The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 149, 22 January 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1868.

The importance of Mining Boards being established on the goldfields becomes more patent every day, and it should form a leading item in the repertoire of each candidate. So important and so complex have the mining laws in Victoria become that neither Mining Boards nor Wardens are thought competent to deal with them, and therefore it has been made as it were a separate system of jurisprudence, presided over by the most able equity judge in Victoria—Mr Justice Molesworth. If the mining interest has received such attention in Victoria, surely it should receive a little more acknowledgment at the ; hands of the New Zealand Government. It may be said that the interests at stake are not so vast or so , important as those in the adjacent colony, but we would remind our readers that it is only of late years that they have grown to the dimensions they have now attained, and , issues, involving property to the value of some hundreds of thousands of pounds, might have never been called into question if, in the earlier days of the goldfields, a little care had been exercised. And even now, with the _ greater experience already gained, difficulties are arising every day that puzzle the ablest lawyers in Victoria. We have before stated that mining in the Buller district is in its infancy, and it is needless to suppose that as mining progresses complicated cases will not arise which will require all the skill of a competent judge to decide. The New Zealand Goldfields' Regulations are at the best only a clumsily devised scheme, for it is absurd to suppose that they are workable in their integrity, or applicable to the various diggings on the SouthWest Goldfields. It is true a great latitude is given to the wardens, but in how many instances have their decisions given satisfaction, nor is it to be expected that they, or the solicitors who may be engaged, can thoroughly comprehend the interests that may be involved. It should, therefore, be part of the duty of a member for a goldfields constituency to press this subject upon the notice of the Provincial Council, with a view to their amendmentby the General Government. What is wanted in the first- place is the establishment of mining boards in the various districts', which shall have power to frame bye-laws suitable to the wants and requirements of the different diggings, for it is plain that the laws or regulations whicb might be appropriate for the cement leads of Charleston would be quite out of place for Addison's Plat, the quartz reefs of the Waimangoroa, or the deep leads of the Caledonian. They should also have power to makeroads or cut tracks, and be entrusted with the various subsidies voted for these purposes by the Provincial Council, and if necessary, have power to erect turnpikes, the receipts from which should be expended in keeping the roads in proper repair, instead of letting them remain in their present disgraceful condition. We are aware that the latter duty comes rather within the sphere of a municipality or a road board, but in the absence of either of these Institutions it might be very judiciously tacked on to a mining board, and it would be the means of generally

opening up the country. It is time that something should be done to remedy the present state of things on the goldfields, for they are anything but satisfactory.