THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1904

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1134, 1 November 1904, Page 2

THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1904

Ileri. l rliMI the TrfHs tho fooplfl'n Ilight maintain 'JiiKTMtI ljy I'liliiniio'j anti unbrik'l by ifiin | live patriot. Truth liflr proonpts fatt "lo'ldcil so Uolivion Uh?rt?. mid I.»w i

WIUTTXC on the, Hiibject of aid fo prospecting, the Commands News makes somo caustic remarks on the Minos Department. It says that the vagaries of Hie Department in dealing with such applicalions are incomprehensible. It appears that for some time past various application? for assistance under class 11, of the Regulations made under The Mining Act have front time (o time been recommended by the (Jointly Council and granted by tho Department, and in this way practical aid to legitimate prospecting has been given, The assistance granted is at most a mere bagatelle—;ss per foot for hard rwk rc(|uirin« blasting—but even though small it i.s sufficient (o cover the cost of explosives, and linn enabled men lo carry out the work til' proving whether gold existed at a depth in the solid country where otherwise they could not have held on, Our contemporary says: "It is morally certain (hat the amount, of subsidy would never indnco anyone to drive merely for the fake ol getting (he (iovernmoiit pittance, and that whenever it has been ibe money lias been uainod Irom live in tun times over. The subsidy is sufficient to enable an industrious man lo "hang on"and prove his holding, but it would never happen that the Government would bu victimised by idle and dishonest persons, Tho amounts granted have not been very great in the aggregate, and one would expect lhat all bona hdo applications until a certain limit was reached would have been favourably considered, tiucli, however, is not the ease. At the last meeting of the County Council, a reply was received from tho Mines Department declining to grant three separate applications for aid, the reason given being: "It was never intended that assistance should be giantod to enable persons

who take rip special claims to prospect their properties." We have heard of various reasons for declin- ■ ing to grant assistance towards prospecting, but this latest evidence of the vagaries of the Mineß Department tunes first place. Glass 11. is •undoubtedly intended to apply to old and partially prospected ground, and if the aid is not granted to the persons who take up ground, who is it to be granted to ? It may be said that the Department intended that it should be granted for prospecting ureas and not for special claims, but if so this is merely splitting straws, as the claims for which aid was requested were virtually prospecting areas, and comparatively small areas at that, There is something radically wrong and wholly unaatisfactory in the manner in which the aid to prospecting is granted or refused, and the sooner the position is made clear as to what the conditions really are the more satisfactory it will be. The Department may have been fully justilied in refusing the applications, or the reverse may have been the case, but we unhesitatingly state that the reason given is an ab--1 surdity."