any person refusing to exhibit his licence shall be deemed to be prospecting or digging without a licence.

52. Any person guilty of illegally altering, shifting, or removing the beacons or pegs of any claim shall be punished by a penalty not exceeding 1007., and in default of payment shall be liable to be imprisoned with or without hard labour for a period not exceeding three years.

53. Any person paying his servant in native gold shall be guilty of an offence, and on conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 500l., and in default of payment, to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding three years.

54. Any person purchasing, trading, or receiving native gold from any one except a European, either on a proclaimed public field, or elsewhere within the limits of the Protectorate, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding 1,000l., and to imprisonment, with hard labour, for a period not excceding five years.

55. Any one except a European selling, bartering, receiving, or disposing of native gold shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be punished by imprisonment, with hard labour, for a term not exceeding three years.

56. It shall be lawful for diggers or miners to dispose of minerals as they may deem fit: Provided that it shall not be lawful to sell or barter native gold to any person or persons. other than bankers, or such other persons who are licensed to trade in gold, and all such bankers or licensed persons shall keep a faithful record of their purchases, setting forth the name of the seller, quantity bought, and date of transaction.

57. It shall not be lawful for any person other than a licensed digger, or licensed dealer or lessee, to be in possession of native gold other than in such small quantities as may be reasonably held for scientific purposes or as mineral specimens. Any person found unlawfully in possession of native gold, or gold amalgam, shall be liable to summary arrest by any police officer or any licensed digger, and shall, on conviction before a Collector, be liable to a fine not exceeding 5007., and in default of payment to imprisonment, with hard labour, for a period not exceeding three years.

58. In the event of the discovery of mineral oil or oils in the Protectorate, the Commissioner shall have the power to make, promulgate, and enforce such regulations for the proper workings of the wells as from time to time he shall think necessary.

59. Whenever any land owned by any person has been or shall be sold, and the price paid, or to be paid, for such land includes a value put upon gold, silver, coal, diamonds, precious stones, or minerals supposed to be in and upon the said land,

no transfer duty shall be charged or exacted by the Registrar of Deeds or other receiver of transfer duty in respect of the price or value of such gold, silver, coal, diamonds, precious stones, or minerals.

60. Such exemption from the payment of transfer duty shall be claimable only in respect of such portion of the purchase price as represents the estimated value put upon the gold, silver, coal, diamonds, precious stones, and minerals by the declaration on oath of a sworn appraiser appointed by the Registrar of Deeds for the purpose of making such valuation: Provided that in every case transfer duty shall be payable on the value of the land, estimated at an amount of not less than 11. per acre.

61.* The Commissioner may from time to time make Regulations with respect to the following matters:

(a.) The working of mines so as to secure the safety of persons employed in mines and of the public;

(b.) The appointment of Inspectors of Mines, and the and duties to be exercised by them;

powers

(c) Any matters required by this Ordinance to be prescribed by Regulations; and

(d.) Any matters appearing to the Commissioner to require regulation so as to give effect to the provisions of this Õrdi

nance.

By such Regulations penalties may be imposed not exceeding in the case of any offence a fine of 501. and imprisonment for three months, with or without fine.

Any such Regulations shall not have effect unless and until they are approved by the Secretary of State, but in case of urgency declared in the Regulations they shall take effect before that approval, and shall continue to have effect until they are disapproved by the Secretary of State, and until notice of his disapproval has been received and published by the Commissioner.

62. All contraventions of this Ordinance shall be cognizable by the Courts of the Collectors, and shall be prosecuted in the Court of the Collector of any district within which the offence shall have been committed, at the instance of the Crown Prosecutor, or other officer authorized by him.

63. All fines imposed by this Ordinance shall be paid to the Commissioner, and, unless remitted, shall be applied to the uses of the Government of the Protectorate.

64. This Ordinance may be cited as The British Central Africa Mining Ordinance, 1898."

See Regulations. Page 26.

SCHEDULE (A).

Prospecting Licences.

PROSPECTING Licence is hereby granted to 4. B. to prospect and search for gold, silver, precious stones, ores, metals, coal, and other minerals on lands within the British Central Africa Protectorate during the period from

to

(save such portion of such lands as may be exempted under the provisions of this Ordinance), for which licence he has paid in advance the

sum of

1.

(Signed)

[or Collector, as the case may be.]

Commissioner of Mines.

Before me,

SCHEDULE (B). .

Commissioner of Mines [or Collector], for

on the day of 18, A. B., residing at acknowledges himself to be indebted to our Sovereign Lady the Queen in the sum of 257., and C. D. and E. F. severally acknowledge themselves to be indebted to our said Sovereign Lady the Queen in the sum of 127. 10s. to be levied upon their, and each of their, goods and lands, upon condition that the said 4. B. shall make due and proper repair of any surface damage done by him on any land upon which he shall have obtained a licence to prospect, and for the due payment of the sum accruing to any owner from the said A. B. on account of the daily payments the said A. B. is required to make, under section 6 of this Ordinance, for the grazing, wood, and water rights referred to therein.

