PORT PEGASUS TIN FIELDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1975, 26 September 1889, Page 12

PORT PEGASUS TIN FIELDS.

Tbe following report from the manager of the HallLewis Company has been received. The Hall- claim (20 acres), to which he refers, adjoins Tucker's ; the Lewis claim (60 acres) is further to the eastward, and is Bplendidly watered 5—

" Pegasus, Stewart's Island, " September 14, 1889,

" R. Maoleod,, S'sq, " HalW_i&'wiß Pegasus Tin Mining Company, " Invercargill.

" Dear Sir, - I beg to report having sluiced a medium sized paddook at S.W. side of claim, working up creek running N.W., with, 1 am glad to say, most favourable results, having obtained a quarter of a ton of excellent tin ore, which is now on hand awaiting your instructions and disposal. I send you by this steamer about lowt of same, dressed for the purpose of exhibition, as requested. It is very clean and will give a high assay. The present wash averages about 3ft 6in in depth, with prospects of deepening as we work north, and towards an alluvial flat (shown on plan herewith), through which, from present indications, I think the tin has travelled and left a rich deposit. The same indicati >m lead me to believe I will get something good in the terraces, and everything points to moat favourable results generally, and quite up to my most sanguine expectations. I a'so send you separately a few extra specimens of tin giving lode indications, obtained while streaming, but which it is impossible at present stage of operations to locate precise origiu ; they evidently have not come from any great distance, and it is quite possible, and very probable, that an outcrop may be discovered on the hection as the alluvial is sluiced. You will also fiud a iew specimens of tourmaline. &c , as requested. Next week I will start operations on Lewis' ground, to gel the required exhibit as instructed, and will in my next be able to report fully on tbe prospects of that particular claim. You will be able to see from the accompanying pkn the nature of the work done since we started, and with which I hope you will be satisfied., — Yours, &c. (Signed) J. Dwyer, Mining Manager.

Administration of Justice on the Gold-

fields.

Editor Witness,— Sir : In his letter which appeared in your last issue, Mr S. E. M'Carthy, probably to his entire satisfaction, makes a learned and no doubt correct exposition of his views on the above subject ; but I think be might have caved himself the labour of proving that the term " equity " has two meanings in jurisprudence, for it is one of the beauties — not to say objects of this science — to deal in double meanings, as mauy a votary at the shrine of law has fouud to h'S cost.

I h<ivo no doubt that Me McCarthy's definition of lawis accurate and erudite, but unfortunately it is past my powers of discernment, and therefore prefer {mother definition, which says that whatever is not good, sound reason is not law. Probably this is what Mr 51'Carthy m<-ant, but unfortunately it was not what he said. Now, Sir, it is not my desire to discuss the whole pailosophy of jurisprudence with &o learned and Sr'£ lnfir a ll^ hfc of thri Profession as Mr M'C*rthy— nothing, indeed, is further from my ambition— and though it may give him a peculiar delight to expose my ignorance of Jaw, I see no roasou, nor have I any inclination, to gratify go Chnstianlike a-pastime. In my former remarks I contented myself with limiting my observations to Wardens'.Oourts, and to Wardens' Courts I shall confine myself, Mr M'Cartby not having Lad anything like my experience of Wardens' Courts, and. as be

admits that he is not conversant with the Stannery laws, he will perhaps thank me for a short history of the growth of these courts. My personal acquaintance with wardens' or commissioners* courts dates back to 1854, they having then sprung into the full vigour of their youthful lives. The court, invested in the body of the commissioner at that time, moved to the scene of the dispute, the disputants were confronted, the evidence compared with the actual facts of the case, judgment delivered there and then, and the court adjourned. There was no argument, nor precedent, nor previous ruling, nor two meanings of the same term ; no appeal — no nothing, and therefore no lawyers. Sometimes, it is true, the defeated party would call the court's decision in question, and express their dissent in terms scarcely dignified ; in which case the court would take off its coat, roil up its shirt sleeves^ and support its judgment with its fists— a kind of "equity" to which there are no two meanings, and which never failed to give very general satisfaction. In more degenerate later times, however, the commissioner held a court at a fixed place, generally in some public house, but the procedure was much upon the same principles. The next innovation was the elective mining boards, giving the miners of the several districts the power of making and administering their own laws and regulatloas. These courts were made a kind of appeal courts from war* dens' decisions, and some wonderful laws and judgments were the reßultl so extraordinary, indeed, were the judgments that the administrative powers of the courts were taken away. To meet the emergencies of the position and out of this unsettled and unsatisfactory state of things grew the discretionary power of the wardens or commissioners, which was not long in being recognised as a principle in mining law.

Such were the developments of mining law id Victoria, from which our New Zealand mining laws are copied, and a vile copy of a vile thing it is. With the '"ntroduofcion of Victorian mining law into New Zealand came over the discretionary power of wardens, which has now grown to be a very Frankenstein to all concerned, and to j none more so than to the wardens themselves."* The proportion of its growth in New Zealand has been in an exact ratio to the growth of the mining law. With every new act or amendment act the discretionary power has extended and strengthened, and it is rather surprising to hear Mr M'Carthy, who practises in a Warden's Court upon a goldfield. contending that the power has been " retrenched upon by the Legislature" simply because appeals are now allowed in refused applications for mining privileges. Allowing that this provision in the new act may be read as an infringemrnt upon the warden's discretionary power, what, then, about the power delegated to wardens by the samo act in hearing and granting applications for licensed holdings, the extended power of inflicting fines in lieu of forfeiture, and raising the warden's ipse dixti superior to the little verb " &hall " ? Mr M'Carthy quotes from a decision of Mr District Judge Broad limiting the discretionary power; but it may be in&ta>>tied thab the same judge upheld an appeal in which the warden had get aside this inconvenient little word and substituted his lt liberty to disregard the, rules of law and equity." But perhaps Mr M'Carthy will tell me that judges' decisions are like legal terms, and have two or more meanings. In general law, I believe, the little word " shall " has sovereign sway and power that is duly recognised by the judges of the highest courts in the realm ; yet a warden i in New Zealand may overrule it. That this has been allowed so long, without any glaring abuse ' of the power becoming conspicuous, speaks volumes for the gentlemen who wielded the power ; but at the same time, I am ready to admit that the time is fast approaching that mining legislation be simplified and reduced to plainer issues of a leading character. With regard to Mr M'Carthy's charge of having introduced personal issues into the discussion, I plead innocent. I certainly took exception to his statement that ho had heard wardens say, in reply to intimations of appeal, " Appeal away j the dosb does not fall on my shoulders," holding that suoh a reference was unbecoming to a man of the legal profession.

In conclusion, I freely, but not sorrowfully, confess my ignorance of law and legal terms in all their meanings, thanking Mr M'Carthy for the instruction and advice so gratuitously extended, and in return would seriously counsel him to study the Stannery laws and " The New Zealand Mining Act 1886," from both of which he will learn much about discretionary power, and the latter may even be of practical use to him while practising in » Warden's Court and writing on mining law to the newspapers. — I am, &&.,

YOTJB NfcN+HORN OOIIREStONDEftT. Nenthorn, September 21.