MINING RENTS ARBEARS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 18

MINING RENTS AR BEARS.

Th& benefits of government by Order-in-Council are just now being brought home to a number of unfortunate* persons who have, in many cases innocently, made themselves liable to the most ignominious form o? punishment known to the civil law —that of distraint .upon their goods and chattels. The regulations under the 'Mining Act of 1891 give the Mining department the power of distraint for rent of mining leases. Power is given to distrain not only on the property on the claim, but on any property the person indebted may be otherwise possessed of. This power has never until recently been exercised. The Audit Office has,- however, discovered that the Mining department ought to have recovered a number of rents that have not neen recovered. In. some cases wardens Jbave accepted surrenders of mining leases without exacting payment of arrears of rent, some of which should have been paid in advance for th§ term then current, -and the Audit Office has sought to know the reason, and demands the money. This position is, of course, perfectly intelligible. Mining rents are payable in advance, and the Government must be protected against loss. But there is another class of cases in which the action of the Audit ■depiiartnient is perfectly unjustifiable, more especially as the Mining department has itself contributed to bring about the position. Section 141 of the Act of 1891 provides that if a lessee fails to pay his rent or license fee when it becomes due, or fails to comply with any other conditions, then within 60 days the claim is liable to forfeiture. Numbers of claims have been taken up at various times in different parts of the colony, and have been prospected and abandoned. No formal surrender has been made, and the department has not concerned itself. The lease or license has invariably been taken out in the name of one person, and many such persons now find themselves subjected to the indignity and loss resulting from diVfraiut for past and prosnective arrears of rents or fees. The Reefton district has suffered severely in this respect. The stock of a boot and shoe dealer was sold by the bailiff, and some 1200 pairs of boots and shoes, leather, grindery, cobbler's wax, and hobnails r^'Ji.^ed only £40. Another Crown tenaits, £ e^mjuis-f-ion agent, saw the department enriched

by £1 by the disposal of his office desk, stool, blotj£ng pad, and penholder. A publican, who "owed" £180 for past and prospective rents, artfully arranged with his landlord to instal a "man in possession," and so anticipated seizure by the department's bailiff. There have been numerous cases in Auckland, though we have not heard of any actually proceeding to execution, and we understand there are several cases pending in Otago. In cases where the land has been occupied and afterwards abandoned it is very highhanded for the department to now demand payment of arrears, because it has itself tacitly permitted arrears to accumulate instead of declaring the claim forfeited. In such cases it is only tho nominal lessee who can be reached, and he only because for some reason sufficient at the time his name happened to be the one mentioned in the lease or license. The Act itself gives the department power I to declare ths holder's interest forfeited for non-payment of rent, and if it has not exercised that power it has equit- ■ ably abandoned all rigafc to redress. In the goldfields districts many* persons have , at some time or other been concerned in j abortive mining adventures. If it should happen that the enterprises were con- [ ducted in the names of such persons they j must now take care lest they are liablo ', for all arrears of rents or fees, including, j of course, the rent or fee for the current S term. The Audit Office- is an inexorable j taskmaster. It holds hi reserve the power of surcharging the official who ought to ■ have collected the money or fortified himself with a valid excuse, and of course the official can hardly be blamed for acting in self-defence. But surely Parliament never intended that any department should be endowed with such drastic I powers as those which have been cxer- : cised by the Mining depai-tment. If such a position came about in the Lands department there would be a howl from one end of the colony to the other, and the public would contrast the professions of a desire to settle people on the land with the punitive measures adopted against those who failed. A similar dej sire to assist the mining industry is loudly professed, but in this instance professions and actions do not correspond. Steps must be speedily taken not. only t • put a stop to the tyrannical and vindictive proceedings that have raised such strong protests on the "West Coast, but to awaken, hon. members to the rapidly growing danger of entrusting plenary powers to the " Governor-in-j Council," who was recently described in j Parliament as the best hated person in the colony. Nor is this the first instance in which regulations have been issued which are subversive of, and contrary to, the spirit of the law.