UNIFORM CODE OF BYE-LAWS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 240, 30 November 1866, Page 3

UNIFORM CODE OF BYE-LAWS.

From the ‘Ballarat Star.’

There has lately been a conference of members of Mining Boards in Melbourne, and the public is indebted to the Mining Boards for good intentions, and some excellent suggestions for the Government of the day to consider. Yet we venture to draw another moral from the conference. We submit that the conference in its doings has suggested that Mining Boards may be abolished without this golden colony being any the worse, and with a strong probability that it would in some respects be better. On the presumption that such abolition would lead to a uniform code of regulations for the whole colony, we may indulge the hope that the late conference may hasten so desirable a consummation. This is a subject that has often been discussed, and on which many men have different opinions. Men of equal experience as far as time goes, hold diametrically opposite views. There is Mr Jones, for instance, the member for Creswick, in thoßaJlarat Board, who fought hard at one time for a code all alone for his particular corner of the district, while the then chairman of the Board saw his way clear tq one code for the whole colony. So in all the other Boards, probably similar diversities exist. The usual argument is, that mining in one place differs from mining in others. But it is a vague transcendental sort of proposition, which melts into thin air, or is lost in the foggiest of fogs, if followed well by the enquirer. Wo have never heard yet of anybody proving that there is any practical difference between shallow sinking at Ballarat and at the Ovens, or between deep sinking at Dayleaford and at Smythesdale, or between quartz reefing at Sandhurst and at Egerton, Gordon, Maryborough, or elsewhere. That is, no difference that could interfere to dqter reasonable practical men from framing regulation applicable alike to all the gold mining districts of the colony. Geology toll pretty much same story in in all the district as to formatians. Gravel, and sand, and basalt, and schist, and sandstone, and quartzoze veins, and auriferous drifts, at varying levels arc the language in which tho pre-historic ages of the district have been made readable to us, and tho great book's pages all over the colony boar similar characters. As i,n a modern book, literally, the characters have ono alphabetical j basis, so in the geological volume the reading is | uniform as to character though variously ar- | ranged as to the integral portions. It is not i the earth, then, but ideas that stand in tho way jof a general code. Tho members of Mining I Boards may bo loath to give up their occupation I with its L-500 per annum, per board, with ; various littlo extras in the way of social position j an 1 importance connected with the " M.JJ.8,," ! but they must givo way for the gonoral good j embodied in the idea and fact of a uniform code I for the colony. In the proposition for a uniform I system of registration the conforencohas achieved j a:i advance towards the uniform oode. Nc | physical or natural difficulties or differences can I be conceived of as offering valid reasons for op- | posing the introduction of an uniform code. In I all places the miner has to fight the same physi- | cal foes, and why should he not fight under the i same regulational conditions ? "Tho Mining | Board Conference has affirmed the desireableness I of his being under uniform conditions as to regisi tratiori ; one step higher and wo reach the posi- ! tion whore tho advantage of other uniformity of j regulation will bo equally obvious. Geometry j i 3 tho same in all degrees of longitude and lati- ! tude, and we find that, practically, geology is a I " fixod quantity " in the Victorian miner's cal- [ culations. Where, then, is the genius who will ! prove that the miner on one side of a hill or a j river ought to have a different area from that | granted to a miner on tho other side—why a I claim that is proper atßallaratshould be improper ! at Sandhurst, or 'vice versa' —or that one should j hold a similar area under adverse conditions' ! Uniformity marks the dealing of the Legislature ] with our farmors, squatters, 42nd section men, ! and so forth—nay, more, with miners whe i operate under leases, and have to do with certain water rights. In accord with this principle the Mining Board Conference has now pronounced in favour of oue uniform code of registration regulations. And in the face of these facts and the natural surroundings of the general qucstior we would ask if any person can really put for ward anything but an idea—a local prejudice, against the proposal to extend still further the registration policy of tho Mining Boards Con ferenco, and make all mining regulations uniform. If it could be shown that an area that would pay a 12-feet or 300 feet sinker in Balla rat would not pay or would pay too well t 12-foet or 300-feet sinker at Creswick or th< Ovens, or anywhere else, there would be some thing iu the form of an objection of substance tt the proposal to havo an uniform code established, But it is not clear that, as a rule, mining is uni form in its natural conditions here, though evei diversified in its commercial results, a divoraitj duo to no physical or social diileronces, sav( that one most potent physical fact, the varyinj and over arbitrary value of the auriferous de posits ? But this is a fact which applies to eacl corner of each field, and if it could be importoc into the argument at all, it would justify th< embodiment of the exploded notion advocated bj tho Creswick member in the Ballarat Minim Board, and tho enactment of a separate cede fo every littlo sub-division of every district in th colony. If so logical a development of Mr Jonos theory—and indeed of tho theory generally of th' opponents of a uniform manifestly code—wouli bp inimical to the real interests of the miner and therefore of the colony, what are we to con elude but that reform of existing conditions i - desirable ? Tho existing multiformity of law relating to mining, puzzles the unlearned, am : deters capitalists from investing aB freely as the; i otherwise would, because it favours mistakes i disputes, and litigation, with all their costl; ' heritage of uncertain titles and endless outla; • for costs and delays. We neo4 not ring ove again the old changes upon the blunders in illegs i bye-laws, and bye-laws that of necessity partoo! i of the changeful character of ever changing locs boards of legislation hightened in their passio: for change by the sufficiently varying legislate of the central Parliament. There is little tha . is new to be said on the subject, but we ma* repeat the proposition that the Mining Board! i themselves hare in the late conference given c ; the latest argument available in rapport of a uniform oode of goldfields regulations. W i have littlo doubt that such a code will events all; i i be adopted, and the sooner it cornea the belie for mining enterprise all over the colons.