KAWARAU AND FRANKTON BEACH COMPANIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1947, 18 June 1891, Page 14

KAWARAU AND FRANKTON BEACH COMPANIES.

The following letters appeared in the Daily Times : —

s TO THB BDITOB. . Sib,— May I through yonr columns respeetfally suggest to sundry anonymous shareholders that, instead of writing to the newspapers, they should endeavour in a legitimate way to nave dredging operations stopped. Individually I agree with yonr various correspondents that the longer we dredge the greater oar loss. As a director I caanot proceed to get a company woundup in the face of shareholders'instructions to continue dredging. — I am, &0., Hb^by Rose, An unwilling director of both companies. Danedin, Jane 9. TO THE EDITOB. Sib, — With yonr permission I will try to help Mr Henry Rose, a director, in both of these [ companies, oat of his difficulty with one of them — the Kawaraa. His letter in yoar issue of Friday last speaks as if lie could not help himself in the way of stopping the operations of these companies. In reference to the Kawaraa one at Jeast, v it is not so. Mr Rose and his fellow directors are not only at liberty to 'stop this dredge, bnt if they carry it on beyond the 9th h. s tank, they do this without the authority of the shareholders. The directors are bound to stop operations at this date, or be liable for the expenses incurred. I hope Mr Rose sees his position and that of his fellow directors. Their duty lies in stopping; their danger in carrying on the work of the company. In regard to the Frankton Company, I would advise that the shareholders meet at once and demand an immediate winding up of a concern so hopeless and palpably lees than profitless. To oarry on is only to insure another and another draft on the potkets of the shareholders. For this object the past should suffice.— l am, &c., * June 13. A Shareholder. TO THB EDITOB. Sib, — The shareholders in these companies would do well to pay not the slightest heed to the " Notes from Wakatipu " in your issue of this morning. The last cheering (?) items of news came directly in front of a call by the [ Wakatipa Company. These" notes "are entirely unreliable. The Kawaraa dredge is "now making fur ground km.wn to contain payable gold." Indeed ! It will'rever get there, unless indeed ifc again capsizes and goes to the bottom, and stays thero. That would be payable ground for the shareholders if this call business is to go on any longer, and, apart from winding up, it is the ouly known payable ground at 'present. Then the Wakatipu dredge return* are expected to improve we are told. T be millennium is also expected. Shareholders, do not be gulled any longer. These companies as at present constituted will- never pay. It is impossible. We hoped at first they would, but we have known for some time they will not. " Our hope is % false idol." Why therefore should we go on ? The very best thing possible is to wind up. It is in the interests of those who will take up these claims, after all the share capital still available has been exhausted, that we are 'at present paying away our hard won dollars, and they will will reap the benefit of the experience bought -with our capital. Be. sensible shareholders ; give them no more. Sbatter these wretched idols, and bnry them out of sight. Let us save a little by wiading up. There is litfc'e left truly, bnfc let us have that little for ourselves. — I am, &c , June 15. Wakatipu Shabeholdeb. PBGA.SUS thj FIELD. After all the d<-layn and disappointments which have arisen in connection with th<s field, it is satisfactory intelligence that; something practical is now :ike'y|fco be done. Vtrv favourable accounts hava been received from London nf the prospects of floating a company to work the flJd. A mcc Ing of olaimholders at Invercargill Is summoned for Thnrsday next, to consider a proposal for amalgamating 35 of the best claims, and send i ok Home a representative to asei fc in floating a large company Wo understand thoie who are best informed at to the capacities of the field, are at strongly oonvlnoed'u ever of itt value. Tia, gold, wotf«m, «n« mien ara.

June IS.

