Mining Laws of Australia and New Zealand Volume 505 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...little doubt that such auriferous lands would have been sold in the same way as other lands, as had been done in South Australia some years before, and that in time a system of mineral-land law would have been gradually evolved which would have had little in common with the present American law, and which might or might not have resembled the Australian law. But in both America and Australia the discoveries were not small; they were of such enormous magnitude that they made the whole world pause, and resulted in two of the most stupendous gold rushes ever known. Both California and that portion of southeastern Australia where gold was found, including portions of New South Wales and Victoria, were very thinly settled regions, and the influx of an enormous population, gold mad, at once produced a crisis. The new population many times exceeded the old, and as many of the older residents holding positions under the Government resigned their offices and joined the gold seekers, the preservation of law and order became a very serious matter. In California the discovery of gold followed on the heels of the Mexican war. The district where the gold was found was under military government, and it continued to be so governed until the admission of California into the Union in September, 1850. The region was far from the seat of government, communication was slow and uncertain, and the whole future course of the mineral law for many years, as it is proved, depended upon the action of the man on the spot. This man, Colonel Mason, proclaimed on February 12, 1848, that "from and after this date the Mexican laws and customs now Erevailing in California relative to the denouncement of mines are ereby abolished." This proclamation, so far as this region was concer...