The Westport Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1874.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1217, 6 October 1874, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1874.

Ax unsuccessful attempt was reeentlvmade by the Otago minera to obtain the sanction o ; -' the Provincial Executive to the appointment of a Mining Board for that Province. Hid sueceso crowned the efforts of the Otago miners it might very probably have happened that in other provinces similar efforts would have followed. Possibly even in Nelson, where least of all among miners does unity of action prevail. The refusal of the Otago Executive to sanction the establishment of a M'ning Board is considered as lessening if not wholly destroying the chance of sound mining legislation. The Mercury, a journal making mining matters a speciality, contains an arliele on the subject written by an authority whose opinions should carry weight and to whom the judicial administration of miniuj; laws has been long familiar. As a subject of interest to our milting readers wo shall condense the expression of opinion referred to. Says the writer.—So long as the Ghddfields Acts are disfigured and encumbered by petty details it will be difficult to obtain the sanction of members of the Genera' Assembly to any new Bill that can possibly be devised. In deciding main principles no insuperable difficulties exist but in matters of detail (x.-ld-fields members entertain views wide as the Poles asunder, and because of this ovary effort to introduce a new Act terminates in discomfiture. A Mining Board would frame reguiat on-' for the district it represented, and thus help to overcome present serious obstructions. The now Bill promise 1 by the Government to be prepared ami circulated during the recess should deal w'th general principles oilv, avoiding all minor matters while consolidating the diffuse and scattered statutes now in force. A Bill thus framed would be easily out through the [louse if eatrusled to competent hands, to the avoidanca of mouthui" charlatans, or members bristling over hedgehog fashion—with offensive points. The judicial portion of the present Groidficlds Act, regulating the business of Wardens and District Courts should be framed by the Government apart from the statute, and the new Act should not be crowded with the small minufcioß of details making it cumbrously ineffective. It should moreover, necessitate the constitution of Mining Boards as alone caj able of properly supplying the contingent rules and regulations' for the governance of goldmining in each district and province, and as an additional reason or rather a clenching of the argument for the appointment of Mining Boards, the writer of the article under notice .says : —" For some years—in and from 1868, in fact—the authorities and the miners have been playing at Mining Hoards under the designation of ' Conferences.' Now the only tangible difereucj betweeu a Conference and a ' iaing Board is, that the first is more

or less of a sham, and tho other is a reality, with powers and funeibns recognised by the law of the land. Why then are the miners tantalised by shadows, and refused the substance .of authority in the regulation of their own business? And wherefore d'ies the Executive so jealously retain in its hand a power which is of no value—that of framing goldiniiiing regulations—and which must always be a source of embarrassment ? An expert might possibly by the exercise of great care and judgment, so adapt and modify the regulations from time to time as to render them suitable to the requirements of the goldfields. But we doubt very much whether any political chief or Government clerk can do this satisfactorily, if at all." Few if any among mining residents on tho West Coast will be inclined to cavil at tho reasonableness of tho remarks, fewer still to question their perfect applicability to mining affairs on the Coast. Jt has been a subject of frequent remark that few mining cases of any importance arc now heard in tho Warden's Courts, although vested interests in mining property are not decreisinc;, or complication of legal tenure lessening. It may not unreasonably be assumed that the utter inability of any ordinary judicial authority to unravel tho eutanglemenrs of the law affecting mining prevails on would be litigants to avoid the uncertainty of appeal to Warden's Court e'eeisions. So far as tending to lessen litigation, the cumbrous inutility of mining legislation has an advantage, but as goldmiuing must of necessity be u subject for special legislation, e'en so it would be well if such legislation could be brought within the scope and understanding of ordinary intellects. To this end Mining Boards would form invaluable auxiliaries.