MINING LAW

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 29

MINING LAW

IMPORTANT CHANGES

PROSPECTING LICENCES

Important changes in the existing mining law to enable development work _to be carried out on modern methods are proposed in the Mining Amendment Bill, ' which was introduced in the House of Eeprcsentatives yesterday. At the present time, .special prospecting licences are limited to areas of one hundred acres and the licence is only tenable for one year. The Bill proposes to increase the area to GOO acres and to leave the term »f oach licence to the discretion of the | Minister. Another far-reaching change is to extend, the length of river dredging licences from three miles to sixteen miles and to enlarge the area of river bottom to be worked from lis j acres to 600. The reason for this' change is because of the fact that most i of the rivers have already been dredged once or twice and it is held that increased areas are necessary to enable dredges costing in the vicinity of £20,000 to have a reasonable chance of success. The existing provision relating to the Otago mining district under which no licenses can be granted by the Warden without the prior consent of the Minister is to be reDealcd. This provision was introduced in 1926 to enable the Government to have complete control of the various schemes to recover from the Kawarau, bti't it has been represented that it is now hindering the development of the Otago minefields. Under the existing legislation, there was.. no appeal from the Minister's decision. The development of geophysical surveys has required several new provi-' sions. These are designed to give the right of entry for the purpose of geo-.j physical survey and lay down that no licence shall be given to work land which has been the subject of such a survey without the consent of the Minister. There is also provision for validation 'of agreements made between those working surveyed land and the Minister whereby 5 per cent, of the gold won is to be handed over to the Crown. Another provision includes authority for the Minister to grant permission for mining to be carrjed on on Sundays ! where there is a danger to the enterprise if a stoppage takes place