FIJI MINING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 141, 17 June 1935, Page 3

FIJI MINING.

GOVERNMENT POLICY.

LIMITED ISSUE OF LICENSES

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SUVA, June 10.

While the Fiji Mining Ordinance shows that anyone can obtain a prospecting license, it is overshadowed by several proclamations and regulations. First of all it will be of interest to the people in the Dominions who have become interested in Fiji mines to know that there are here no "miners' rights." The cost of a prospecting license is £1, and it can only be obtained by. permission of the Governor through the Mining Board. The Government is, however, very definite in its view of who should have a license. It is announced in the "Gazette" that "The Government cannot see its way to issue prospecting licenses at Tavua to -parties having little or no capital. The Government intends this statement to apply equally to the Yanawai mining area and to any other mining areas whieh may hereafter be proclaimed." Again, "In future the issue of prospecting licenses will be more strictly controlled than heretofore, and the conditions of the licenses more rigidly enforced." To help carry this latter idea out it is proclaimed that one regulation has been amended to provide for a greater number of men to be employed on prospecting license areas, and a new regulation provides for the proper medical care of employees in mines. After discovery of payable mineral the prospector must employ at least one qualified person to every 250 7 acres, and a staff of labourers of at least one to every 25 acres.