This Act may be cited as the Mining Amendment Act, 1919, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Mining Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section four of the Mining Amendment Act, 1911, is hereby amended by omitting the words “more than twenty heads of water,” and substituting the words “more than ten heads of water, or to take any quantity of water for more than twenty-one years.”

Section four of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from the definition of the term “claim” the words “for gold.”

Section two hundred and twenty-five of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after the word “gold” in paragraphs (b) and (c), the words “or scheelite.”

Section two of the Mining Amendment Act, 1913, is hereby repealed.

Section one hundred and eighty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding to paragraph (d) thereof the words “Where the suit is for forfeiture of a mining privilege in respect of water, the discretion of the Court to inflict a fine in lieu of decreeing a forfeiture may be exercised without limitation to the existence of special circumstances in the case if the Court is satisfied that, either in the public interest or for other reasons, it is just and equitable that a fine should be inflicted in lieu of forfeiture.”

The Court shall have the extended discretion conferred by this section in the determination of suits for forfeiture now pending and in which judgment has not been delivered as well as in suits to be hereafter commenced.

Every candidate for a certificate by examination as a mine-manager (other than an alluvial-mine manager) shall be required to furnish to the Board of Examiners satisfactory evidence that he has been actually employed in the underground workings of a mine for the periods hereinafter mentioned, namely:

Every candidate for a certificate by examination as an alluvial-mine manager or as a battery superintendent or dredgemaster under the principal Act shall be required to furnish to the Board of Examiners satisfactory evidence that he has been actually employed for such period and in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations in that behalf.

This section is in substitution for section two hundred and thirty-four of the principal Act, and that section and also section five of the Mining Amendment Act, 1914, are hereby repealed accordingly.

In every case where in any mine quartz or other substances are crushed in a dry state there shall at all times be used in and about the battery or place where such crushing is done an adequate jet or spray of water or approved suction fan, or such other appliances as in the opinion of the Inspector will effectually keep the air pure and prevent dust circulating in the place where such-operations are being carried on, and for this purpose an adequate supply of water shall be provided.

No rock-drills shall be used in any mine after the first day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty, other than axial water-feed rock-drills.

If the owner of any mine or the workmen’s inspector is dissatisfied with the opinion of the Inspector under this section an appeal shall lie to the Warden, whose decision shall be final.

This section is in substitution for subparagraph (a) of paragraph (1) of section two hundred and fifty-four of the principal Act, and that subparagraph and also paragraph (m) of section nineteen of the Mining Amendment Act, 1910, are hereby repealed.

Section two hundred and fifty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

Section six of the Mining Amendment Act, 1914, is hereby repealed.

Section two hundred and fifty-four of the principal Act is hereby further amended as follows:—

Any requisition under section two hundred and sixty-one of the principal Act may be served by delivery at the mine, or may be sent by post as a registered letter, in which case it shall be deemed to be served at the time when the letter containing the same would be delivered in the ordinary course of post, and in proving such service it shall be sufficient to produce the receipt for the registration of the letter.

Section two hundred and sixty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

Section three hundred and ninety-two of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from paragraph (40) all words after the words “mining statistics,” and substituting the words “and for that purpose requiring from the holders of mining privileges all such particulars as may be prescribed in that behalf.”

In every case where; after the passing of this Act, application is made to a Warden for the grant of a mining privilege to authorize the dredging of any land (whether Crown land or not) the Warden shall, before granting the application, submit the same to the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the district in which the land is situated for a report as to whether or not, in the opinion of the Commissioner, the land is suitable for agricultural or pastoral purposes.

Except in cases where the Commissioner certifies that in his opinion the land to which the application relates is not suitable for agricultural or pastoral purposes, the Warden shall, if the application is approved, issue a license subject to such special terms, conditions, and reservations as may be prescribed by regulations in that behalf, or, in default of such regulations, as he may consider sufficient to prevent, so far as practicable, the destruction of the surface of the land or the rendering of it unfit for pastoral or agricultural purposes.

This section is in substitution for section ten of the Mining Amendment Act, 1910, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

Section seventeen of the Mining Amendment Act, 1910, is hereby amended as follows:—

Section three of the Mining Amendment Act, 1915, is hereby amended by adding thereto the following subsection:—

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal Act, as extended by the Mining Amendment Act, 1911, or in any Warrant, lease, or license issued under the principal Act authorizing any person to prospect or bore for petroleum or other mineral oils or natural gas, it shall not be lawful for any person after the passing of this Act to commence or to continue to carry on prospecting or mining operations for any such oil or gas except pursuant to a license issued in that behalf pursuant to regulations under subsection three of section two of the Mining Amendment Act, 1911.

Regulations under the said section may, inter alia, prescribe—

Part X of the principal Act (relating to loans to companies and persons for the development of mining) shall, with the necessary modifications, extend and apply so as to authorize the making of loans for any of the purposes following, that is to say:—

Every application for a loan under Part X of the principal Act or under this section shall be referred by the Minister for inquiry and report to a Board consisting of such persons as the Minister may from time to time appoint.

The following enactments are hereby repealed, namely:—

Section four of the Mining Amendment Act, 1913 (authorizing the Minister of Finance to borrow moneys for the purposes of Part X of the principal Act), is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one thereof the words “twenty thousand pounds,” and substituting the words “fifty thousand pounds.”

Section twenty-one of the Mining Amendment Act, 1914 (amending the provisions of section three hundred and fifty-nine of the principal Act), is hereby amended by omitting the words “ten thousand,” and substituting the words “twenty thousand.”

Regulations under section twenty-five of the Mining Amendment Act, 1914, may be made requiring samples to be taken of the air in mines for the purpose of determining the amount of dust therein and prescribing a standard of purity of the air in mines having reference to the quantity of dust therein.