Lord Buckmaster :-

The question in this case is whether certain leases, granted by the Government of the Province of British Columbia to the Cariboo Hydraulic Mining Co., are valid and subsisting leases; or whether as the appellants contend the terms for which they were granted have come to an end.

It is not suggested that the terms have expired by reason of effuxion of time, but upon the grounds that first, the respondents, who are entitled to the benefit of such leases if subsisting have failed to take out a free miner's certificate as required by the Placer-mining Act (R. S. B. C. 1911, c. 165) and secondly that the conditions upon which the leases were granted have not been satisfied and that they have consequently become void.

The appellant's position in the dispute is due to the fact that they are entitled to the benefit of seven placer-mining leases granted on 13th January, 1916, by the Gold Commissioner for the Quesnel Mining Division of the Province of British Columbia pursuant to the powers vested in him under the Placer Mining Act already mentioned. These leases cover the same ground as the leases under which the respondents claim and if these latter leases are for any rea