THE PALESTINE DIGGINGS.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 169, 14 February 1868, Page 3

THE PALESTINE DIGGINGS.

(from a correspondent.) Contrary to the expectation of their legal advisers and friends, the Palestine prospectors have compromised their action with Little and others, the original jumpers of their claim, and they have agreed to incorporate them in the prospecting claim. The prospectors make this sacrifice of their Valuable property, under a species of jud ial coercion as it were, and rather undergo the risk 'and expense of litigation and the tardy delays and uncertainty of the law made and provided 'in such respect. And they were loth to place themselves a second time at the mercy of a judicial system which is now in force on thegoldfields of this' •colony, that may be said to bo a irere burlesque as it were on the administration of justice, and a disgrace to ; the colony. It is much to be regretted that this important case will not go before a qualified judge and court of ; appeal, in order to testify by what species of tenure and legal protective ■guarntee mining property can be held under and acquired on the goldfields of this colony. The amalgamation of the prospectors and jumpers, though perhaps an ilb-advised and excusable proceeding on. the part of the prospectors, and under the pressure of the species of judicial coercion alluded to, is, after all, a mere abstract arrangement, which does not lessen in the slightest degree the illegal action of Mr Warden Akehnrst and the responsibility of the Government in the matter. This amalgamation -or compromise between the prospectors and jumpers was suggested by Mr Warden Akehurst '(for obvious reasons, no doubt), and was to some extent, as I siave already observed, coercive on his I part, and no doubt intended to shift the onus of his improper proceedings 'in limine all through the case. The prospectors had only two other alternatives in the case, namely, either to leave the colony and transfer their prospecting enterprise and energy and capital to the goldfields of California, 'or some of the neighboring colonies, where a more liberal and protective code of mining laws no doubt exists, or give up the result of their dearly'earned labor, wholly and without demur, to the robbers and despoilers of their claim, or on the other hand jnit in the pockets of the lawyer ! The former of these alternatives the propectors would have gladly embraced, had not considerable investments and interest in other mining property and plant in this district, the result also of their prospecting enterprise and industry, held them to the spot; and out of a plurality of evils they chose the least, and the prospecting enterprise and ambition of thesemenhavereceived such a shock by Warden Akehurst's unjustifiable action in this matter as to be fatal to its future development. In advancement of the great mining interest of Victoria, it is to be hoped that notwithstanding the unsatisfactory compromise made in this case, and on public grounds alone, you will suppress none of the details which were supplied to your journal on this unparalleled case, and that you will subject the whole case to the ordeal of your valuable and enlightened review, in order to enable those who would initiate a comprehensive system of mining law reform on the goldfields of this colony to do so in the true spirit of reform.— Melbourne Leader.