THE MINING LAW.

Otago Witness, Issue 2430, 10 October 1900, Page 19

THE MINING LAW.

THE AMENDING BILL. (From Otje Own Coeeespondent.)

WELLINGTON, October 8,

The Mining Act Amendment Bill which the Minister of Mines is introducing is intended to meet a number of objections to the present mining law which have been urged of late. Every water race license granted under any former Mining Act, validly subsisting at the commencement of the principal act (February 1, 1899), is to be deemed to have been lawfully granted under the principal act. If the license was granted for a specified number of years, those provisions shall continue to apply, and in other cases the license shall be deemed to have been granted for a term of 42 years from February 1, 1899. No claim is to extend along or comprise more than one mile of the course of a stream or the foreshore of the sea beach; but in the case of a dredging claim this limit may be extended with the consent of the Minister to not more than two miles where the original area available for dredging is too small to justify the expense of acquiring a suitable dredge and where the average width of the stream doe* not exceed 30ft. Where a certificate of protection has been granted, and further protection is subsequently desired, a fresh application may be made, and it is to be granted in the case of two or more mining privileges held by the applicant and to be worked together, if the mining privilege cannot be advantageously worked until the operations on another of the privileges are further developed ; and, in the ca a o of a special dredging claim, where the dredge will not be available until the lapse of a specified time. A dredging claim is to be deemed to be abandoned if a suitable dredge is not working 2n2 n

it in two year-,. Provision is made for the inspection of mines by representative workmen.