620
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 31

and trenches shall be maintained at the expense of the applicant until the application shall have been granted or refused.

4. Mode of Application.—Every application for a licensed holding shall be made in triplicate, in the form in the schedule hereto marked 1, to the Warden of the district within which the land so applied for is situate, and shall be lodged in such Warden’s office by the applicant in person or his agent.

5. Costs of Survey to be paid by the Applicant.—The sum to be deposited by the applicant for survey and necessary expenses, in accordance with subsection (2) of section 115 of the said Act, shall be the fees for survey according to the scale set forth in Schedule 41 to these regulations, together with the cost of advertising the application as hereinafter provided, and such further necessary expenses as may be incidental to the application.

6. Hearing of Application.—Upon receipt of such application, the Warden shall appoint a day for the hearing thereof, being not less than sixteen days from the receipt of such application, and shall give public notice thereof not less than twice, by advertisement in one or more newspapers circulating in the district, in the form of Schedule 1 to these regulations, and shall forward a copy of such advertisement to the Commissioner of Crown Lands in the district wherein the land applied for is situate. A copy of such application shall be posted and maintained on the ground until the day of hearing, and copies of the newspapers containing the advertisement of such application shall be produced to the Warden before he shall proceed to hear the application.

7. Priority of Application.—In the event of more than one application being made for the same land or any part thereof, the Warden shall determine which of the applicants shall be held to have the prior right, and in so doing shall be guided by priority of occupation, provided that it shall be shown that the prior occupant has used reasonable diligence in lodging his application.

8. Protection during Application.—All lands for which application shall have been made in the manner aforesaid shall be exempt from occupation from the date of such application until the same shall have been granted or refused.

9. Survey, and Report to Warden.—Upon receipt of any application the Warden shall forward a copy of the same to the District Surveyor, or when there is no such officer to the Chief Surveyor of the provincial district, who shall make or cause to be made a survey and furnish a plan of the ground to the Warden, with a report as to the area, boundaries, description, and character of the ground; as to the likelihood of any river, creek, or permanent water, spring, or artificial reservoir which may be included within the boundaries of the said land being required for, or the feasibility of the same being applied to, public purposes, or for the use of miners of the district generally for goldmining purposes; and also as to any claims to prior occupancy which shall come to his knowledge, inquiry as to which it shall be his duty to make while making the said survey; and the surveyor shall also furnish to the Warden a plan of such land, together with a tracing of so much of the general map of the district as will be sufficient to connect the particular area applied for with at least one trigonometrical station, or, in the absence of any such, with some fixed point.

10. Survey before Final Hearing.—The surveyor shall, if possible, make the survey prior to the day fixed for the hearing; but, if from any cause the survey cannot be made or the plan prepared in time, the hearing may be adjourned from time to time at the discretion of the Warden; and no application shall be finally dealt with by the Warden until the plan and report of the surveyor shall have been received. Provided that in all cases survey shall be made within three months from date of application, except in mountainous districts.

11. Notice to be posted by Surveyor.—Whenever the surveyor shall have made any survey as aforesaid, he shall place a notice, in the form contained in Schedule 2 hereunto annexed, in some conspicuous place on the said ground.

OBJECTIONS.

12. Objectors to give Notice.—Any person except the Commissioner of Crown Lands objecting to the issue of a license so applied for shall, prior to the hearing, forward to the Warden a full statement in writing of his objections, and shall serve a copy thereof on the applicant, and also shall (except in cases of encroachment) deposit the sum of £5 with the Receiver of Gold Revenue—who shall give a receipt to the person making such deposit—as security for the due prosecution of his objections and payment of any expenses to which the applicant may be put by such objections if disallowed; and, if such objections shall not be prosecuted, or shall be disallowed, so much of such deposit may be handed over to the applicant as the Warden may award, and the balance (if any) shall be refunded to the person so objecting.

13. Cases of Encroachment.—When an application shall have been made for a licensed holding for gold-mining purposes of any land to the whole or any part of which any person other than the applicant shall claim to be entitled by virtue of a prior occupation under a miner’s right or business license, the objection to the granting of such license may be heard by the Warden in the same way and the decision or judgment enforced as in any other case of encroachment or interference.

HEARING.

14. Hearing.—Upon the day appointed as aforesaid for the hearing the Warden shall proceed to hear the application and any objection thereto, and may examine the parties and their