THE DREDGING BOOM. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2371, 10 August 1899, Page 26

THE DREDGING BOOM. TO THE EDITOR.

g IR> The boom in dredging will assuredly collapse in the very near future if the present reckless manner of disposing of dredging claims is contenanced by the investing public, bo long as there was available ground in the preeent river bed there was reasonable excuse for the boom, but the entire river, or at least that part of it supposed to contain auriferous wash, Las long since been taken up. Now, the claimhunter seeks property afield, with the result that he pegs in almost anywhere that ho can , procure the desired 50-acre claim. The Tesult , ia that several very wild cats are being applied for through our courts at present, hence the necessity of warning investors against all future ventures in the Dunstan district, as there is not one sound investment likely to be had here for very many years to come. The banks of the river forming" the Earnscleugh Flat on the west, and the Dunstan Flat to the east, are of an average height of 60ft above the present level of the river, and most of the deposit is so hampered with the presence of huge boulders as to preclude the possibility of its being ever worked profitably by any system of dredging. The dredges starting to work on their river claims may happoja upon poor ground. They can shift to gome other portion of the claim, •within 24 hours, and keep on shifting till they hit upon payable wash. There is' littFe or no expense in shifting about on river claims. But, cay thiit a dredge is placed on a bank claim, and when she hats paddocked to a depth of 60ft is found to be o.a poor ground, how is the shifting to be done? Any person of common eenso can figure the matter out. One thing is «ertain, however, the dredge cannot be floated along to some other more promising point of tha property. Some iinay say that the pro- I perty could be prospected to ensure the dredge ' being put'only -where golden wash was found ! to exist. Such could be done, I admit, but it 1 is not the diity of claim-holders to test the ground for this purpose before the public are asked to buy the "pig in the poke?" There is bo use us shutting our eyes to the fact that .the public have been taken in already; and them are men connected with the present boom who, though alive to the fact, have the consummate Assurance to still continue the milching process. I would, Sir, in conclusion, add that not onehalf of the claims recently taken up are worth the stakes that define their boundaries, hence it would be wisdom on the part of investors to decline further inducement to invest in dredging property in the Dunstan and Alexandra districts until it has been shown that the gTound, If bank property, has been well prospected, and found to contain payable wash. —l am, etc., A.ugust 4. Dredges. DREDGING THE DEEP STREAM. TO JHE EDITOR. Sir, —l was surprised to hear Mr W. C. *f acGregor state in the Warden'B Court on Friday that the Deep Stream claims could have been more advantageously dredged than sluiced, and in order to prevent any wrong impression getting about, as this statement was embodied in your report, I shall be glad if you will allow me space to give the history of present and past operations in this district, and a brief description of the nature of the ground and bottom in the company's claims and the neighbouring ones. Firstly, as to the company's claims. These were originally granted to various members of two syndicates, each of which tried to capitalise its holding separately, but without Buccess, and it was not until an amalgamation took place, and fresh capital and the inDst reliable engineering skill was introduced, that the public supplied the funds to launch tlie combined undertaking on its successful career. It may be noted, en passant, that each of the separate claim-owners, and each of the inspecting engineers regarded the properties from the start as essentially sluicing areas, although dredging was in full and buccessful swing at UiO iime under different circumstances elbe-

