MINING LAW QUERIES

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 12 March 1934, Page 5

MINING LAW QUERIES

FREEHOLD RIGHTS INVOLVED. COURT RULING 'SOUGHT. (by Telegraph—Press Association-, DUNEDIN, March 9. A case, the result of which -will affect mining interests everywhere, was heard before Mr Justice Kennedy to-day. It was a special case stated by the warden in tire matter of an application by Richard J. Bell for a. special alluvial claim on Cromwell Flat, ■which application was objected to by eight persons seeking prospecting licenses whose applications had been recommended for the Minister’s consent. The Court was asked to decide several issues, one being whether the fact that the objectors had applied to the MinisV-i' for a resumption of lands for mining constituted ground for refusing Bell’s application. Mr Parcel!, who appeared for Bell, stated that substantial questions at law were involved,, so that he had filed a motion to remove the ease to the Appeal Court. There was going to be a clash between freeholders and holders of miners? rights, the possible being that valuable land held by the freeholder might bo turned over to mining for nominal compensation. It "was also possible that the large sums spent by the owners in acquiring and mining the lands had been spent under a laise sense of their own security. The first point to be decided was whether mining law considered freehold rights superior to those of applications under the Mining Act. The judge reserved his decision.