MINING ON CULTIVATED LAND

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 8382, 27 June 1899, Page 4

MINING ON CULTIVATED LAND

A question of importance tO|both the pastoral and the mining community was discussed at Alexandra the other day upon an application for a prospecting license over a pre-emptive right and an application for a special claim of 100 acres over land which is held under pastoral license. It was raised as an objection to. both applications that the land to which they referred was cultivated and used in connection with other land, known as the Galloway run, held by Robert Campbell, feous, aud Co. (Limited) uuder pastoral license, and that it would seriously and permanently depreciate the value of the rue if the cultivated lands were severed from the pastoral country. The land applied for embraced an area of 192 acres, and has for* many years past been cultivated by the present runholders and their predecessors in title, who have used the products in working the run, which has an area of 132,000 acres, and it was alleged that if it were | taken away from the company it would necessitate their cultivating other lands in order to profitably work the country. The Warden (Mr S. E. McCarthy) f decided against the runholders in both applications. He swept away the objection to the application for the special claim by pointing out that the pastoral license, under which Robert Campbell, Sons, and Co > hold the land, confers a mere right of pasturage and gives no right to cultivate, so that the land could not be said to oe cultivated lawfully and Dona ti.de within the meaning oi section 166 of " ike Mimug Act, 1898." indeed, he stud, •• the fact of Lue laud having been cultivated constitutes a breaeti by the obj«ciitvg o^aipiiiij of the provisions uauer winch the laud is litsiii." He eouid iiot recognise that tlie fact that the .Laud Board, tacitly permits thy cultivation of lauds heia uuder postural license ought to weigh with him in exercising the discretion vested in him by the Act, because so to do would permit a pastoral licensee to gain an advantage out of his own wrong. ••There are specific provisions," the warden went on to say, "in the legislation of the colony the object of which is to prevent the alienation of, auriferous lands situate in mining dis-< tricts ; aud if pastoral licensees by uu* lawfully cultivating their pas coral lands, or if others oy dimply ' squatting ' and cultivating, could 111 a mining district impede the march of the miner, that object would be frustrated," As to the application for a prospecting iicuns6 Mr McCarthy granted it also, observing that the ruuhoiders coulu lurthor > prosecute their objectious when an application for resumption should be maae; but in this connection he was "compelled to remark that a contention \ihich sets out that the alienation of 192 acres, situate not in the middle but the boundary of another area of 132,000 acres, will seriously and permanently injure the working of the latter, comes almost as a shock to one s common sense."