NEW VICTORIAN MINING REGULATIONS

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 780, 23 February 1871, Page 2

NEW VICTORIAN MINING REGULATIONS

One of the most important matters lately dealt with by the Victorian Executive is the new mining leasing regulations. The principal items in the regulations are, the reduction of the deposit on mining leases, which has been fixed at £2 for ten acres and under ; £fi from ten to thirty acres ; and for every acre above that extent ss. This is of course in addition to the survey fees. The next item is that the balance of the deposit will be forfeited if the applicants abandon the claim, or do not go on, witli the provisions of their lease. Another and the most important clause, is one that must commend itself to every practical miner, and although not intended to frighten capital out of the field will, if judiciously administered, be found of gre.it advantage to all parties. It is relative to the non-fulfilment of the covenants of the lease, and it provides that upon any holder of a miner's right seeing that a licensed claim is not being properly worked, he can complain to the warden, who having investigated the facts of the case, may recommend to the Governor-in Council the forfeiture of the lease. By this means the whole of the transaction will be oh record, and it will act as a preventive to improper influences. It will also prevent the warden having it in his f,owcr to act arbitrarily, as should the power of forfeiture be vested in him, he might be prejudiced in some instances, and act in a manner neither just nor equitable. In many instances mining companies have spent large sums on their claims, but temporary stoppages have been caused through unavoidaole circumstances, and in such cases it would not be fair to forfeit their licenses on an ex parte statement, especially as by the new regulations the forfeited lease is to be given to tho.se parties who lay thecomplaint before the warden.

Although these regulations are practically reverting to the old system of jumping, the provisions attached to them are such as to prevent any unjust evasion of the law, and are expected to work well. For some time past the practice has been for each company or mining party to make a monthly statutory declaration of the number of men employed ; and when complaints of the non-ful-filment of the covenants of the leases have been sent to the department, notice has been issued to the receiver not to accept the rents until inquiries had been made into the matter. By this means £SOOO has been lost to the Government during the present year, and it is to improve on this system that the present regulations have been framed.