Notes from Bald Hill Flat. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

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

Notes from Bald Hill Flat. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

March 5. — All other branches of mining have to take a back seat just now, the one industry of the hour — i.e., dredging — being paramount, and nearly every resident who is not an investor is at least a premium hunter. Nothinghas yet been done by the local companies in tho way of placing machinery or material on the ground, although I understand that both the Bald Hill Flat and Last Chpnce Companies have made arrangements foi having dredges built.

A good deal of activity is being displayed by tho various companies on the river opposite here. The Manuherikia will most likely bs the fa-fat diedge to get started between tho Moa claim and Roxburgh, and shareholders in the various claims in that stretch of river who hold on until that dredge has had a run will not have any occasion to regret their investments. The Golden River Company will perhaps be the next, they having started to build this week, and at present market rates the shares in this claim are the cheapest in the goige. The Fourteen-mile is also expected to get a start before winter, while several other companies are well forward.

In some cases the coaling of the dredges will be a difficult matter, but not by any means tinsurmountable, and if Hartley and Riley returns are going to be beaten it will be by some of the dredges m this gorge. One would have thought by this time that there was no more river in that locality to float, but I understand thai Mr H. Craig, of Cobb and Co., has still an unfloated claim in tho neighbourhood of tho Long Valley, which if favourably spoken of, and will be placed privately.