Notes from Wakatipu.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 15

Notes from Wakatipu.

(From Otjb Own Correspondent.)

Abbow, May 12. — Recent showers have for a time replenished the local water supply, and revivified mining in places where it had been suspended for months. Sluicers are busy running off ground and washing up before winter comes upon them. Alluvial mining, though little is doing generally speaking, is%ot without signs of vitality. Reports are circulated representing Messrs Davis Bros, as having hit upon a veritable "jeweller's shop" in their claim at Stoney creek, Sbotover. The news will be hailed with pleasure by their friends, as it is a well-deserved reward for exemplary enterprise. At Skipper's the Phoenix battery has 10 heads of stampers going upon stone taken from the Phoenix Extended claim, do that the value of the new discovery will soon be known. The Sunrise Company, Macetown, are making once more preparation for wintering at the mine, so as to carry on work all the year round. The main adit ia still being pushed ahead, and norae of the leaders of the Mountain Maid lode must soon be struck.) Dredging companies at the Dart river are still prosecuting prospecting works with favourable results. The Golden Link Company are about to employ a new device for boring drifts, and lifting therefrom samples inclosed boxes so as to prove the value of the drifts passed through.

The building of the several dredges on hand is going on steadily, and is giving a considerable amount of employment to carters and others. The next launch will be that of the Talisman Company. Practical.miners who know the part of the Shotover constituting thit company's ground speak highly of it* The Wakatipu and Kawabau Companies'

Dredges.

It seems that my report on the Wakatipu dredge which appeared in your issue of the 3rd inst. has come rather at a surprise upon the parties interested and the general public. The blame may be fairly attributed to tha local directory for not taking the shareholders generally into their confidence as to the real state of affairs. It is, however, a reassuring fact that the panic raised is to be attributed quite as much to the action adopted by the Wakatipu and Kawarau Companies, as to any defects in the construction of the dredge. When the first trial , about the middle of last month, proved unsatisfactory, the Wakatipu dredge was laid by, all hands were paid off, and work upon the Kawarau dredge was incontinently stopped. This was in itself enough to cause a mild panic, which was greatly augmented by the conduct and reports as to the defects of the dredge circulated by local shareholders. Knowing that all new machinery requires adjustment, I did not pay much heed to these lamentations, and sent the report which appeared in the Witness of the 24th and the Daily Times of the 26th April, in which I referred to the mishap, pointing out that new dredges Beldom started off all right, but usually required material alterations. Subsequently I learnt from two shareholders, both possessed of considerable mechanical knowledge, that the defects of the dredge are really serious, and thinking that shareholders at a distance had a right to know the real state of affairs, I sent the report appearing in the Daily Times of May 3. My report in the issue of the Daily Times of Saturday, the 10th inst., is also perfectly correct, though to state so may sound paradoxical, the faofc being that the machinery is working all right but that the power is deficient ; and it is the opinion of experts that more power will have to be provided before the dredge can be expected to do regular and satisfactory work. This is a matter that can be rectified in a few weeks, when the dredge will be fit for work, so that shareholders may look forward to results later on.

For the benefit of shareholders and for the guidance of directors, it may be mentioned that during the recent trials the Kawarau was exceptionally low ; that for a great part of the year the river runs from 25ft to 30ft of water at the site of the old Morven ferry ; that it at all times runs with a strong current ; and that the wash is tight and stoney, and the gravel unusually heavy. For these reasons a very much increased power is required for the Kawarau than for most other Otago rivers.

It may be further pointed out that in a general way the Waltatipu Drpdging Company naß to •truggle with all the difficulties of adapting their dredge to the peculiar characteristics of theKawarau river, and that when once the dredge has been made to cope with these difficulties successfully all succeeding dredging companies will have to' do is to copy the model, and they will be spared all the delays and vexations which the Wakatipu Company is now suffering from. During the work done since starting, about thr^e wee.ks ago, no attempt has been made at i?old saving, arid therefore there is nothing to report as to gold obtained, or tests made of the viilu? of the ground, beyond prospects taken from the wash stuff brought up by the buckets, which is said to promise ver3 r well for the success of the venture.