A NEW DREDGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2051, 15 June 1893, Page 12

A NEW DREDGE.

The progress of mining may be slow, yet may be readily seen that the industry is steadily going forward on sound principles on every hand, miners being always ready to adopt any improvemeat or development that promises greater success in their arduous labours. Much time, money, and thought are now brought to bear on mining machinery and appliances, which are in such a forward state already that hundreds of thousands of tons of hitherto worthless tailings have become valuable assets through new processes having been adopted for obtaining the gold the tailings were known to contain even when they vyere iirsc abandoned. To take the goldmining industry in New Zealand as an example. Since Mr lerry started his first hydraulic elevator in Gabriels Gully and made it possible to make low grade washdirt pay, hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold have been saved that would probably have otherwise been now untouched. By theaid ot steam, old worked-out ground has been since reworked and made to give up £40,000 worth of gold on the Shotover river alone, and a still larger sum on the Clutha, below, say, Clyde. Still the word is "onward," and still another agent is being brought to bear that may perhaps eclipse all other means at no distant period. We are led to make these remarks through having seen the plans of what is termed, an "electrical hydraulic dredge," drawn from designs of Mr E. J. Foord for use on portions of rivers where it is at present impossible to work by any atmliance at present in use. It is found that the ordinary bucket and ladder dredges now in use cannot by reason of the heavy expense entailed in repairs and the necessity of heavy and ponderous machinery required in such cases, work effectively on rough rocky bottoms or where the depth exceed?, say, 35ft or -10ft. The plans before us show several somewhat startling departures from any appliances at present in use for this description of work, and provide for any depth, say, up to 60ft, being worked without any trouble. The difference ia the numbers of working parts in the two classes may first ba noticed. On one of tna dredges in use at Waiporl or on the Olutha oy