer, when their claims would be unworkable. Our contemporary then assumes that if the Roxburgh people have been badly-dealt with by the Government they are an exceptiou ; as much as to say other districts offer good advantages to would-be settlers. We would like to ask our contemporary, jn its superior wisdom, to what part of the province it would direct a man who is possessed of a little capital and a pair of strong arms, and who wished to obtain a fey hundred acres on which to establish a home for himself and family. Probably our contemporary would refer him to Martina Bay or Catlins River. Its acquaintance with the wants and requirements of the goldfields' settlers is evidently tery hazy. Laborers

for Messrs Brogden and othei contractors are all well and good in their place, but the goldfields really require men who can shift for themselves' after -4jiese railways and public works are completed, or the borrowed money is expended — a'population that will settle on the land, and make homes for themselves, and not, as soon as dull times threaten, emigrate to some of the neighboring colonies. All this the Roxburgh people endeavored to impress upon Mr. Holloway, and we think that good, and not evil, will result from the course they adopted.