Mining at Bound Hill.

Otago Witness, Issue 1911, 6 July 1888, Page 12

Mining at Bound Hill.

From a variety of reasons, a large amount of attention has recently been directed to the mining operations at Round Hill, and the prosperity of 20 years ago was supposed by many to have been about to be restored, not only by the fuller carrying out of irrigation schemes but by the renewed interest now being taken in mining generally. No doubt much of the interest has been caused by consistent reports that the Chinese were getting large quantities of gold. It is most difficult to ascertain what the Chinese really are getting, for they adopt all sorts of precautions to hide their gain, not. only from fearfof intrusion but very often for the purpose of defrauding the revenue. It must be evident to the most casual observer that they must be doing very well, for on all sides can be seen tokens of great activity and money seems plentiful among them. What is the exact number of Chinese now at work is impossible to ascertain. For official purposes about 300 is generally reckoned, and oat of these probably 200 are actually engaged in mining, the remainder being engaged in ministering to the wants or vices— they are really the same thing — of the others. At all events they resent European intrusion or inquiry. As soon as John begins to think you are pumping him his face assumes a blank stare of vacuity, and the only answer obtainable is 11 No savee." This I well knew before I started from Riverton for Round Hill, but I was pretty confident that at all events I would be able to Bee and relate to the public what was being done by Europeans. The chief object of my journey was to see the dredging operations, or, to speak more correctly, the prepartions for them.

From the earliest period of mining at Round Hill the main outlet for the waste water and debris has been the Orawera creek, which flows into the pea near the head of Wakapatu Bay. Sluicing has been carried on to such an extent and for so long a time that for upwards of five miles from the creek the bed of it has been silted up with tailings and sludge to a depth of from 16ft downwards. It is known that the millions of tons so deposited contain a large quantity of the precious metal, but the difficulty has been to get at it. The little fall which originally existed in the creek has been almost entirely destroyed by the accumulation of sludge, and this also prevented the working of a large quantity of ground on the lower faces. The latest idea has been to create artificial fall, and in the manner which an attempt is now to be made to describe. There are two places where operations are going on — one by the Round Hill Sluicii.g Company at the lipper point of the original Round Hill workings, and the other by Messrs Concher and parity about a mile above Cauton Hill, and also pn the; edge of the Orawera. I Some 12 months ago a ptart w.%s made by the public^ company at [a .point a good deal lower down the creek than where tho machinery is now located, j It was intended to sink a shaft in the slujdge and allow tho

current to run into it. From the bottom of this shaft tho material was to be raised by means of a centrifugal pump to a height sufficient for giving fall for washing in the ordinary way. Experience, however, demonstrated, in the first place, that the idea was impracticable, inasmuch as the pump was not suitable for lifting such a mixture of gravel and water, and in the second, that the site was unsuitable. Accordingly it was determined to move to the present more suitable 6ite, and to add to the pump an ordinary bucket dredge to lift the coarser material. The removal and alterations were duly effected, and the machinery was set in motion last week. The final start was still deferred, however, in order to make a few minor alterations, and it was expected at the time of my visit that the success of the scheme would be practically tested this week. The area proposed to be worked by the company consists of the tail race leading to the claim, and the claim itself, about 40 chains further up the creek. The machinery on the ground and waiting to start consists of a horizontal engine and boiler of 30-horae powpr. The engiue has two cylinders, and was formerly part of a traction engine, one of those ponderous machines on three wheels by which it was hoped to abolish the necessity for making railways for short distances, and almost entirely displace horses in the carriage of heavy goads ou ma- le roads. It seems, however, that the chief results have hitherto been to displace horses by frightening them, and the only successful instance of their permanent working which I can call to mind at present is Barnes' Baby — a truculent machine which is used in Dunedin to level and consolidate newly laid broken metal on the streets. Besides the centrifugal pump previously mentioned, which throws four Government heads of water, there has also been added the dredge. The buckets of this seem rathe? small, but the pump will throw up much of the finer silt. The water of this creek, being conserved, will be led into the shaft which has been sunk, and will carry with it all the loose matter in its course, so forming a fresh water way leading into the shaft, and while ib is doing bo, not only providing payable stuff for washing, but a permanent tail race to work the company's claim of 30 acres further up. When the stuff is lifted jointly by this dredger and the pump, ib falls into the head of a sluice box about 6ft wide. The water with which it is accompanied forces it over a hopper plate full of small holes. The finer stuff falia through and passes over Bilvered copper plates below, while , the coarser unwashed stuff and stones pass over the boxes beyond, the bottom being covered with ordinary matting. Below the hopper plate the box widens out so as to admit of two runs, both of which may be worked or one utilised while the other is closed and being cleaned up, thus obviating any delay in the pumping operations. It was at first found that the sluice box was too short. The tailings were deposited too near by, and backed the water up to the injury of adjoining tail races and the detriment of the company's own work. They have, therefore, been lengthened to a point where they will strike the current, and for the conservation of the current a by-wash has been put in. By the operations just concluded an additional fall of 6ft has been gained by means of this shaft and tho height to which the stuff is lifted above the present surface. At the point where the plant stands an appearance similar to the whole length of the Orawera, which haß been submerged, is presented. The bed was originally thickly covered with trees, bub these having been encompassed by sludge to a height of about 16ft, have died, and now rear their withered and whitened arms aloft is if in imprecation ot the desolation which the action of man, moved by the auri saora fames, has produced. The scene around conveys to the uniuitiatsd eye no tokens of devastation. But let the anwary traveller not venture carelessly among the shrubbery. Each point, each spur, has been undermined with tunnels and drives which would engulf him. All the soil about here appears to be sand, and the numerous punctures made in its entrails have so weakened the whole that it was extremely difficult to find a site stable enough for the imposition of the heavy machinery. The company have also constructed a tramway from the Wakapafeu Beach, and running past the claim to Canton township on the main corduroy track. It is intended to work the tramway for the public as well as the company, and it will considerably facilitate transport to the district from the railway, as the present corduroy track is anything but a convenient one although the only one available so far. Mi 1 W. Buchanan— to whom thanks are due for courteous explanation — is the working manager of the company. It is much to be hoped that the feasibility of the scheme will be proved. The value of these immense deposits is undoubted, having been repeatedly proved by prospecting, and the redemption of their store of auriferous wealth would not only immediately benefit the district and improve the value of adjacent mining properties by giving unimpeded fall, but bring others now übmerged into actual work.

