MINING DIFFICULTIES

Evening Star, Issue 23056, 7 September 1938, Page 7

MINING DIFFICULTIES

SEASONS IN THE NEVIS ADEQUATE ROARING FACILITIES URGED Mining anywhere is a gamble, but the odds are apparently stacked high when one ventures for gold in the Nevis. Heavy snow in winter, which successfully stops all operations for three or four months, is counterbalanced by an equally dry summer, such as has just been experienced, with the result that water races dry up and pressure falls. Only one claim was able to be worked in the Nevis last summer—Nevis Sluicing Ltd.—but even it suffered to some extent from the dry spell. With the approach of winter mining ceased, but now that spring is here, mining men are packing up and leaving town again. A sore point with those men is the difficulty experienced in travelling at this time of the year, the absence of any properly metalled road making progress slow. The last 10 miles over the Carrack Range have to be made by packhorse until the end of September, when the thaw allows vehicles to get through. Urging that the Government or local body concerned should take

some action in providing a proper road, Mr J. A. Johnston, manager of Nevis Sluicing Ltd., claims that miners would be appreciative, because present conditions represent a great drawback to the development of the Nevis Valley. The prospect of being snowed in is a very real danger, and as the end of May’ approaches each year anxious looks aro cast at the weather. ]f the snow comes sooner than expected, as it did last year, those people caught will ha ve to walk through some 18 miles of drifts to Bannockburn, the snow in places reaching higher than one’s knees. The possibility of using the air as a medium of travel has been freely discussed, as the ground in the district is claimed to be ideal for landing and taking off. In fact, one aeroplane has already visited the district, and if Government financial assistance could be obtained to make a suitable field the venture would be well repaid.

“ If a plane was going up this week I would be in it,” said Mr Johnston, who thought that, although there might be some difference in- cost, the additional expenditure would be more than repaid by the energy and time saved in packing the last few miles, in cases of emergency, especially, silch a provision would prove very useful, as an injured person could be brought to Dunedin for treatment more quickly than if transported to the nearest doctor under present conditions.