A NONAGENARIAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 21, 26 January 1933, Page 9

A NONAGENARIAN.

VETERAN PROSPECTOR

AT WAP, WITH THE LAW.

BRET HARTE TOUCH.

His old eyes glittering -with the light of battle and his grey beard bristling, John A. A. Yince, 93-year-old prospector, called at the Supreme Court, Sydney, one morning last week. "I'm here to fight," he said dramatically.

The challenge has gone forth, and, confronted with the legal forces of the Crown Law office, John has no intention of showing the white feather.

As long as he can remember he has followed the call of gold into the four corners of the earth, and a man who has held his own in the lawless turmoil of the world's greatest gold "strikes" is not going to give up "the richest belt of mineral in the world" without a struggle.

John was served with a Supreme Court writ, calling on him to file an appearance, within eight days, in respect, of an information of intrusion concerninc his occupation of Crown land at Dobroyd Point, Haberfield. John has pegged out a claim on the property. Picturesque Figure. It is six years ago since he came to Sydney, a picturesque figure from the pages of a Bret Harte novel. With two pack-horses he had "hit the trail from Mount Isa, and one day Government Departments were startled to learn that he had pegged out his claim in the heart of a quiet suburb. The man must go, said the authorities, but John, secure m the protection of his miners' right,; stayed on. And now, after six years, the Crown Law authorities are taking action again. "There's wealth in that tliero land," said John, "and it's mine by all the laws of the land. There's copper enough there to give a man £10 a week. If people would only let me search in peace I could get it. It's the richest belt of mineral in the world —and. I'm not crazy

because I say it." John's mining right, I which he has renewed every > year, expires on February 20, and until then he contends that he should be left alone. Last year, he said, he had written to the mining warden asking for the full protection of the Mines Department. The Wanderer. The story of this old prospector is like a chapter from a novel. In his early days, he says, ho drove bullocks and broke horses at Dubbo, and later at the Homeward Bound mine in West Australia struck it rich to the extent of thousands. Then in 1890 he left for Alaska, but changed his plans and went in quest of an elusive fortune to California. He was in Colorado Pass boom, he says," and later worked in the black diamond mines at Santa Fe. From Montevideo he went to South Africa and wandered from Majuba Hill to Pilgrim s Rest to King Solomon's Mine. Some day, he says, hopefully, he will strike it rich again—but, in the meantime, he is going to fight.