The Placer herald., 1864-04-02
TAXING THE MINES.

The Washington correspondent Of the
Stockton independents under date of Feb
ruary 9th, writes as follows, on this subject:
"lhe subject Of taxing the mines and
mineral resources of the country has been
referred to the Commissioner of the General
Land Office, the Hon. Judge Edmunds, who
is busilv engaged collecting all the reliable
information he can, so AS to frame a law
that will be be equitable and just; providing
for reasonable revenue to the Government, t.,
at the same time respecting the local min
ing laws so far as they do not conflict with
the general provisions of the bill
81 he following send in advance, as about:
The facts: Each man who works in the
placer, dry, hill guch or tunnel diggings,
will have to take out license, for which he
will pay S25 per annun, said license to be
recorded together with the claims, in the
Office of the Recorder of the District. No
Recorder is to record claim for any one
unless the party applying shows his license,
which is to be part of the record. The min
ing claims are to be held rs a lien, so as to
compel the owner of a claim, before hiring
men TO work on it,, to first 90 and take out
license for each man so hired, to be de-
Quoted from the wages of the hired man,
and said license to be recorded. There will
be penal clause in the bill, making it
criminal for one man to personate another
with license. The mining laws are to be
changed so that no one man can hold more
thans soue claim, that is one placer claim, one
! hill claim, and one river claim, or one
quartz claim and he cannot hold those un.
less he works them for a reasonable time
during the mining seasons. This will entire
| y do away with the present monopoly that
is practiced in new mining localities, such
AS the Boise country, where last fall to the
positive knowledge Of your correspondent,
some few parties, grabbers, were openly boasu
ING that they owned GAO acres Of the best
mining land in the Boise basin. This is to
be put stop to, positively, and such law
of Congress will be hailed with delight by
the industrious, hard working, honest miner.
1t is upon the principle that every man has a
right, and equal justice should be admins
tered to ALL
"A provision is to be in the bill to compel
the Recorder to publish in a newspaper OF
the district once week, an al phabetical list
of all the names Of licenses taken out during
the week, also brief descI ption Of the 10
cation of the claim. A laws of any State
Territory or mining camp, in conflict with
the law of Congress are declared null and
void The fee simple of the soil belonging
absolutely to the Government, it is contend
ed that local laws that will III any wvy tend
unjustly to make the rich richer, and the
poor poorer, are unjust and therefore are to
be repealed. Provision is to be made in the
bill to have all the gold or silver extracted
from the mines, 90 through some U. S. assay
office and there pay duty of about two per
cent, before it is shipped to any foreign
country. AS regards the quarts mines and
silver ore mines in Washoe, or any other
district where silver is obtained, or gold
from quartz, it is proposed that each man
taking up claim shall pay license of 81
per foot or 5000 dollars per claim per an
mum, and that the net proceeds of the claim
shall be taxed from three to five per cent
The amount is not yet decided on. The bill
at present is not perfected, but the above are
some of the principal features of it. When
completed will send you copy in full sc
that your readers can see exactly the policy
proposed'