KAWARAU GOLD CLAIMS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 227, 24 August 1929, Page 3

KAWARAU GOLD CLAIMS.

HOLDERS REMAIN INACTIVE. Though the gates of the Kawarau dam have been closed for about a week and the river has fallen to a very low level, the claim-holders remain inactive (says a Dunedin corespondent). After the initial efforts in 1926, when the gates were first closed, the claimholders have done practically nothing on Kawarau, in which is sunk capital estimated at nearly £500,000. In the past three years the miners at Cromwell are the only ones who have made a serious attempt to work the river, none of the other parties having endeavoured to secure a return on their capital. Proposals for an amalgama r tion of the claim-holders have been made, but these have reached a dead end, as several clauses in the proposed agreement are not acceptable to the Kawarau Company. It is stated that it is now the intention of the financial holders behind the scheme that those who are in default with their payments to the parent company should forfeit their rights to the particular quarter-mile stretches along the river. Interesting developments are expected in some quarters when a definite move is made to deprive of their claim those who have fallen behind in their payments. Those who are acquainted with the working of the scheme state that in their preliminary calculations the constructors of the dam overlooked the inllow of Kawarau from the Shotover, Arrow, Nevis, and others rivers. The flow of water from the Shotover had been considerably un-der-estimated, and this has greatly hampered the whole scheme. The Kawarau dam itself, which was erected at a cost of £106,000, has proved a very efficient barrier so far as it has gone, but owing to other factors the level of the river has not been reduced to the expected level. At present the position appears to be that cohesion is needed amongst the ' claim-holders, and, fur ther, that the advice of an outside expert is claimed to bo absolutely essential. Divided amongst those interested, the cost of engaging a well-known Continental or English engineer should not be excessive. Those who have capital tied up in the scheme would then know definitely whether they may expect any return or whether their hopes are to be dashed for all time.