MINING CLAIMS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 165, 14 July 1902, Page 2

MINING CLAIMS.

(From Our. Own Correspondent.)' WATHI. Friday. The' following- letter received from the Waihi Branch of the Thames < Miners' Union was read at the last ' ineetin* of the Waihi Borough Council, re the action of the Waihi Com- . pnny in not manning a payable mm- ' ingarea known as the Waihi Union, ; VVaihi. - Counsellors GedQes Hatz ■ ami others spoke strongly/ against i the action of the:Waihi Company in ( Die matter." s ' r J < .?,'° Worship the Mayor and Councillors Borough Waini. Gentlemen ~Xn reply to yours of the 30th of June I w til state that we desire.to amend the breE sent Mining Act t>y. having repealed all of sub-section l, clause 88 of the Act of isos whish reads as foUlows:-"In every case

where two or more claims or otner mining privileges cbntiguoiis: fovone another oz , * worked in conjunction with one another or held by the same person or by co-partners in mining, it shall be a sufficient compliance-, with the aforesaid labour conditions If the total number of workraeh employed on any one or more of such claims.ox- othler mining: privileges taken collectively is not legs than the totil number for all such claims taken separately." The evjl effects of this clause I have already pointed out in .my'former letter. I take the liberty to lay pefpre you an extract taken from a speech of Mr Thomas Russell read from the chair at last half-yearly meeting of London shareholders. He says: "No time haa been lost in giving effect to the resolutions passed at the general meeting neld last January, which authorised the completion of the purchase of the Union ■Waihi property. The property has been conveyed to the Waihi Company, and is now merged with and held- as a part of their mining area. This holding does not involve any expenditure upon that property for labour. The labour conditions are satisfied by the, large expenditure which the company makes upon its. principal mining- area, so that beyond the Government rent and the care of .the machinery there is no other outlay necessary upon the Union Waihi mine." (See "Mines Record." June 16th, 3901 p. 454). The chairman's remarks are worth notinjr. He congratulated the shareholders because they can discharge 200 men or tlpwards from what has been declared officially by late manager to be a payable mine and yet hbld the ground because their company employ a certain number of men on another part of the company's property half a mile distant. There is nothing now to prevent the swallowing up of the Junction, Consolidated, Extended, West, Southland Consols in the vast net of such financial spiders. The sub-section referred to is the only one bearing against miners' in such country as Waihi. We are about to petition the Hon. the Minister for Mines to introduce legislation to have it repealed, and respectfully ask you as a corporate body to aid us by petition or memorial to that end.—Yours, etc., THOMAS MOONEY, Sec. Waihi Branch Thames M.U..

The Council passed a resolution urging the Government to repeal Sub. Sec. 1, Clause 86 of Act 1898.