MINING LAW

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 12199, 10 March 1934, Page 2

MINING LAW

IMPORTANT ISSUE-S

.FREEHOLDERS V. HOLDERS OF

MINERS’ RIGHTS

(Press Association)

DUNEDIN. March !

' A ea> L - tli? result of -which "Til effect mining interests everywhere .was heard by Mr. Justice Kennedy, t It was a special case stated by the ■warden in the matter of - an application by Richard J'. Bell for a- special ‘alluvial claim on Cromwell Hat, Which application wa- objected to bv "eight persons seeking prospecting .■licenses whose applications had been recommended for the. Minister’s’ consent.

' TP.a court was asked to decide .several issues, one being whether the fact that the objectors had applied to the Minister for the resumption of lands for mining constituted ■a ground for refusing Bell’s application.

Mr. Parcell. who appeared for Bell, stated that, substantial questions of law were involved so that be had filed a motion to remove the case to the Appeal Court. There was going to he a clash between freeholders and holders of miners’ rights, a possible result being that valuable land held by freeholders might be turned over to milling ter nominal compensation, it wag also -possible that large sums spent by owners in acquiring and mining lands had been spent under a false sense of their own security. The first point, to be decided was whether mining law con sidered freehold , rights superior to ,thoiS G of an application under tbo Mining Act.

The judge reserveq decision