MINING TITLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10416, 14 April 1897, Page 6

MINING TITLES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln commenting ou my letter ol yesterday's date, in your leader of this morning, 1 think you have failed to realise the gravity of the situation. At the present moment I could give you the names of over 50 mining claims, the titles of which an threatened by either natives or tbe Kauri Timber Company, and nearly all of which have been pegged out in good faith, the a» plicance being under the impression that* ground was open to mining. Where can man get the necessary information ? It doe not exist anywhere. I am afraid, in fad, that the legal positiou of the various block) is so vaguely defined, that it is absolutely imperative to go to considerable expense in consulting lawyers, before you can say tint your position is a safe one. When is a prospector to do this? Before .he startsoul prospecting or when he has found a reel which promises to be payable ? If the latter, I am very much afraid that by the time th( poor devil got to Auckland, employed a lawyer to hunt up the title, got his opinion and returned to the Warden's Office, Iμ would run a sreat risk of his claim beia{ pegged out and applied for by someone else; or again, how U he to tell on what block he has pegged out, so as to describe it to th< lawyer ? It seems to mo that it is necesiatj for every prospector to take a surveyor with him. Now for a suggestion: Let all land in the goldoelds area which is lying uuused, bt open for prospecting and mining, This, it seems to me, is the very simplest arrangement which could possibly be made, and ill fact the only really satisfactory solution of the difficulty. The Government, to compensate the previous uou-usiug, absentee ownen for auy actual damage which might be doa» to the surface.—l am, etc, Share Lvvestoi