DUNEDIN CRICKET CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 879, 3 October 1868, Page 3

DUNEDIN CRICKET CLUB.

_ If the Duhedin Cricket Club go .on as successfully as they have commenced, the ensuing season will be the best that has ever yet been. The annual meeting, held on Tuesday afternoon at the Shamrock Hotel, .was largely - attended ; in fact no meeting for* the last five years has been so well attended, and the Interest evinced in the proceedings go to prove that the love of the manly game is not dying out amongst OB. ' Amongst those present on Tuesday were Messrs Rattray, Murison, Barton, Carrick. Turton, Pant* tin, BeaJ, Cairns, Haddock; Glaagow,' and Roberts. Mr Carrick presided. The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. 'Mr G. K. Turton,' acting Secretary and Treasurer, read the financial statement, and at some length explained the position of the Club. The balance sheet showed that during the year LB7 Is had been received in subscriptions, and L3l 8s 2d m special donations. In addition, there was a special subscription towards the Pavilion Fund of L 9 4s. Taking the latter fund into account, there was a" deficiency of Ll4l 4s 2d ; and Mr Turton. urged upon the members to relieve the trustees of that debt, and to make special efforts to liquidate it. The report was. received and adopted. Mr Carrick was elected President, and Mr W. D. Murison, Vice-President. Mr Glasgow was appointed Secretary and Treasurer, and the following gentlemen were elected members of Committee : — Messrs Kempthorne, Maddock, Pantlin, H. W, Cairns, Macdonald, Russell, Collinson, and Turton. Mr Hendley was re-engaged to tike charge of the ground— his duties to commence on the Ist October. Messrs Brewer, Samuels, and Collinson were elected members of the Club, It was agreed that the season should commence on Saturday, 12th proximo, with a match between married and single. At the close of the meeting, the question of making arrangements for running, and other matches in connection with the Club, was brought up, and discussed. A Committee was formed to draw up a programme, and to arrange for sports, &c, to be held on an early day.

A correspondent of the Australasian, who states that he has been a working miner for years on the Clutha, has a.very high.opioion of the auriferous wealth of our Otagan rivers and sea beaches. In reference to an invention for saving river gold, he says :—lf: — If your correspondent's method is to extract gold effectively, i.e., separate it from the gravel and sand without leaving much in the tailings, and if withi. these qualities he can combine speed in working the ground, I congratulate him on having discovered a good f hiu jr. There ia plenty of scope for Mm in New Zealand. The auriferous country, though poor, is extensive. It has been said by geologists that New Zealand has in its area more auriferous drift than any other country known, with the exception, perhaps, of California, and from the physical appearance of the country that I have travelled over, I should imagine that at least a quantity equal to that at present on the island has been passed downwards through the rivers to the sea. There are, no doubt, tons upon tons of gold lying mixed with the sands of the New Zealand rivers and sea-beaches, the separation of which under the present systems, although a possible, is not a payable thing. To my mind, hundreds of cubical miles of auriferous drift must have passed through the large New Zealand rivers, like immense sluice-boxes, to the sea, and left in protected spots on the banks those golden patches whioh the present generation are endeavouring to get at and extract. River gold inoreases in fineness the further one goes down the river to the sea, and sea-beach gold, with very little exception, is like dust. To account for this, we must either suppose that only the ohaff of the gold, as it existed in the old lake drifts in the interior, and of which the extensive terraces and isolated " made" hills and islands seem to be the undisturbed remains, has passed over the natural ripples in the rivers downwards to the ocean ; or that coarser gold in its passage down must have got pulverised and beaten to minute specks by the boulders and stones of the drift that accompanied it seawards . To strengthen the probability of the latter theory I may state that it is a singular fact, with very little exception to the rule, that alluvial gold in Otago, in nearly all localities, is of a flat, oblong shape, beaten out as it were, and the thinner it becomes the more it will travel in running water. In sluicins ground where scaly gold was diffused, I have seen a "prospect" taken from the tail of a race or sluice well stoned and rippled quite as good as could be obtained at the head. The separation of light gold from the gravel of the New Zealand riverg is rendered very difficult, from the quantity of black sand of a great specific gravity (and a consequent tendency to set hard and allow the gold to be washed over) that the gold is generally mixed, up with.