OUR WEST COAST LETTEB.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 19

OUR WEST COAST LETTEB.

(From: Our Own Correspondent.) ROSS, February 12. THE GOLD DREDGING BOOM.

Last Thursday quite a mild fhitter was caused by a prospector fetching down from the Ross Shellback Gully gold di edging area over 3dwt of coarse, shorty gold, of the value of 12s, it having been obtained from about three loads of wash dirt, and by one man for half an hour's sluicing. This is one dredging area taken up some weeks back for a Wellington syndicate, and, naturally enough, when the good news reached the shareholders, interests lose in demand. The gravel yielding the sample is estimated to live down to what is mown as the celebrated Itoss Flat lead, which is shoitly to be worked by Government subsidy. Old diggers, upon seeing the fine sample, expressed themselves in high terms, one pioneer remarking that they lerninded him of the halcyon days, when the Shellback Gully ■used-to yield as mucL. as £100 a week pei man. Of course this was but a. patch, but yet it seems to show there is still gold left on the surface, whilst no one knows what may be in store for the venture in the deep ground •which could not be worked because of water in the good old days. Last Saturday (10th inst.) I saw two fine samples of gold washed from the Aylmer Lead Special Claim syndicate, which has just been floated in Dunedin. Sample 1, sent to 33 unedin in its own drift. I estimated at about i Sdwt of gold; the second, 2Jdwf, was cleaned and purchased by me for 10s. The two samples were won from about 10 loads of wash dirt. ' On Saturday, 22nd January, a capital sample of gold was washed out from sand and gravel deposits, estimated to be 15ft thick, and underneath that is what is known as the celebrated Aylmer lead, the wash of which is now Tjeing proved by the Lake Mahinapua Gold 1 Dredging Company, to the north-east, to be j a stoney lead sitting on sandstone ! bottom, and remarkably rich, the promoters leaving already won over £3000 of gold therefrom. As it is hold here by many practical gold miners that this stoney lead extends from X/ake Mahinapua in the north-east to the Mikonui River in the south-west, it would in such case run right through the Aylmer Lead Special Claim. The Prince of Wales dredging claim, Ross, having struck a new lead remarkably rich, shares are quoted by both Hokitika papers as having changed hands at 19s. The Mont dOr Company (Ross) has just declared its fifty-first dividend of Is upon a capital of £12,000. It has paid £36,000 in dividends to the lucky shareholders. Down at Hokitika two more dredging claims nave just been floated and dredges ordered. The Hokitika River Gold Dredging Company, with a capital of £10,000, was largely over applied for, and a promoter tells me shares are at a premium. J The Prince of Wales Special Claim, started at Donaghue's, near Ross, and which has just been floated for £10,000, has yielded during the last 20 years 28,3500z of gold, of the value of £113,400. It is now to be dredged with an up-to-date dredge ordered by the company. Whilst upon river-dredging matters;- I may mention that every available corner of country is being marked off between the Karameas in the far north to Jackson's Bay in the extreme south of the West Coast, the place most fancied for a promising field being the localities of Ahaura, Orwell Creek, Grey River, etc. In the •former river a likely block of land' (Mr Watterson's, taken up by the Zealandia Syndicate, Dunedin) is much fancied by the diggers of the vicinity, and when an up-to-date dredge has been placed on it, I have little doubt but that its rich gold yields will fairly astonish folk. Many rich leads have emptied in here, and the surface workings were very rich ; but, as in other centres, the deeper leads could not be touched owing to the inflow of water. Tho dredge will obviate this, and I do not doubt but that Watterscn's, once in full swing, •will set dredging matters in the whole of the valley in no small commotion. - |