The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1892.

Thames Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 7180, 10 May 1892, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1892.

The miners' right question was very lucidly placed before the Hon. A. J. Oadman last night by a deputation consisting of the officers of the Thames Branch of A.M.A., and a full report of the proceedings appears in this issue. Anyone who reads the report cannot fail to be impressed with the fair and reasonable remarks made by Mr Oadman regarding the subject, and of his manifest desire to do everything in his power' that will tend to the removal of the harasiiip under which tha wages men and tributes ot< *ne Thames will labor by the enforcement of the miners' right clauses of the Mining Act 1:891; -

Mr Cadman thoroughly grasped the subject when he said that the Governments of the past should never have permitted one acre of the lands of this goldfield to " slip through their fingers and pass into private hands," and also when he pointed out that the true solution of the difficulty would be for Government to purchase the goldfield. As an alternative he suggested that the Crown should endeavor to buy the interests of the natives and others to these miners' rights, and thus finally settle the difficulty. "With both of these suggestions we unreservedly agree—in fact, we have from the very commencement of the dispute advocated their adoption,—and we trust that the Miners' Union will be able to induce the Minister of Mines to see the matter in the same light.

In the course of the interview it also transpired that a miner's right would entitle its possessor to mine upon native land in any part of the Hauraki district and also its owner to hold a residence site- This will eft'ectu.ally remove a misapprehension which has in some unaccountable manner arisen, that a resident upon native land must take out a 20s miner* right to hold his residence site, and another 20s right to mine upoii native land. Then, again, it has been conclusively »hpwn that accordiog; to thf

best legal advice obtainable by the Government, the natives are not by the agreement of 1867 entitled to the rent from licenses, and it is more than likely that at an early date the payment of this money will be ceased. As will be observed by the tele-J grams in another column, the Hon. Mr Cadman, and the President and. Secretary of the Miners' Union, have telegraphed to the Minister of Mines, asking him to have the contemplated legal proceedings stayed > until the whole matter has been brought under his notice. It is also suggested by Mr Oadman that he should obtain the opinion of the Crown Law Officers as to whether wages men working in ground leased by others can by the agreement be compelled to take out miners' rights, or whether this clause merely refers to those who" take up claims and mine them on their own behalf. Everything possible is therefore being done by the Hon. Mr Oadman and the officers of the Miners' Union in the direction of assisting the miners, by whom their efforts will doubtless be duly appreciated.