THE MINING INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15251, 14 March 1913, Page 4

THE MINING INDUSTRY.

ENCOURAGING PROSPECTORS. BY J. MCCOMBIE. . Joint action is now being taken to impress on the Government the necessity for fostering the gold.mining industry, especially in the matter of prospecting, and in the following article I have endeavoured to throw some light on the subject. Prospectors, like poets, are born, and you can as easily manufacture a silk purse out of a sow's ear as to make a competent prospector out of an ordinary individual. In proof of this, I have never known an organised prospecting party to make any gold discoveries worth mentioning, because they are invariably made up of men who are not acquainted with the alphabet of the business. All the gold finds of any consequence throughout Australasia have been made by individuals out on their " own hook," as the saying is—men who could run up a trail of gold as easily as a hound can follow the scent of a herring. Prospectors in New Zealand are very heavily handicapped when endeavouring to explore broken country, clothed with a practically impenetrable forest, and! if I were asked three times what is the first necessity towards hastening the development of our mineral resources, I would reply three times, "Tracks! Tracks Tracks!!!' Auriferous country should be gridironed with tracks at intervals of five miles apart, and these tracks should be cut north and south along the general strike of the reef system, and in the opposite direction both east and west. At the same time, advantage might be taken of the information gleaned through medium of the geological survey that is now being made of the gold-fields throughout the Dominion, and the formation of tracks confined to the most likely belts of country. The Prospector's Reward. The bona-fide prospector should be encouraged and protected by our mining laws to a much greater extept than is the case at present. He should not only have the first right, free of all cost, to a given area of 100 acres all round his gold find, but .he should also have first choice of the nearest machine site, as well as water and 'timber rights, and legal juggling should be debarred from depriving him of such privileges. In the matter of . machine sites, water and timber rights, the prospector is nearly always forestalled by men who will do no prospecting themselves, but are past-masters in the art of ' shepherding," which enables 'them to travel on other men's brains and enterprise. ■ Rewards for the discovery of payable mines should be based on tho bullion returns obtained from that particular district, and should become a first charge on the. gold duty, rents, etc., with a £ for £ subsidy from the general revenue spread over a period of, say, five years. This,. I think, would be preferable to giving the discoverers a lump sum, which more often than not would be frittered away uselessly. ' Identification of Minerals. Prospectors in search of gold and silver deposits very often, through ignorance, pass over minerals that are equally valuable, and*amongst these are molybdenite, cassitorite, platinum, irridium, phosphates, copper, cinnabar, scheelite, lead, and zinc carbonates. At every mining centre, or attached to every school of mines, the Mines Department should provide a collection of specimens of the most valuable minerals, so that prospectors in the immediate neighbourhood would have an opportunity of educating their eyes with a view to. enabling them to distinguish such minerals wherever they are encountered. Mining Leases. Under existing conditions the gold mining industry is seriously trammeled by excessive taxation and ridiculous laws. .The rents charged for mining leases are by far too high, and their immediate reduction would benefit mining to a very large extent. The minimum Tent for the first year's occupation should be computed at Is per .acre, instead of 2s 6d per acre, which is the present charge. Thenceforward the rent could be increased at the rate of Is per acre annually until the fifth year, making 5s per acre per year, the maximum rent payable then, or thereafter, instead of 7s 6d p/r acre per annum, which is the present charge. The low Tent for the first year's lease would enable men of small means to secure a title to a piece of ground for prospecting purposes, and the results would very soon speak for themselves. I know of several instances where abandoned leases, showing fair surface prospects, are lying idle simply because prospectors have net got the necessary funds to make the title secure prior to trenching, sinking, or driving upon the reefs contained therein. Wild Oat" Claims. The present system of granting gold mining leases indiscriminately has a most injurious effect on legitimate mining enterprise, and some amendment shmlß be brought about without further del_;. During the gold mining " boom," winch commenced some time in the year 1895, nearly the whole of the Hauraki Peninsula, from Cape Colville to Te Aroha, was marked off in leases for gold mining, and it took an army of surveyors to define the boundaries. At that time I have again and again heard unscrupulous men boast of their ability to float anything, from a boulder bank to a flax swamp, reef or no reef, and the only thing required to enable them to carry out the " swindle," was a title signed by the warden of the goldfields. . Since then I have visited and examined several blocks covering a surface of a square mile, that was marked off in separate areas averaging 100 acres each, and floated it into companies in Auckland and elsewhere during the boonera. Now, there is not a reef, or the semblance of a reef, or a bit of country favourable to the existence of a reef, in the whole of the territory referred to. These claims could very properly be termed wild cats," and the Mines Department should take the necessary steps to wind up this business. The warden should have the power to refuse the granting of a lease to any man, or party of men, who cannot prove that the ground they are applying for is marked off on the line of a known reef system, or that they have a reef, exposed to view within their own boundaries. This would undoubtedly check the flotation of " bogus concerns," and it would give those who are honestly endeavouring to exploit legitimate shows a chance to obtain the capital necessary for such purpose. While I am writing on this subject I have in my mind's eye an instance where two different parties of men marked off the same piece of ground—one for gold mining and the other for cinnabar mining. This system of allowing two distinct parties to peg off the same ground in order to mine for different minerals, opens the back door for all sorts of trickery. The man who first marks off and, secures a title to a mining area, no matter what class of mineral it is located for, should have the ' exclusive right to everything in the shape of minerals within his boundaries, and a reasonable time allowed him for exploitaticn purposes.