OLD CROMWELL WINNINGS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20898, 4 July 1933, Page 9

OLD CROMWELL WINNINGS.

EARLY DREDGING DAYS. SITE OF PREVIOUS BOOM. Rich gold finds in the country surrounding Cromwell Fiat, where another mining boom has occurred after a lapse of about 30 years, are recalled by the renewed activity in this area. A generation ago the Kawarau river below the gorge was a hive of industry, the proportion of dredges working at top pressure being about one to every mile. But the returns slowly diminished until it was thought that the stretch of the river and the country immediately adjacent had been worked out. The last of the dredges sank in the river about 1905, and since then Cromwell has seen little or nothing of gold mining, the hinterland being given over to fruit and other fanning, and the river, where once hundreds of men worked day and night, being deserted. Cromwell achieved a new fame about a year ago when the Bell-Hooper claim produced a rich find near the working of the old Electric claim, where dredging was carried out for about two miles below the gorge last century. The old Electric claim was one of the wealthiest workings in the district and miners who took a fresh interest recently in the country nearby came to the conclusion that it had not given up the last of its gold. The latest finds at Dead Man's Point have confirmed this view, and otice again Cromwell has become the centre of that feverish excitement which characterised the search for gold in days when dredges produced more than 1200 ounces of the precious metal in a good week. The opinion has long been held that the Cromwell area contained far more gold than was ever won frofn it. Old miners have been at variance with the view of the geologists th&t the Kawarau once ran across almost the centre of the present expansive flat below the Pisa range, and the old controversy over the most likely places for the discovery of gold has been revived by the spectacular finds within recent weeks. Site of Old Winnings.

The Bell-Hooper party struck gold on a part of the river bank known by old miners to be rich. It is recalled that a miner named Robertson was reputed to have taken £IO,OOO very close to the present Bell-Hooper claim as early as the seventies Of last century. Those working With Robertson were washed out in what is still recalled as the "old man" flood of 1878, and they never returned, although the belief remained that the area nearby still had much to yield. Robertson's beach, the name bestowed on the river bank near the BellHooper working perpetuates this successful but ultimately unfortunate venture. Those who were on the river in the early days state that Robertson worked a very small drive, apparently under most primitive mining conditions. He used to crawl in on his hands and knees, dragging a leather bag after him. After he had filled this up with spoil his wife would pull it out, and so the process went on, until they had won a large fortune before the great flood put an end to their work. From the gorge above the BellHooper claim the Kawarau river to-day sweeps round the Cromwell Flat, past the township, and then joins the Clutha to become the Molyneux. Below the junction, some of the richest finds in all Otago were made, being comparable with the profits earned by the dredges of the old Electric claim further up the Kawarau, where it is stated hundreds of thousands of pounds were made. It was just below the junction that the Junction-Electric company operated and did very well for a considerable time. This company also worked the Bannockburh creek, where much gold was produced.

Valuable Shallow Workings, Cornish Point, opposite the township of Cromwell, marks the spot weire a party of Cornishmen were making large ploflts in the early days, but it was thought that these men, who were experienced miners, had taken every ounce of gold that was to be had there, and there was no interest in the area after they left. This party, so it is said, did not go Very deep, but it was thought then that their judgment was sotlnd. Deeper workings On this plate at pre* sent would Seem to indicate, however, according to one man who knows the district, that there is still gold to be won. There are still those who say that the old river toed ran closer to the present one than geologists believe, and that it skirted the lower end of the flat, rather than cutting across it. This, it is held, is borne out by the fact that none of the numerous drives put in from the Kawarau toward the Pisa range behind has produced any gold Wottli mentioning. In 1901 ahd 1&02 men were still putting ili drives between the Bannockburn creek and the lower gorge, above the junction of the Kawarau and the Clutha, ahd their work was unsuccessful. The river itself at this time was, however, most productive. At the junction, the dredges were taking up to 500 ounces a week and more, and although the takings tapered oft, they remained high for a long period. The Hartley and Riley claim a Short distuncd down the Molynetix Was famous in its day. The principals were two Americans, • and old miners still tell how they were nearly lynched, following their wonderful discovery of gold in the river, from which they took up to 10U0 ounces weekly.

Americans Convince Sceptics. Hartley and Riley found gold at their claifti about 1860, and some time later they arrived at the Government office in Dunedln with 891b weight for sale. They received their money, but they had to show where the claim was, but when the old Victorian miners, not used to deep river work, saw the locality, they refused to believe the Story, and would have lynched the two Americans. However, Hartley went into the river himself and brought out shovels full of material containing gold, convincing the sceptics, and incidentally, so it is still said, saving his neck, as well as his partner's.

According to the geological experts, the Kawarau river once ran from the upper gorge across the flat to Dead Man's Point, where it is reported that gold has been struck in large quantities recently, thus eliminating .the large sweep which the river l now takes round the flat. Claims are being staked out, apparently, along this old river bed to-day, so that tne Cromwell area will seo a revival of mining, although it will be somewhat different from that of the old days, when the sound of dredges could be heard for miles from the junction below the town to the gorge above the old Electric claim.