Arizona republican., 1898-05-16
TUNNEL RIGHTS.

TUNNEL RIGHTS.
 The committee on mines and mln- ing of the house of representatives mas reported favorably a bill in regard to the distance that can be located on either side of a mining tunnel and It has passed the house. The bill fol- lows:
 "Be it enacted, etc.: That only f5O feet on each side of the center line of tunnel site (described in Sec. 2323, revised statutes of the United States) shall be reserved for tunnel locations . Provided, that any location made 1n a tunnel may take any part Of 1,5O0 lin ear feet On one side and the remainder on the other; or the owner of said tunnel site may take a full claim of ,1.5OO feet on one side and 1,500 feet on the other side, if that part of said claims extending beyond 750 feet of the center line in said tunnel, does not conflict with any prior location.
 Sec. g. That any vein or lode cut in said tunnel shall be staked on the surface and recorded within sixty days from the time the same is cut in the tunnel. in the manner provided for To- cations at the surface, as far as prac- ticable, otherwise the same will be 7 subject to discovery and location out side of the unabandoned workings of said tunnel claim by any qualified person
 "Sec B. That the owner of said claim shall be entitled to all ore to the apex of what are called by miners generally vertical 1odes, though such apex may not be included in the boun- daries as staked on the surface"
 The report of the house committee stated in part:
 "The evil that section one seeks to cure is to confine the right of the tun- nel claimant to 750 feet on each side of the line of the tunnel should the extension of the claim beyond 750 feet from the line of the tunnel conflict with the rights of any previous To- cator he may under section 1 of this bill take a full claim on one or both sides of the lines of the tunnel.
 Section simply requires a tunnel claimant to stake his claim at the sur face and record his claim within sixty days from the time the vein is cut otherwise it will be deemed that he has abandoned the same should any other locator discover the same claim outside the tunnel and locate the same.
 Section 3 of the bill gives the claimant all ore from the point touched to the surface, even though the apex of the vein may depart from the side lines"
 In explanation of the bill Judge Bell presented the following to the house in substance:
 "The necessity for the proposed legislation has arisen by reason Of a decision of the supreme court of the United States. It has been under stood that whenever a party located a tunnel site he was entitled to claim on all veins or lodes that intersected Hhe tunnel an equal distance on each side of the tunnel to the extent of 750 feet. The supreme court has decided that upon striking a vein the tunnel owner has a right to take all of the distance given to him by law, to-wit: 1.5OO feet on the vein from either side of the tunnel.
 ''This, of course, gives the tunnel site owner an advantage over what the miners thought he possessed and inasmuch as it is found to work a hardship, as the distance allowed is considerable from the tunnel, it has been deemed best by the miners in the west that the distance should be linn ited
 "This bill attempts to limit it by requiring that the tunnel site owner shall claim a distance of no more than 1,500 feet along the vein, half of which shall be on each side of the tunnel in stead of allowing him 1,500 feet on either side of the tunnel, as the law now provides, which practically cuts the right of the tunnel owner down to one-half what it is at the present time, except where there is no conflict"