All to be found in payable quantities, and it it simply mismanagement and want of unity among the shareholders that have prevented the field beiDg opened before this. Lately two men who had been allowed to work on the eastern side of the mountain, sold 18oz of gold in Dunedin at £3 18s an oz, paving themselves 10» a-day, and nearly the whole of the Government rent due on the olaims, besldet stacking a good deal of stream tin, and this with only a small stream of water and no pressure. This fully confirms Mr G-. M. Barr's and Mr Paulin's report of the payably auriferous character of this part of the field. ISLAND BLOOK BXTBNDBD GOLD MINING COMPANY. ■ The mine manager writes under date 13th inst. that the last wash-up yielded 230z 14dwts of gold whtob is what he expected from the ground. Washing up was delayed for a time by the race carrying ■away in consequence of the heavy rain and snow. In refereLoe to future prospects the manager states :— " The new alteration in the pipeline will take two or three days, and I hope to run for two months without stopping for another. The face of wath at the bottom Is very good, and li certainly only the extreme edge of a large bad which will, I think, gradually improve in productiveness as we go into it.' MISCELLANEOUS. The Cromwell Argus says :— " Messrs Bethune and Tillman have struck the seam of wash containing payable gold in a shaft about 30ft below the prospecting shaft. Pretty dry ground. Several more shafts will bs sunk by the olaimholders around daring this week, and this will tell the tale pretty definitely whether it is the old Excelsior lead or only wash taken down by the creek. No holes are yet on the wash barring the prospeotors.— The Five-mile will be nearly deserted in a few days, as several parties intend leaving for Quartz-reef Point. Ground ■luioing is carried on under difficulties on account of the frost." The Otara correspondent of the Southland Times writes on the 6th inst. :— " The dredges I am sorry - to say are not doing anything like so well as was ■ expected of them. The Six-mile is now using the electric light, but an aooident to the engine driving the dynamo a few days ago prevented them working more than one shift until the engine was repaired. The necetfsary work was promptly executed in one of your local founderies, the Vulcan. The three ' shifts are again at work, but the results are very discouraging. The expectations of those interested in this claim had been raised to such a pitch by the statements of old diggers who had worked on the beach that the poor returas obtained must be doubly disappointing. According to the authorities referred to, this dredge was cure to obtain an ounce an hour quite easily. How long will the investing public oontinue to be deceived by these grossly exaggerated statements? I say grossly because I am persuaded that many who make these statements oertainly know better, A few no doubt make them in good faith, but even these havo in many oases allowed- themselves to be deceived, and unfortunately too often succeeded in deceiving others. The Waipapa Company's dredge is not likely to be at work again for the .next three months, as the new pump is not expected after all ~ nntil some time next month. The new pumpiglp bs the same as those in use in the Six-mile and BWe Brunton dredges, and it is more than likely that the Waipapa directors have been waiting to see how these work before definitely ordering theirs, but now that these have proved themselves all but faultless it is presumed the Waipapa Company will lose no more time in getting theirs . to work. They were so nearly paying a dividend with the old pump, having taken out over £1000 worth of gold, that with the new one their claim should pay handsomely. —The great things expeoted of the Lake Brunton dredge have not come to pass as yet, although it is understood to be paying expenses. Bnt the share--holders expect something more than this. The maohiqery oontinues to work most satisfactorily, and the fault seems to 'be in the gold-saving arrangements. This «company have reduced their staff, and are only working one shift at present, and I understand the intention is to suspend operations altogether pending the arrival of new pluthes ordered from Home.— The Otara Company are making # show ;now. The contractors are progressing well - with the building of the pontoon, and are making a very substantial job indeed. Tenders are out for the haulage of machinery, also for the supply of firewood. This claim is in high repute and is looked upon as the one above all the beach olaims here that must pay. - But what about the pump they are adopting— the Gwynne ? It is to be hoped that thiß pump will do what is expected, but I very muoh doubt it."

