THE HOROWAI PROSPECTUS TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 20

THE HOROWAI PROSPECTUS TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — I have just seen the glowing prospectus of the Horowai Gold Dredging Company's claim, and as I have worked and lived in the neighbourhood of the said claim for the last' 25 years, and have known the ground and those who worked it since before the " Old Man " flood in 1862 or 1863, I consider it my duty to caution intending investors, and to advise them either to see the claim for themselves, or cause inquiries to "be made of' people who have lived in the vicinity before the fall of Reid's slip into the Kawarau. The ground in the Arrow part (of 41 acres) has all been, worked once (with the exception of a small paddock at the mouth of the Swift Burn), and all above the Swift Burn three times — once by Europeans and twice by Cliinamen, who turned the nvei from side to side, and worked it so thoroughly that although the reef was (before Reid's slip) all bare with the excention of the narrow slip on the west side where tha river ran, I, as well as others, have gone ovei the whole of it looking for gold, and have never been able to pick up a single speck. When Reid's slip blocked the Kawarau it. caused a foot or two of worthless tailings to settle on the reef, and that is all the dredge will have to work. Where the clay bottom comes in I do not know, as that is all blue slate leef, and neither I nor r>ny of those ■>• orking in the vicinity have seen the low terraces that are spoken of, and they a\e not There now. Mr. Preston advises that the dredge shoiild start * at a lower part of the claim on the east side" and woik into the bank. That would puzzle, them, as it is nothing but leef lising to the road. Regarding the Kawarau portion of the" clnim, another and I stepped the gxound -betiyerti the pegs, and made it far less than 400viiids ia length. As the river in Ihe most part. of that is narrow, not averaging more than a chr.in and a-half -<vide, -where do the 12 acres come m? What Mr J. Williams says in his 3-eport regarding the gold got by Cooper and 1 ' Greyerbcihl is perfectly true, and Lang and Dodds got far more, but the portion of the river held by the Horowai is mostly taken up by Reid's slip, and another large slip' immediately above it, leaving about one acre of dredgeable ground, and it is doubtful if the most -powerful dredge in Otago -would bottom, that, as tho slips have so raised tlie river that

it is r at least Bft higher at the Morven Ferry than, one mile up the river. I wonder howimany paying shares the vendors are taking up. The . least investors, can do to protect themselves is to have a clause inserted in the deed of -Sale- preventing the sale of paid up scrip ■until the first dividend is paid. I may as well state that I am not? interested in any dredge, and' don't even know Mr Sorenson. I, therefore, have no axe of my own to grind- — I am, etc., Fbank Habbottle. ([The brokers in Dunedin inform us that they arc thoroughly satisfied as to the genuineness of the Horowai claim, and that the vendors liave shown their faith, in. it by taking up 1500 shares in the company; while, apart from these, over 1000 contributing shares yfexe taken up in the vicinity. — Ed.]