OPHIR. The Ophir Dredging Company.

Otago Witness, Issue 2373, 24 August 1899, Page 19

OPHIR. The Ophir Dredging Company.

Ophir, which is more familiarly known aa ■Blacks, is peculiar, in so far that no water has been . brought to bear upon its auriferous wash. Nearly the whole of the ground on Blacks Flat has been worked by hand, and some of it has paid remarkably well. Short races were taken in for sluicing the ground when circumstances allowed of it. The flat therefore presents an. aggregation of mole heaps, crowded as closo % together as they can well stick. The Ophir Company hold two claims of 100 acres each, and work was started in August last. Since then work has been carried on uninterruptedly until a few weeks ago, when repairs became necessary, and the screen being worn out at the same time, work was suspended, the dredging having to be postponed till the repairs have been effected. During the ten months the dredge has been at work a strip 130 ft to 180 ft wide has been turned over a mile in length, which is the length of the claim. This roughly stated means about 10 acres, or an average of one acre per month. The ground was pretty stony, and anything but easy worked ground, some of the stones being fully half a ton in weight. The ground worked ran from lOoz up to 31oz per week, and taken altogether the dredge must be put down as a fair success. The work was esseutially dry-land dredging, the dredge being floated upon water brought from the Manuherikie- River by a race constructed for the purpose, carrying about 10 heads. ' The depth of the ground varies from 10ft to 16ft, the bottom being a soft red reef, and very irregular, without any trace of a river bed or other formation, defining length or breadth. It is simply a string of patches, scattered broadcast over the flat. The nature of the gold is decidedly rough, with pieces up to ldwt and 3dwt each, there being of course also fine gold in about equal proportion to tho coarse, but there is no difficulty in s.ivinsr it. The dredge, which is an entirely --> | one, was built upon the gior.nd, Mi S David Robertson, the late dredgemaster, I himself building the pontoons, which a*e ; 56ft long by 24ft over all in width. They | are of hardwood framing, with kauri plank1 ing. The ladder is 45ft long. The buckets, which were made by J. Mann (of Dunedin), are of 4ft contents. The 12 h.p. engine and the 14 h.p. locomotive boiler are by Robey, a well-known English firm. Tho winches are by M'Gregor, of Dunedin, and , are after Mr Leslie Reynolds's patent, of . which Mr Robertson speaks in terms of j great praise, as simple and easily managed. i Cossens and Black supplied the gearing, ! which was quite equal to the demand made | upon it ; in fact the dredge stood the rather '•ough work she had to do remarkably well, having turned over more ground in 10 months' time than any other dredge in Otago. If proof of this were wanting, it is found in the fact that the cylinder of i the dredge was completely worn out in that I time, and had to be replaced by a new one, j whii:h is on the road now. This also goes ! to prove the rough nature of the ground. I The diedge was designed by Mr Leslie Reynolds, of Dunedin, and proved a very serviceable boat. The fitting-up was done by day labour, under Mr David "Robertson's I supervision. The gold-saving apparatus is on an elevated platform, similar to that of the Manorburn dredge. This arrangement affords plenty of fall for the tailings, and makes the elevator superfluous, ,as there are no high banks to remove. The cost of the dredge was £3500, and is a very well "appointed boat, having .given a good account of herself. Among the contributors who made the boat the success she is are J. SpaiTow, A. and T. Burt, and perhaps . other Dunedin firms, but the exact part they took in her production could not be ascertained upon the spot. Mr Robertson, the late dredgemaster, is quite a figure in early colonial history, having been the first white man who settled the present sight of Albertown, Lake j Wanaka, selling out to the late Richard I Norman, who still lives in the memory of | many of the old identities of these parts. I Mr Robertson also started the first sawmill j on the Makaroia, at the head of Lake

Hawea.' Besides this he was the builder of the first bridge over the Clutha, at Cromwell, and though it was only a footbridge, it was a very well-paying undertaking. All this proves Mr Robertson to be a man of great energy and enterprise, and marks him as one of those men who are eminently calculated to push a young country ahead. Mr Robertson's successor as dredgemaster tof the Ophir dredge is Mr Alex. Johnston, late engineer of the Electric Company's dredges upon the Kawarau. TINKERS. This euphoniously named locality, close to Blacks, is also to be assailed by tne dredge. Mr James M'George (of M'George Bros., of Electric fame, Kawarau), having taken up a claim at the mouth of Thompson's Gully, Tinkers, set to work boring the ground, and found an auriferous wash varying in depth from 24ft to 36ft, giving good prospects from top to bottom, and proved very satisfactory in other respects. The claim, when placed upon the market under the name of the Blue Duck Dredging Company, was doubly over-subscribed in a few days. Mr James M'George is of opinion that there is r big opening for dredging in Central Otago. All the preliminaries being arranged, tenders for building a dredge for the Blue Duck Company's claim will be called for in a few weeks' time. Since the floating of .the company two more claims have been .pegged out in the neighbourhood, and will no doubt be shortly placed upon the market. . If it could serve any purpose much might .be said on the weather and the journey, but suffice it to mention that it snowed, and when it stopped it started again, and bo on, till it looked as if I were to be snowed up with the rest of Central Otago. 'But as I was made very comfortable and pvell looked after at Mrs Gavin's Shamrock Hotel, I found it easy to brave the weather. It was, of course, somewhat different upjon the journey to and from Blacks. A (ride over the snow-covered plains of Maniol^to, varied only by a ride through the know-covered gullies dipping into the Molymeux watershed, has a touch of monotony lAs it happens the journey is made in two halves — that is, late in the evening and early in the morning, stopping over night lat St. Bathans. The coaches used being topen traps the traveller comes in for the (full benefit of the bracing air, that froze the beer in' the casks and burst nearly every other bottle in the bars of the hotels elong the road, so that one almost dreads partaking of the contents for fear of being jthreatened with the same danger. The deader who follows these articles, sitting in fc well-warmed, comfortable room, his slippered feet leisurely crossed, perhaps flittle suspects the discomforts under which Ms reading was • compiled. . Having said so much about coaching in .Central Otago, a word about the coaches and the drivers will not be out of place. .'Messrs Craig and Co. are entitled to great praise for the manner the comforts of their (patrons are attended to. The coaches are jeasy and comfortable to ride in, and, with'.wut a single exception, the drivers are solicitous of their charges' comforts. That they are experienced whips and fully up .to their profe'seion goes without saying, and •Messrs Craig and Co. may well* be complimented on possessing so efficient a staff of men. The horses also are of a very euitable stamp, and anyone contemplating a {journey to or through Central Otago need not be deterred from doing so on account of the coach service.