MINING DEVELOPMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14465, 6 March 1909, Page 12

MINING DEVELOPMENT

| ..insJSS DEPARTMENT BLAMED. (Per Uniteh Pitr.ss Association.) lIOKITIKA, March 5. Very strong exception was taken at tho Borough Council meeting this evening at the persistent refusal of the Mines Department to pass the necessary regulations under the Public Works Amendment Act of last session, giving power t;> lease wutor races for developing electrical power for mining and other purposes to private companies. The effect of the delay is most disastrous to a local syndicate, which was prepared to use 150 heads from the Te Arohu Canyon to pump water from the Hokitika river on to large areas of well-proven auriferous terraces in the immediate vicinity of the town. Introducing the scheme would find profitable employment for many hundreds of men, which in tho present congested state of the labour market consequent upon the stoppage of many sawmills should be a strong incentive to the Mines Department to pass the regulations which were promised months ago. It was stated at the meeting that it appeared ridiculous for the Government, to organise costly prospecting parties into unknown regions, while localities already proven but which cannot be worked by ordinary methods, are allowed to remain unworlced. merely because the officers o[ tho Mines Department fail to grasp the importance of the subject,