where, and this for reasons which will presently appear. At this iime, some " two miles "of the stream below, with its alluvial banks peg and peg with the company's ground, was unapplied for, and although frequently inspected by mining men — engineers, working miners, and speculators — it was such a transparently futile venture, that it lay month after month neglected until it was one day pegged out as a pot shot bj 1 one of the 80 odd men working on the company's race, for sluicing, he being careful to exclude the bed and banks of the stream, which would only have proved obstacles to his method of working. This ground wa3 examined and abandoned by the syndicate he succeeded in forming, because the i claims would not repay the cost of bringing in t water through difficult and expensive country, ! largely freehold, by means of a 20-odd-rnile race. In the meantime, and before the bottom had been uncovered in the company's claims above, the writer pegged out, and obtained under dredging prospecting license, the two miles of the bed and banks of the stream from the company's pegs downward, for dredging; but so soon as piosxseciing was commenced, and the undredgeable nature of the bottom was ascertained, and confirmed by the operations in the ground above, it was seen that the project was a hopeless one, and the property was offered to the Deep Stream Company gratis for sluicing, and very politely declined. This, then, was the position when a couple of Alexandra speculators came along, and no doubt stimulated by the success of the company above, and knowing nothing about the natural difficulties of the bottom, they pegged out and applied for the ground. 1 My title -was a bar to them, and so it was magnanimously transferred to them, for nothing, the claims, as I have shown, being too poor to race in the water for, and not suitable for dredging. These claims were- again surrendered at the "Warden's Court on Friday j last, although it was stated one of them is to be • taken up again for dredging, and as an evidence i of good faith it may be noted that the manager j of the company supplied the prospectors of [ this party with pump and necessary appliances, j and was instructed to show them anything that ! might assist them to ascertain the value of their • ground, in order that the property might not i unknowingly be placed on the market. This 1 prospecting -was subsequent to the taking up ' of the claims, which were applied for blindly, in a manner now only too general. This, then, is the modern history of the Deep Stream valley to the present time. So far as the configuration of the country is concerned, it may be described as a long irregular glen, shut in by hills at the top and both sides, and converging to a narrow, rockbound gorge at its outlet to the Taieri River. The total area of fiat auriferous ground in this seven mile rift in the hills, is possibly 250 acres, and the biggest surveyed aroa which has been got into any one claim of one mile in length is 40 acres. The bottom wherever uncovered has proved of the hardest and most uncompromising descripj tion, exceedingly crevassy and uneven, and overlaid by soil and drift to a height of 12ft to 18ft. Fine colours can be got from the lower and middle btrata of drift, but the payable gold is essentially on the bottom. j When the over-burden has been sluiced off • on the company's ground, an operation which takes about one-third of the working time, the paddock is dried as often and as carefully as ib needed by the pumps, and the actual business of gold winning commences. This can be carried on by daylight only, the close bottom wash and crevice stuff, which is loosened with pick points, being followed and coaxed and humoured into the elevator by miners with canvas hoses under reduced pressure. The veriest tyro will see that this gold could not be secured by the buckets of any dredge yet designed, and to attempt to pay a coal bill at a cost of 50s to 60s per ton from the fine stuff in ihe upper layers would be little short of madness. The indispensably careful and systematic treatment of this bottom wash occupies fully two-thirds of the working Mine, and it is this method of sluicing with a plant and water | supply which cost over JESQOO in haid cash, that

has placed the company amongst the dividend payers. • Before the claims came into the possession of the present owners, -a dredge was tried, and failed most lamentably upon the most favourable portions of the ground. It is tiue that it was one of an early type, with very limited capacity, but if it is urged on the other hand that a different result would follow tho employment of a modern dredge with the usual lifting capacity of 100 cubic yatds per hour, it becomes necessary to consider the life of the claims. Let it be admitted at once that the present limit of length in a dredging claim is one mile, and that under the act to hold the ground at present in the occupation of the company, four dredges would be required, the largest area within the boundaries of any claim being 40 acres. In order that the champions of dredging may have every advantage, let it be assumed that the average depth over the whole area is 18ft, which is much in excess of the actual figure, and tho total cubic content of their largest claim is 1,161,600 yards, which would be dredged by such a dredge in 11,616 hours, or 484 working days. This result can be verified by any child, I 4840 by 40 by 6 yards deep, divided by 100, ! and the result is unchallengeable. What, then, is to become of the magnificent machine which ! has cost some thousands to build and transport to this mountain gorge, after its 18 months' existence Upon coal at 50s to 60b per ton, and with its reputation as a gold winner very much damaged because its buckets cannot get underneath gold on a flinty, bumpy bottom, or follow it, octopus like, through fissures and under ledges? Would, or could, any self-respecting business man, miner, or engineer lend his name to a- prospectus seeking capital for such a venture, and would any investor be raßh enough to take up shares? In conclusion, let me say that the Deep Stream claims are worked systematically and continuously, and that every atom of power is effectively utilised in the only manner in which this valley can be made to disgorge its gold. When taken up by the predecessors to the present owners these claims had been partly dredged, and had even been worked and deserted