PEGGING A CLAIM

Grey River Argus, 6 August 1937, Page 7

PEGGING A CLAIM

MARCH STOLEN ON RIVALS BROADCAST CODE MESSAGE. The story of how a prospector used a code message sent by wireless to beat his rivals in pegging a prospecting area was told in the Warden’s Court at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, recently, when objections to granting the application for the prospecting area were heard by the warden, Mr. E. McGinn. For some time prospectors have cast covetous eyes on a temporary reserve which included the old Lass o’ Gowrie mine, in the Mount Monger district, and it was known that when the reserve was thrown open there would be a rush to peg the ground. Matthias Dunne, who applied for the prospecting area embracing the mine, arranged that immediately the notice of cancellation of the reserve was posted outside the mining registrar’s office at Kalgoorlie a code message would be broadcast through the goldfields’ commercial station 6KG. I The notice of cancellation was posted at Kalgoorlie at noon on June 23, and 10 minutes later at their camp at Mount Monger, 35 miles away. Dunne and two other prospectors heard their prearranged code signal which was “Calling Mat Dunne. Bill arrived in Kalgoorlie at 12.10.” With his companions Dunne drove to the lease and pegged the area, but during the day other prospectors pegged the same ground, and two objections were lodged to Dunne’s application for the area. After hearing evidence the warden dismissed the objections and granted lhe area to Dunne.