into a piece of board which marked the head of this lonely burial-ground. In 1895 a cyclist passed a stranger entering the waterless tract of ninety miles leading from Norseman to Coolgardie. The man had but a small waterbag, but despite advice he persisted in entering that abandoned stretch. Some time later the cyclist returned and found the naked body; the man in his torture had relieved himself of his clothes as he wandered in search of water, and finally he lay down, burrowed in the earth, tossed the sand over him, and died. The list of these deaths could be pursued indefinitely. We give but one more instance, taken from a Perth newspaper:—"News has been received from Mingenew that the dead body of a man has been found lying alongside the overland telegraph line, five miles from Coorow. Police-constable Simpson went out to the spot and buried the body. The man is unknown. A swag was found alongside the body; also a Bible, across which were laid two sticks to keep it open. Near the corpse was discovered a piece of paper on which the name 'R. Bell' was written. There was no waterbag near the remains, and it is therefore presumed that the unfortunate fellow died from thirst."
Numerous deaths were caused by typhoid fever. In January, February, and March, 1894-5-6, the hospitals, private and public, were crowded out with patients, and among the chief victims were those who were apparently the healthiest and strongest. Men who contracted fever in the back districts had to depend on their own iron frames for recovery. Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, and Cue reckoned many medical men among their populations. After their illness the patients, where able, took a holiday to more pleasing resorts, "glad," probably, as Longfellow said, "to be gone from a land of sand and sickness and sorrow."
As the goldfields became more stable, and therefore important, the difficulties of administration increased. Prior to 1895 the population was essentially nomadic, but with the transitions in the stages of mining districts—from unworked claims to mines, from wildernesses cursorily examined to systematic development, from mining camps to mining towns—the goldfields people began to assert their rights by calling for an amelioration of their condition. Chambers of Mines were formed, and devoted themselves to the interests of the mining industry. The leading magnates sat upon the committees of these institutions. In 1895 an agitation in favour of moving the Government to provide the goldfields with a reliable water-supply began to be heard. With the probable permanence of the quartz reefs such a request necessarily had the determinateness of a demand. So that the industry does not suffer, they said, so that mining districts shall not be abandoned, means must be found to give the people sufficient water to enable them to work. In December, 1895, there were on the eastern goldfields thirteen Government tanks, which cost £28,878, and had a holding capacity of 10,747,000 gallons. As the summer months of 1895-6 approached fears of a water famine were repeatedly expressed. In October the people of Bardoc grumbled persistently, and cried that the district must be abandoned if more water was not obtained. The rain water had already been absorbed, and the condensers were not sufficiently numerous to maintain such a large population as had congregated there. There was a similar fear at Kalgoorlie. In November a cry was raised in each goldfields district. Several men traversing the desert tracts nearly perished of thirst, and one or two succumbed. The Government could not be expected to supply water on every bush road that the prospectors were pleased to take, but in the populated places it was to the interests of the colony that they should concede the demands of the people. The Premier visited the eastern fields in November and December and showed that he was seized of the importance of the water question. In his first speech he explained the difficulties of the situation. Before the Government employed other means of providing a permanent supply, Sir John said, they must be satisfied that sufficient water could not be obtained by boring, or that it was impossible to conserve an ample quantity by the use of catchment dams. Failing such sources, the Government must look to means for conveying water to the goldfields, either from coastal rivers or from other sources. In January and February, 1896, the agitation increased, but before referring to it other items dealing with 1895 must be narrated.
In the first session after his taking office the Minister for Mines, Mr. E. H. Wittenoom, introduced a Goldfields Bill. Development made it necessary that laws and regulations should be passed which were calculated to meet the conditions peculiar to mining in the colony. The Goldfields Act of 1886 had been amended on several occasions, and in 1892 the Mineral Lands Act was carried. The sections of this Act dealt with Mining Licenses, Mining Districts, Business Licenses, Mineral Leases, Licenses and Leases for Coal Mining, Agricultural Lands in Mining Districts, Trespassing and Unauthorised Mining, and Administration. Among its principal provisions was one giving a twenty-one years' mining lease, not exceeding 160 acres, at a rental of 5s. per acre. The maximum of coal mining leases was fixed at 640 acres. An Amending Act in 1892 made it impossible for any Asiatic or African alien to obtain a miner's right, lease, license, or permit on any goldfield. A short Act was passed in 1894 "to amend the law relating to the management of goldfields, and to settle questions as to the validity of the regulations made under The Goldfields Act 1886." Under this a miner could enter upon any land, a mining lease of which had been applied for and which was not held under a miner's right, to within fifty feet of any reef situated thereon, for the purpose of searching for alluvial gold. This provision was made owing to the doubt which had previously existed as to the rights of leaseholders, and to determine such difficult cases as arose upon the discovery of Bayley's, the Londonderry, the Wealth of Nations, and other rich reefs. The 1894 Amending Act also provided for the division of goldfields into districts, in each of which a Court might be constituted for the settlement of actions, suits, claims, demands, disputes, and questions arising wholly or in part within the district, in relation to mining.
The Goldfields Act 1895 was the most complete of any since that of 1886. Warden Gill recast the whole of the previous Goldfields Acts and regulations, and he was assisted by Mr. De Courcy Browne. The new Act was to some extent based on the mining laws of other colonies. Clause XI., to which exception was subsequently taken, provided that a complete record of all leases, claims, transfers, liens, or other dealings should be kept at the office of the mining registrar in each goldfield or district, and that there should also be "kept in the office of the Minister of Mines, in Perth, in respect of each goldfield or district, a register to be called the Register of Gold Mining Leases, wherein shall be registered all leases and applications therefore, and transfers thereof, and of any shares or interests therein respectively, and all liens, charges, and other dealings and transactions relating thereto respectively." No transfer of any lease, or of any share or interest therein, nor any lien, charge, or other dealing or transaction, was effectual to pass any share or interest in any such lease until registered as aforesaid; meaning, in other words, that before a lease was negotiable it must be registered in Perth. Any share or interest in any claim, or other authorised holding or portion of land,