Licence is hereby granted to

and precious stones on the Africa Protectorate during

diggers.

SCHEDULE (C).

Digger's Licence.

to mine and dig for gold, silver, public fields in the British Central 18, to

months from

, 18, and to enjoy all privileges secured by law to licensed

For this licence has been paid the sum of months at per month.

the receipt of which sum I hereby acknowledge, do hereby transfer to the said C. D. all my right, title, and interest in and to the claims Nos.

and I, the said C. D., hereby accept such transfer.

Regulations made by Her Majesty's Commissioner and ConsulGeneral, with the approval of the Secretary of State, under the Provisions of Section 61 of the British Central Africa Mining Ordinance, 1898.

1. Prospecting licences on any lands within the Protectorate may be issued to any person of European birth or descent, on personal application, or in the case of renewal, on personal or written application

(a.) By the Commissioner of Mines;

(b.) By the Collectors;

(c.) By the officers appointed by the Commissioner for the several districts for that purpose.

The fee to be paid for such licence shall be 58. for each month for which the same is to be in force.

2. Prospectors may, upon payment of the proper fee, obtain a licence either in the form of Schedule (A), or of Schedule (B) attached to these Regulations.

3. Prospectors who may require a licence in accordance with the form of Schedule (B), will be required to enter, previously to receiving such licence, into the bond specified in Schedule (C) attached to these Regulations.

4. Any registered owner of lands shall, upon giving notice in writing to the Commissioner of Mines, be entitled to prospect his own land without taking out a prospecting licence.

4a. It shall be incumbent on every prospector entering upon the land of any owner for the purpose of prospecting under a prospecting licence in the form of Schedule (B), to at once notify to such owner, in writing, the date on which he (the said prospector) entered upon the land.

46. Every prospector prospecting upon private lands, shall, at the end of every fortnight, pay to the owner, trustees, lessee, or occupier of the land, the amount of 18. per diem for the number of days during which he has been present on the land.

4c. Should any owner of land represent to the Commissioner of Mines, or other officer acting as such, that the amount lawfully due tɔ him from any prospector prespecting his land, has not been paid, and has remained overdue for the space of seven days, the Commissioner of Mines may, after due inquiry into the facts of the case, and after satisfying himself that the amount is due and unpaid, declare the licence granted to the said prospector cancelled, and may take steps, under the bond, entered into by the prospector at the time he took out his licence, to recover the amount due to the owner, which shall be paid over to the said owner.

5. Every prospecting area must be properly beaconed off at

the four corners with pegs not less than 2 inches in diameter, and standing not less than 3 feet above the ground. On each peg should be legibly inscribed the date on which the area was pegged off and by whom.

6. Every prospecting area must be registered within 14 days. from the day of pegging off at the office of the Commissioner of Mines, or other officer authorized on that behalf in a book kept by him for that purpose.

7. Any prospector who may wish to abandon his prospecting area in order that he may peg off a new prospecting area, may do so on withdrawing the pegs of the area he wishes to abandon, and on giving notice in writing to the Commissioner of Mines or other duly authorized officer that he has done so.

8. Every prospecting area shall be worked by at least one European and two native servants, during at least seven days out of every calendar month.

9. Any prospector may obtain a certificate that he is the registered proprietor of the prospecting area registered in his name from the office at which such prospecting area was registered, on payment of a fee of 18.

10. A prospecting area shall be held to be abandoned should the prospector fail to keep up his prospecting licence, or should he fail to comply with the conditions detailed in Regulation 8.

11. A prospector who may abandon his prospecting area will be required to fill up, or to properly fence, or to secure all shafts, pits, holes, and excavations, in a manner so as to prevent persons or cattle inadvertently entering the same. No prospector will be permitted to register a new prospecting area, or obtain a fresh or renewal licence, until this Regulation has been complied with.

12. Prospectors on lands other than those included in any public field desiring to mine for or to dispose of any gold, silver, precious stones, ores, metals, coal or other minerals, will be required prior to doing so to take out a mining or mineral lease.

13. Any lands in the Protectorate not exempted from the operation of "The British Central Africa Mining Ordinance, 1898," and any lands not specially exempted therefrom hereafter by the Commissioner, may be leased under these Regulations and in compliance in all respects with the provisions of the said Ordinance.

14. The area of land which may be leased under any "mining lease" shall not exceed 25 acres; and under any "mineral lease" shall not exceed 500 acres; and any block of land applied for and leased under a "mining lease" shall, as far as possible, be rectangular in shape, and no side shall exceed 600 yards in length.

15. Any licensed person who has prospected to the satisfac