OTAGO

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto annexed are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

JOHN L. C. RICHARDSON, Superintendent.

[Vol. IV.] **[WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1862.] [No 165.]

RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS, ALTERED AND AMENDED.

WHEREAS by warrant, under the hand of Thomas Gore Browne, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand, dated at Auckland the Eighth day of June in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and issued under the seal of the said Colony by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council thereof, and in exercise of the power and authority for that purpose in him vested, Did thereby delegate absolutely and without restriction unto me, John Larkins Cheese Richardson, as Superintendent of the Province of Otago, all the powers vested in him under or by virtue of "The Goldfields' Act, 1858," except the powers contained in sections seven, eight, fifteen, twenty-seven, and forty of the said Act, to have, hold, and exercise the powers within the Province of Otago thereby given.

Now, therefore, I, John Larkins Cheese Richardson, by virtue of the powers so delegated to me as aforesaid do hereby alter and amend the Rules and Regulations of the Otago Goldfields issued by me on the 7th day of October, 1861, as follows:

Issue of "Miners’ Rights."
The second Rule, respecting the loss of a "Miner’s Right" is cancelled.

Extent and Position of Claims.
The Third Rule is cancelled, and the following is substituted:—

The extent of ground that may be occupied in alluvial workings by a Miner, holding a Miner’s Right, shall be:

For surface diggings, an area of ... 64 yards
For surface digging, exceeding 12 feet in depth ... 80 yards
For ground where sinking and driving are necessary ... 80 yards
For ground where the sinking exceeds 51 feet ... 90 yards
For ground where the sinking exceeds 100 feet ... 128 yards

The Commissioner may grant a claim, not exceeding treble the area of a primary claim, on land that has been worked and abandoned.

The Fourth Rule is thus altered:—
Between each claim and the next there shall be a partition of three feet in width, which shall be left in its natural state. On special application any number of Claims may be united, half in front and half in rear; and in such a case the partition between such united Claims and the next shall be six feet in width.

Beds of Streams may be laid bare.
The Ninth Rule is cancelled, and the following is substituted:—

Any Company formed for the purpose of laying bare and working a River Bed, shall be entitled to occupy, and use, with the consent of the Commissioner, for each holder of a Miner’s Right in the Company, sixteen yards in length of the river’s bed, and also the race or cut made for the conveyance of the water from the point where the claim shall commence, to that where the water is re-delivered into the natural bed of the river; and shall further be protected in the surface occupation during the formation of a sufficient bank for retaining the water in the race, and also in the surface occupation of a track, twenty-four feet in width along one bank of the river.

PROSPECTING.

Additional Claims as a Reward for Prospecting.
The Fourteenth Rule is thus amended:—
For the encouragement of Prospecting Parties, persons discovering New Gold Work—