MONDAY, JANUARY 12. GOLD DREDGING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 76411, 12 January 1903, Page 2

MONDAY, JANUARY 12. GOLD DREDGING.

In this district, as in most other parts of the colony, not a few people have lost money in gold dredging ventures, and possibly it may be boeqj consolation to them to koow that figures seem to show that if they put too much, trust in men their faith in the industry was not alto - gether misplaced. In O:ogo \wbera there has been a terrible slump, companies being wound up and individuals suffering severe losses, the increase in tbe gold yields has been remarkably good, as the following figures for the past four years attest :— 1 Oz. dwt. gr. 1902 106,369 10 ,22 ' 1901 65,505 17-15 1900 62,276 1 20 1899 46,152 10 20 On the West Coast, too, there have been excellent returns from some dredges. One obtained nearly 4000 ounce 3 , another 24280z, eight others varied from 2000oz to lOOOoz, and "nearly thirty others obtained yields varying from over lOOoz to nearly lOOOt-z. These figures prove that gold dredging is not necessarily a hopeless enterprise, (hough the company register abd expeiienoe has unfortunately shown that scores nnd scores of companies were floated -which' had not a chance of success, while directors' reports indicate that many a hopeful enterprise has been wrecked by ignorance and incoinpeterce. On the figures, th 9 shares of v number of companies ought to be very good property, * and probably there are clams just as good aa those wbich are yielding satisfactory returns, but the ''wild cats" have scared people, so that the share market- is flat, aad any- man who attempted to float a company would do so lat the risk of violence from people whom he solicited to take shares. Tbe industry was, 'and indeed, i«, promising, but it is under a heavy depression,' the contributing causes to which have been the flotation of many unproved and uhprovable claims, and a rush of speculation by a lot of people of small means who had neither the ability to discriminate between good and bad venture?, nor the resources to enable them to stand steady when things' turned out badly. Gold-dredging and goldnvning are both very much of a gamble, and no one should venture money in investments in either unless he can stand the loss without serious inconvenience, and yet when we read that the yield' for last year was virtually two millions sterling, there must, be profitable results for those who invest with care — and luck, especially the latter.