THE GOLD IN THE CLUTHA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1966, 29 October 1891, Page 14

THE GOLD IN THE CLUTHA.

j ADDENDA RB MOTION FOB EBKOTION OF LOOKS AT THE WAKATIPU, WANAKA, AND HAWHA LAKES. Mr Werner supplies the Cromwell Arguß with the following addenda to his remarks made at the recent meeting of the Lowburn branch of the Confederate Miners 1 Association pn tbe subject of the erection of looks at the lakes : — Of course, many people, when they see the motion carried by the Miners' Association, *ill say, " Oh S we have heard of that before, and this thing has been a common talk for years," and so on. But the fact is, that although a similar idea has been propounded in an undeveloped state at odd times, it has never yet been laid open for disoussion with the view of testing its practicability, and among the members attending at the meeting only one Btated that he had heard of a Bimilar plan before. The thing which has been from the beginning drummed into our ears is the idiotic proposal of turning the Wakatipu through Southland. In this case a channel would need to be cut the depth and siz9 of the present Kawarau, the railway broken up, land resumed, the Southland river reserves widened and secured to carry the extra water, the outlet into the Kawarau filled up, and then the facilities of getting any more gold would be very little greater than at present, for the bulk of water comes at all timea from the Wanaka and Hawea lakes, It Bimply makes a man of common Bense feel small bo hear such a useless proposal earnestly entertained (as I have heard has been done in some cases), bo I shall say no more upon it. In Otago, of late years, during the latter end of the summer and during the winter, hundreds of claims are idle through want of water, and it would be instructive to arrive at a correct idea of how much better off those men and the people they have dealings with would be if they had been profitably employed during all this loßt time. But there may yet be good times coming, but not unless all and sundry make an effort. In desperate cases small remedies do not even produce Bmall effeots ,* they produce no effeota

at all, and this you may Bee illustrated in the various mining speculations throughout Otago. Many of the miners and business people in the goldfields and in Dunedin have not shown themselves niggardly in supporting mining enterprises, whereby prosperity may be brought baok, but still every year shows a falling off in the gold returns, and a corresponding deficiency, of course, of the means between buyer and seller. If the proposal oould be carried out for say, £45,000,- this sum would not by a long way come up to the cost of the Nenchorn luxury, and as for the surety of the reward, the last 30 years of the history of gold mining in Otago

should amply prove the surety of it. Every winter when tbe river is at its lowest, several thousand pounds' worth is taken out by the ' ■ Chinese, while most of the Europeans are busy waiting for the frost to break up. If the waters of the Molyneux could be reduoad to a minimum as per the proposal, tbe probabilities are that patches as rich as those of the early days, in many places untouched, would be got in the crevioes of the bed-rook where the bucket of the dredge would be at fault, and jast a few of the Hartley and Riley's 871b bags during the dnll winters would not only make things cheerful in tbe towns along the river, but would infuse a new spirit and confidence in our resources through the land.

Hia Worship asked whether ifc would not be possible for the parties to come to terms. Mr Sim replied that he was only acting for an agent, and had no power to make terms. Plaintiff was nonsuited.