The following items are from the Tuapeka Times t —Miller's Flat: Messrs Brazil fend party, who have been getting their current-wheel dredge fitted up with iteam, expeot to commenoe work again In a fortnight's time. Messrs Anderson and Son, of Ghristotmroh, have the contract, and are carrying ont the work in a creditable manner. The same firm have the contract for the ironwork of the Bttriok steam dredge, now in course of construction. — The new boilers which have been placed in th* Miller's creek dredge give every promise of being equal to all requirements. The company expect to start dredging on Thursday or Friday of the current week. —The new proprietors of the speoial claim at the mouth of the Bengerburn are evidently men of enterprise. They 'have a gang of Chinamen employed sinking a shaft in their claim. Is there no white labour available la the district, or has " John Chinaman " undertaken to do tbe work at a oheaper rate ? — Coal Greek : The river just now is beyond its ordinary Jevel ; it is, in fact, fully £ft or sft too high for the dredges, and there is in consequence a temporary suspension of operations. The sluicing claims, I am glad to say, do not share the Inconvenience, and areln full swing. lam sorry to hear that Mr K. M. Smith has resigned the managership of the Commissioners' Flat Company's claim ; and I don't think he has had, during his term of office, a fair opportunity of showing what he could do. He had a great deal of dead work to face, and tbe disposal of that will be a deoided advantage to his successor. The other hydraulic claims had aoreß of top stuff sluiced off by the miners before the hydraulic lifts were uted. The manager of Commissioners' Flat claim had no such advantage as this in his favour to start with. On the, contrary, he had to commence on the top stuff ; and if progress was at times slow it was because the rocks to be removed we're both large and plentiful. However, I hope the mine will very soon begin to pay -good dividends. A mine manager's billet here, even under the most favourable circumstances,- is not a rosy one. There is always, or nearly always, quite as much growling and fault-finding as one man can bear. The exception is, of course, when the dividends are circulating : then the time is a joyful one. and complimentary resolutions and other cheap displays of satisfaction are the order of tbe day. But let the dividends cease to go round, and at once there is a gathering storm. A victim must be found somewhere. The fault must lie with the manager 1 Who else's fault, Indeed, could it be? And he is at once offered up aB a sacrifice to the angry shareholdei s. The manager of the Roxburgh Amalgamated Mining and Sluicing Company (Limited) telegraphed on Saturday as follows :— " Washed up No. 1 yesterday, 90oz 14dwts 12gr, eight and a half days' sluicing " The secretary of the Miller's Creek Company received the following telegram from the dredgematter on Saturday morning :-" Made a start yesterday, everything working very well." The secretary of tbe Dunedin Gold Dredging Company (Limited) received the following telegram from the dredgemaster on Saturday: — "Dredging five and a-halt days for36oz 9dvrtsgold." A Hokitika telegram states that last week's work of the Tributors, at Craig's freehold, south Hokitika, resulted in a yield of lOloz lOdwt 12gr, of the value of £107 135. Ten men were employed, making the value of the gold produced by each one for the week a little over £40» The washing up of the United Hercules Hydraulic Sluicing Company, Limited, on Friday gave 770z 7dwt, valued at £297 16s. A Westport telegram states that the Beaconsfield Company's mine manager reports for the past week that 13ft more has been driven on tbe intermediate level. The reef is still 3fb wide, gold showing freely, The Upper Waiporl AlluvUl Gold Dredging Company, Limited, obtained lioz 6dwt 18gr of gold for four days 17 hours' dredging last week. The Secretary of the Wakatipu DreHging Company has received a telegram from Mr Cutten line dredgemaster) stating that he has obtained 40oz of amalgam for a week's work. The Blue Spur Consolidated Mining Company are reported to Da doing much better than previously, and it is said thaj; for the last two months ft b nut lOOOoz of gold have been procured. Long may. such resultß continue is hopeu by all.

On tbe Waianiwa flats Mr Grieve has threshed 114 bushels of oats per acre, and Mr Ronald 112 bushels this season. In the latter case the paddock when cropped, 10 years ago, yielded 108 bushels the first gear, and 100 bushels the second, Aik for " Lebean " Champagne.