The same idea has prompted the erection of the machinery further up the creek by Messrs Concherand party, numbering five, butit differs somewhat in the details of carrying it out. Instead of a pump and a dredge being used, there ape here two dredgps, one for water and the other for stuff. The buckets of the waber Hredge are narrow,, deep," and squar?, and the cistern stands almost perpendicular. Those for the stuff are of the usual scoop shape and stand at a much less angle-. This machinery has also been in motion, butit was found on trial that the elevation at which the mullock buckets were set would not permit them to discharge their contents, which thus went uselessly down the well again. To obviate this the head of tho cistern was being raised when I made my visit, and the alterations were so nearly completed that Mr Concher, whom I saw, anticipated that a fresh start would be »n>ilc» i cv' day. 'I he motive power to be used is from alO-Uorse power Robey portable eDgine. This was brought from Fabia by means of the company's tramway, and the balance of the distance on a bullock sledge. Those who have not visited the district can have no idea of the difficulties which must have attended the transport. Mr Buchanan, of the company, informed me that the boiler alone of their large engine — also brought along the tramway—weighed seven tons. It should not be forg >t,ten that the dredges themselves were made at Mr Jabez Hays' foundry, Invercargill— another 1 >sal industry of great promise.

Locally, it may be said, greater hopes are entertained of the success of the private enterprise than that of the public company. As far as I could make out, this arose, not from an invidious comparison of the richness of the ground, for it must be pretty much the same, but from a fear that the pump would not effectively do the work expected of it. because of the friction caused by the sand. Whether these vaticinations will prove correct remains to be seen, but it cannot be denied that both attempts show great enterprise. The private party have now been engaged in their task about six months. They met a further rebuff from unkind fortune on the night before I went there. Four of the party ocoupied a hut close by. During the eveuing they all went to a neighbours to spend an hour or two, and before doing so left, as they thought, everything secure. About 9 o'clock their but was aeep. tq be on fire, and, before they

could reach it, it was beyond redemption and everything in it was destroyed, even to the two domestic cats. The loss to some of the party was really serious, as in the building were all their portable worldly belongings, and nothing was insured. The ground which Concher and party purpose to work is not exactly the Orawera, but a gully known as O'Brien's, leading into it, but the method of working will be exactly the same as proposed by the company — namely, artificial fall is obtained by sinking a shaft and allowing the tail race to fall into it, and then lifting the contents to a fresh elevation. News of their success will be gladly welcomed.

Aud now about mining generally at Round Hill. My visit covered only an entire day, and it would take a far longer time than that to gain a general idea of the contour of the field. There is no point from which a view of the whole can be obtained, on account of the dense nature of the bush. I learned that the number of Europeans was increasing, there being now about 30 employed as against less than half that number a year ago. The introduction of more water would open many claims now inaccessible, while the cleaning out of the bed of the Orawera would make more systematic working of the lower parts possible. Water is fairly plentiful just now and apparently likely to continue so, aud as no one grumbled whom I saw, there seems reason to believe that the field continues a payable one. The one regretable feature is' that it should have been monopolised by the Chinese to the complete exclusion of the European. Were that not the case we should, instead of the plague spot of a Canton, very probably have a white settlement peopled with permanent residents who would have their schools and their churches and all the adjuncts of civilisation. Their influence would have been fertilsing instead of sterilising, and there would then never have to be written what has been and may yet be about " Canton." — Western Star.