This body presented,
on March 27, 1855, an extremely able report, in which it recommended the
abolition of the license fee and the substitution therefor of a "miners'
right" or Crown permission, lasting for a year, and granted for a
nominal fee of one pound, to occupy for mining purposes a specific piece
of Crown land. The deficiency in revenue anticipated from the abolition
of license fees was to be met by the imposition of an export duty upon
gold at the rate of a half-crown an ounce.
The commission strongly recommended the granting of the political
franchise to holders of "miners' rights," and the provision of liberal
facilities for the acquisition of land by the miners. It also advocated
the simplification of the existing complex system of government in the
mining districts, whereby commissioners, police authorities,
commissariat officials, and magistrates all worked independently of each
other, and suggested the substitution therefor of experienced "wardens"
at the head of elective boards, who should not only dispose, with the
aid of skilled assessors, of disputes specially connected with mining
operations, but who should have power to issue by-laws adapted to the
special requirements of each district.
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