7. If appropriate Government does not offer to pay compensation, mines may be worked in a proper manner.-
(1) If before the expiration. of the said sixty days the appropriate Government does not publish a declaration as provided in section 5, the owner, lessee or occupier of the mines may, unless and until such a declaration is subsequently made, work the mines or any part thereof in a manner proper and necessary for the beneficial working thereof, and according to the usual manner of working such mines in the local area where the same are situate.
(2) If any damage or obstruction is caused to the surface of the land or any works thereon by improper working of the mines, the owner, lessee or occupier of the mines shall at once, at his own expense, repair the damage or remove the obstruction, as the case may require.
(3) If the repair or removal is not at once effected, or, if the appropriate Government so thinks fit, without waiting for the same to be effected by the owner, lessee or occupier, the appropriate Government may execute the same and recover from the owner, lessee or occupier the expense occasioned thereby.
1. The words "in such manner as the Governor-General in Council may, from time to time, direct" omitted by Act 38 of 1920, s. 2 and the First Schedule.
2. Added by s. 2 and the First Schedule, ibid.
3. See now the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (1 of 1894).