No. 243.
Mr. Gibbs
to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Lima,
Peru, January 17, 1877. (Received
February 12.)
No. 122.]Sir: I have the honor to refer to my dispatch No.
108, of November 21, last. I there wrote that the present Congress was
occupied in forming a new mining code, or, rather, amendment of the old
one.
I inclose an extract from the South Pacific Times, of Callao, with the
amended mining law as passed in Congress and signed by the President,
January 12. This law has been received with great favor by the press of this
city with one exception, the church party’s organ, La Sociedad.
The word “claim” is a “pertenencia” or “amparo” of 200 varas square, as
explained in the above-mentioned dispatch.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 122.]
[Extract from South Pacific Times, of
Callao.]
amended mining-law of peru.
Congress having passed the following law, it has now been promulgated by
order of President Prado:
- Article 1, A tax of 15 soles per six
months is hereby imposed on each claim or mine, of whatever
dimension it may be.
- Art. 2. Claims or mines of coal,
petroleum, or gold are subject to the tax imposed by the
foregoing article.
- Art. 3. Tunnels, machinery, or other
handiwork will not render a mine or claim exempt from this
tax.
- Art. 4. Owners of mines or their
attorneys will pay into the office appointed by law the tax
imposed by article 1.
- Art. 5. The punctual and continuous
payment of this tax is requisite for the legal ownership of a
mine, whether it be in work or idle. The owner who ceases to pay
in. six months will lose all right or claim to the
property.
- Art. 6. All claims to a mine will be
null and void if it be proved that the owner thereof had not
paid the tax hereby imposed, even though he does not work the
property.
- Art. 7. No claim to a mine or the
ownership thereof, although it be worked by the defendant, will
be heard in a court unless the person bringing the suit produce
proof that he has paid the tax.
- Art. 8. Each claim and mine is
indivisible in the payment of this tax.
- Art. 9. Each claimant at law to the
possession of a mine shall pay the total amount of the tax, and
any one who does not so pay will lose all title to the
property.
- Art. 10. The payment of this tax
shall be obligatory from the 1st of July, 1877, and it shall
always be collected within the last two months of each half
year.
- Art. 11. The proceeds of this tax
shall be applied as follows:
- 1.
- To cover the expenses of the school of architects and
miners.
- 2.
- To pay a corps of mining engineers, who shall be
employed in the different mining regions.
- 3.
- To generally advance mining interests.
- Art. 12. Every person who has or
believes he has a claim to a mine, whether it be
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idle or at work, shall present to
the proper mining committee, before June 30 next, a legalized
copy of his titles to the same, and the committee shall give a
duly legalized receipt for the same to those interested.
- Art. 13. The territorial mining
committees shall open a register of mines, in which they shall
make certified copes of the documents presented to them, in
accordance with the previous article and such as may be issued
hereinafter.
- Art. 14. Directly such copies shall
have been taken, they shall be forwarded to the administrative
section of the treasury, where they shall also be copied, and
subsequently placed in the archive which will be formed for this
purpose.
- Art. 15. The administrative section
of the treasury will form, from the register thus kept, a
general tax-list, which shall be divided into mineral districts.
In this tax-list there shall be inscribed: (1) the name and
class of mine; (2) the name of the owner thereof; (3) the number
of the claims of each owner; (4) the size and situation of each
claim; (5) the tax which each owner has to pay.
- Art. 16. The said tax-list shall be
published during March and September of each year, and during
April and October the prefects, subprefects, and territorial
committees hall receive a sufficient number of copies to enable
them to give it due-publicity.
- Art. 17. In all subsequent
publications of this tax-list only owners will be included who
have paid the tax for the previous six months, as provided in
articles 1 and 2 and as proved by the lists of the collectors;
and there shall only be added to the said tax-list the claims
which are duly inscribed in the mining register.
- Art. 18. The tax-collectors shall
send in a report during February and August embracing the mines
which have paid the tax during the previous six months.
- Art. 19. All claims of which the
owners shall not have complied with the obligations of article
12 by the 30th June, 1877, shall again become the property of
the State, and may be claimed by other parties in conformity
with the law, and the last possessor shall enjoy no claim
thereto after the expiry of that date. Should he endeavor to do
so, the judges will pay no attention to the suit.
- Art. 20. In the absence of a
territorial mining committee, the judges of first instance, in
their respective provinces, shall exercise all the
administrative and judicial powers conferred on the mining
deputies.
- Art. 21. The mining deputy, or judge
of first instance acting in his absence, in the performance of
his duty shall not collect more than ten soles for his expenses
during the first league, or more than two soles for each league
thereafter. Notaries shall receive one-half the amount of these
fees, and witnesses and arbitrators as may be agreed upon with
those interested.
- Art. 22. Foreigners may acquire and
work mines in the republic, and in so doing shall enjoy all
rights and be subject to all obligations of natives with respect
to the ownership and working of mines, but they cannot exercise
any judicial functions under the mining laws.
- Art. 23. Building-stones, sand,
salt, clay, slate, and other similar substances, shall belong to
the owner of the land in which they are discovered. In working
they shall not be subject to the mining ordinances, and in State
or town lands they shall be common property, although
corporations may cede to private individuals the right to work
these substances in conformity with the laws and dispositions in
reference thereto.
- Art. 24. The engineers of the
municipal districts will be bound to prepare a practical course
of mining and tunnel-driving in order to educate skilled
mechanics, and in so doing shall he guided by the plan which
shall bo drawn up by the president of the mining college.
- Art. 25. This law in no way refers
to salitre (raw nitrate).
- Art. 26. The executive will draw up
as speedily as possible regulations for the collection and
payment of the tax and for the mining register, which shall be
particularly lucid in all relating to the facility of affording
proof of the payment or non-payment of the tax, and in
designating the offices in which it shall be paid.
- Art. 27. All mining ordinances and
all laws in reference thereto, which in any way are affected by
this law, are hereby repealed.
