Page:Charleston • Irwin Faris • (1941).pdf/198

 given statutory effect in 1858 and are the basis of the present Mining Act, in virtue of which there is no private property in goldbearing land.

In Nelson Province certain areas came under the Nelson Waste Lands Act of 1862, and subsequent amendments and Acts. Charleston was one of these areas. Crown Grants to sections within the township were made during the years 1874 to 1878; to rural sections from 1880 to 1889, and, perhaps, in other years.

To secure a mining right, or “claim,” the prospector, being the holder of a miners’ right, or license to mine, “pegs off” the area allowed by regulation, by placing at each corner a peg with a notice affixed thereto, or by digging a short trench at each corner, and applies to the Warden’s Court for a right to mine it. In 1865 the area allowed was 45 feet by 41 feet, but in 1866 this was increased to 60 feet by 60 feet. If granted the area, it became his for ever, subject to annual renewal of the miners’ right, and to his working the ground continuously. If he failed in either condition it could be “jumped,” i.e., pegged off by another applicant. Occupation and residential sites were acquired in like manner, and water-rights in much the same way.

By the regulations of 1863 “any holder of a miners’ right could take possession of a claim legally forfeited by its last occupant”; and a claim was forfeited if work had been discontinued for seven days excepting in special circumstances. The regulations of 1865 provided for forfeiture if a claim were unworked for 24 hours without sufficient reason; but prohibited “jumping” without the consent of the owner or of the Warden.

Water Rights: The right to water in a stream, the right to divert a stream, or the right to an area for dam construction, was frequently of more value than a mining right, as water with sufficient “fall” was essential to mining of every description and was readily saleable.

Water was sold by the “head” or “sluicing head,” under regulations gazetted in 1865, this being a flow of 40 square inches, namely, a stream 20 inches wide and 2 inches deep, or the equivalent, e.g., 10 inches wide and 4 inches deep. The