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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19760, 10 April 1926, Page 12

Mr R. A. Dunn, of Balclutha, made an interesting motor trip to Queenstown with some Dunedin friends during the Easter h-'idays. Mr Dunn visited the site of the Kawarau dam at Frankton Falls, and was favourably impressed with the manner in which the work is progressing. Only one of the large pillars now requires to be put in. and the foreman of works was confident that the dam would be completed early in .ugust. Already, along the Kawarau, many of the claimholders are making preparations for commencing gold digging operations when the lake has been shut off. At one claim they are proposing to use a kind of bucket dredge, the success of inch will largely depend upon the nature of the river bottom. It was noticeable ihat a majority of the claimholders, judging by the notice boar s erected, belonged to Auckland province. No doubt the imagination of the old diggers of the Thames was fired by the tales of the new El Dorado that was to be opened ii the south. Most of the local men interested in mining, however, with whom Mr Dunn talked, were of opinion that the return? from the Kawarau River be' could not possibly come up to expectations unless the scheme were completed by the damming of the Shotover, a tributary of the Kawarau, The Kawarau Company has this project in view also.