I.— 4c.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Thursday, 4th November, 1909. Thomas Borkin examined. (No. 1.) 1. The Chairman.'] What is your name?— Thomas Borkin. 2. What position do you hold?— 1 am a miner. 3. You hold some official position on the West Coast, do you not ?—President of the Rimu Miners' Association. 4 That is not a miners' union?—No, it is an association. 5 What is the object of the association ?-Just to develop the gold-mining industry 6.' It does not consist entirely of miners ?-No. It is mostly composed of miners, but includes residents who bring forward mining matters. . 7 Mr. It is composed of working miners and master miners ?-Working miners. The l. a 2L n X~r] n iralso includes business people?-It consists of all who are interested '"TlVtottfThere are members of the association who are not miners?— Yes; there is n ° th lo g Mr de iZ,°]^r i :'not i :apftalistic?-No; it is simply formed for the purpose of proChmrm<m ] You have come up from the Coast in order to give evidence on a petition before the Committee?— That is so. 12 Are you one of those who signed the petition?— Yes. 13 I flunk you had better in the first place make a statement with regard to the Water-power Regulations and the statements made in the petition, and then members of the Committee will quesHon you on any matters you have not dealt with?— Yes. iTwil you make a statementi-I think 1 will be able to explain the position in my own way. n .„i', the Rimu district we have an area of country where the mining possibilities are very big -1-re there were about 640 acre. That district has £233 a for some tweiity-fiv. years of about fourteen «j£^{gjg zz77X g *£ Mr\7mi:vc:tZei o a f 6,000 a T , M *«* uo ta Kumara We have only fifty miners employed at the present time at Kimu 15 Mr Anderson] Is Rimu affected by the petition ?-Yes, it is the chief place. Out of the 6 000 acres a syndicate proposes to generate power to bring water for 800 acres in prospecting ,UUU acres a syndicate >y w they will have to sell the water to individual parties who wish to hcenses, and it is that t h ey will have tosell he pop SS yoJrX^^SS n £JJKdto that extent. Now we come to the unfair discrimination f X Wrlro electric system for bringing water to the fields, and the system of gravitation. It of the h y co *"° to the field by the gravitation system, the miners can simply apply to the ordinary minmgJicense H that? _ H alf-a-crown for the license. n' How much per head ?-The Government offered £15,000 subsidy to any party which would ;HS wx-stiaKss issr»^i rp«!i™i«e ,1« Ser ReguSi», w.r. g.»A no e.ort h„ been n,,d, except «... p.Oß^r movement started down our way. 1Q Rut a subsidy of £15,000 was offered some years ago I— Yes. ...... + i, O Jo A poundSr pound subsidy ?-No, not a pound-for-pound subsidy-it is the same as the tion system- Jao but would Hke t„ answer questions ?-Yes 23' Mr Lit { Your people'or company are making application for a certain njmterrf heads are you not ?-!■ am P not interested in any company. It is simply for the benefit of the people where I am living that I am here. , 24. Is your association making any application f " tenefit~oT yourselves as individuals? 25. This water that you wish to make use of is for the benefit ot youiselves —Yes. . T7 26. Not for the benefit of any company ?—Yes.

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