Notes from WaKatipu.

Otago Witness, Issue 2400, 1 March 1900, Page 19

Notes from WaKatipu.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) AHEOWTOWN, February 24.—Dredging is sti.] inclined to expand in this district, every little j>iece of ground available being pegged out and applied for. It is a matter for reflection that, with 'this desire for dredging claims, the actual start at work should be so long delayed. " A few months ago the clamour was great, because the local ' survey department could not survey the claims pegged out fast enough. The outcry -of the time was that diedging was hindered in its free development, and the loss to the colony was represented as something alarming. Heaven and earth were nio\«d to push on the surveys, but mow that the claims have b°,en surveyed they are quietly allowed to lie in calm abeyance. There is no loi.ger any hurry with the healthyjdevelopment of dredging. After all, men are only children of a larger growth. A new toy excites their susceptibilities, hope deferred maketh the heart sick, and often long before the bubble bursts all interest and expectations have died a natural death. These words are more the result of the current of the ink than of the reflection of a dredging mind, and must not be taken too literally. They have been compiled ala Kix> ling. The words have been 'given and are there, and the reader is supposed to supply the sense and the meaning, according to Ms lights and proclivities. Happy readers and happier author between whom this arrangement leads to rnuttial satisfaction. But all this is not mining information. And yet there is a strange analogy between this arrangement and dredging procedure. The syndicator furnishes the claim and the prospectus, and the public is invited to supply the faith in the venture, and upon the faith the dollars. Dredging may therefore be described as a kind of gold mining a la Kipling. The Lower Shotover portion (M'Bride's Freehold), lying between the lower bridge and the Kawaran, is now being prospected by boring. The results have not transpired, but to my own knowledge, dating back about 37 years, very fair prospects were got in the terraces above the river, up to a- height of from 12ft to 15ft above the then water level, while shafts sunk yielded prospects diminishing with the depth. The Arrow Flat Hydraulic Company have met with some unexpected delays in getting the water along the race, owing chiefly to alterations in the race since it was surveyed, for wJuoh^ however, the $xjeaenb manager^ ife J.

Martin, cannot be held responsible in any way. Good progress is made with the work, but it will still be a little while before work at the claim can begin. The Arrow Big Beach Hydraulic Company are now laying down the pressure pipes. Mr J. • Thompson, the manager, has made a good and substantial ]ob of the large tailings dam in Bracken's Gully, and has put the race in thorough repair from end to end, so that work at the claim will begin as soon as the pressure j)ipes are put in position. Quartz mining is lagging slowly along. The mines at work are not producing any metal at present, not one being engaged in regular crushing work. The mines shut down hold out no hopa at present of being teken in hand this season. The late Mrs Silk's venture, the Leviathan, at Skipper's Point, is in the market, and will before long to disposed of.