| OCR Text |
Show mim.no locations. The complaint comes from tho new mining district of La Plata that the whole country has bnea staked anil that the prospecter finds no encouragement, encourage-ment, This is a complaint that it common in Utah, and the conditions of law from which it arises should be remedied. The subject should receive the attention of the legislature that will convene this winter, as it is most important to the mining industry that the evil should be remedied. A law must be passed regulating the timo within which the tirst year's assessment work shall be done, so that when a claim is staked the locator will bo required re-quired to do some work upon it. In Colorado the location assessment has to be done within sixty days after the stake is set. This time might be cut down to thirty days to advantage. With such a law in force, a claim would open to re location loca-tion if it were found that lbs work had not been done. This would make it impossible for a few men to lake up au entire district. Men would not take ground indiscriminately. They would only take that which they thought to bd good and which they could do the work on v. ithin the required re-quired time. The Colorado law goes furiher and provides that ten feet of work shall be regarded as $100 worth on the location assessment. This is doue to prevent disputes about the amount of work. If it bo found that a shaft has been sunk ten feet, a tunnel run ten feet or an adit cut with a lace of ten feet, the question of the necessary work "having been done is settled and tho locator's liht to hold the ground is placed beyond be-yond the reach of controversy. The result of such laws is to encourage encour-age prospecting. They give every man a chance to get a foothold and compel all to show their good faith by going to work. That Utah needs something of the kind is demonstrated in every district. dis-trict. Every rightful encouragement should be extended to the prospectors, and the business of locating minerM lands should be so regulated as to secure se-cure the best interests of all who are engaged in it. The primary object of the government iu makiiig certain general gen-eral provisions of lsw regarding locations loca-tions is to prevent the wholesale occupation occu-pation of mineral land by a few individuals. indi-viduals. The subject is left to local regulation withiu the statutes, and the inteution of the government is defeated when such local regulation is not made effective. |
