ALEXANDRA BONANZA GOLD DREDGING AND SLUICING CO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2394, 18 January 1900, Page 54

ALEXANDRA BONANZA GOLD DREDGING AND SLUICING CO.

An extraordinary general meeting of the Alexandra Bonanza Gold Dredging and Sluicing Company was held in the Chamber of Commerce on Monday afternoon to consider, and, if thought fit, to puss the following resolution: — " That the capital of the company be increased to .£30,000 by the creation of 15,000 new shares of £1 each, of which 12,000 shall be offered pro rata. to shareholdeis, the calls upon which shall be payable as follows— viz., Is per share

on application, Is per share on allotment, and the balance in instalments of Is per share, payable^ at intervals of not less than one month." The Chairman (Mr Wm. Brown) said that on the 20th December last a preliminary meeting was convened, and the whole of the circumstances of the company were submitted by Mr Reynolds, and the reason for this increase of capital gone into. A resolution was then passed that + he directors be empowered to take all necessary steps to increase the capital tO£30,000, and this special meeting was the first of tv/o necessary to pass the resolution now submitted, if shareholders thoxxght fit. The operations of the company had been somewhat delayed by circumstances over which the directors had no contiol whatever. Immediately, after the floating of the company the rights to the water races and the water privileges had. been attacked by others, who wanted the use •of that water in a different direction. The case was brought before the Warden's Court, and the decision was delayed for nearly two months. When the warden did give its decision, it was about the beginning of November, and if; was immediately submitted to the directors. The directors at the time determined that the next step should be to go to the claim itself, and examine it as far as they could on a flying visit, and report to the shareholders what steps they would recommend to the company with regard to working the claim. The warden's decision was entirely in favour of the company, and it did so much good that it not only confirmed to the company the acquired title to the rights bought from the vendors, but it acquired to the company a further right to" some 50 heads of water out of Greenland Swamp, which the company had not before. That right was a valuable right, and in taking into consideration the policy to be pursued by the company, it was necessary to hold in view this newly-acquired right of 50 heads. Possibly a few of those present had been on the claim, and were acquainted with, the circumstances of the property, and of the water; but, for the information of others, it might be well, if they would be patient for a minute or two, to describe the place the company had. They had seen reference made to a basin in the prospectus of the propert3 r . That comprised four or five hundred acres, the three sides of x which were confined by rock, and the other side lan up to the mountainous point of the Manuherikia Valley. At the upper, or far, end of that basin there was BlackwalFs face, and a gorge cutting through the surrounding rock had enabled miners in the early days to get a. fall for sluicing over ,to Elackwall's face, which was at that point some 200 ft lower. This was tlio only' point at which that basin had been worked, and the basin itself 'was only part of a terrace, and outside of that basin there was what was known as Hansen's face, or terrace. It was quite similar ground — broad, flat terraces, very good, easily worked ground, — but with sloping ridges, quite the reverse to the basin, on its three sides, and it was at that point that the directors recommend that operations should begin. At that point Hansen and party had been working for some 10 or 12 years, and had turned out a large quantity of gold.- The water they had at their command was small in comparison with the water the company had the right to, and it had taken them a long time to do the -work. With the water the company had at their command they should be enabled to run through quite as much in one year as Hansen and party had run through in perhaps 10 years. As regarded the water rights themselves, the company had the first right to the 20 heads, and another right, as he had told them, to 50 heads recently granted.' It was the directors' desire, to bring in, if- nofcthe full 70 heads, at any rate 40 heads, along that race; to widen the race, and bring in water for the purpose of stripping Hansen's terrace. They saw it would be quite compe- , tent for them to leave over work at the basin for some time to come, because that was commanded by their water, and their water only, and consequently they did not fear that that portion of the land would ever be touched. At Hansen's terrace they had the opportunity of sluicing away the upper portion of the ground to make way for the proposed dredge. In doing so they would have very much less to do by steam power, and the dredge itself would be one-of less capacity, thereby saving some. £8000 on the construction of each dredse that might be put there. The ground waa .good ground. They had seen it, and prospected it— not altogether to its height, — and had found, aa far as they coiild reach, very good prospects. In a 15-inch dish sJgr were got. What they might, and could, do depended upon the capital they had at their disposal ; hence there were two schemes — a major and a minor, — and the directors strongly recommended that tha company should go for the bigger scheme; hence the resolution now submitted, which was to extend the capital to such an extent as would enable them to bring in this body of water and operate on Hansen's terrace by sluicing, fo:by giound sluicing the great bulk of overlay that covered the rich bottom, which they knew existed there, would be removed. At the same time the dredge now being built would be ablo to deal more efficiently with the lower portion of the claim. Whilst the extension was onethat involved a considerable amount of capital, the directors had seen their way to include inthe resolution that the calls would be small, thereby extending the payment of this partieu-^ lar lot of shares over perhaps 18 months. They' were aware that the present issue of shares was being called lip at the rate of 2s per month. He might say that one-fourth of the new shares had already been spoken for by shareholders. He moved the resolution already quoted. Mr Wood had much pleasure m seconding the motion. He had advocated that the capital should be increased at last meeting. Mr Haugliton asked if the directors had made any calculation as io what returns they expected to pay anylbirg like a dividend on such a large capital as £30,000. The Chairman paiu the directors considered that the quicker the 'gold could be got out of the claim the better it would pay. If Hansen and party had, with six or seven heads of water, taken £10,000 or £12,000 out of the same terrace in eight or ten years, what might the company be able to do with increased capital? Mr Ross asked if it was intended to construct a new water race. The Chairman replied in the negative. The intention was to enlarge the present water race at a cost of £12,500, which was the engineer's estimate of the work. r The resolution was then put and carried xmanimously, and the meeting 'ended.