KAWARAU BRIDGE GOLD DREDGING COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2425, 5 September 1900, Page 21

KAWARAU BRIDGE GOLD DREDGING COMPANY.

A general meeting ot the shareholders of the Kawarau Bridge Go^l Diedging Company (Limited) was held at Messrs Sievwright JBros. and Qo.'s looms on Friday. Mr T. Johnstone occupied the chair, and there were 13 shareholders present. The report of the directors for the 10 rno3itb& ending July 31, 1900, which was submitted to the meeting, contained the following clauses ■ — " Your directors report that iianicdiately on taking office on September 18, 1899, they had an interview with Mr Payne, the engineer cl the company. The result of that interview was that Mr Payne was instructed to prepare plans and specifications of pontoons and machinery. Mr Payne at this interview stated that the cosL of a suitable dredge' would now considerably exceed his original estimate, in consequence of the great advance that had taken place in the cost of material. Plans and specifications were accordi/igly prepared by Mr Payne, and in October your directors accepted tha tender of Mr Morrison j'or pontoons, and in November thej accepted the tender of 'he Dunedin Foundry and Engineering Company for machinery. The construction of the pontoons is now approaching completion, but as regards the machinery a change in the firm with whom your directors contracted having, taken place, they have been compelled to grant an extension of time till January, 1001, to the Dunedin Engineering Company, who have agieed to take up the contract of the previous company. Shareholders are aware that the capital of the company is £9000, in 18,000 sh.ucs of 10s each'; of theoe 18,003 sluues -1000 paid up to 10s were to bp al'ottcd to the vendors, leaving 14,000 contiibuling shades available for the piiblic. The company was floated vhen 11,500 "shares were applied for, mid the remaining 2500 shares wire reserved to bo allotted at come future time. Tour diractors, .n *ace of the increased cost of the dredge, deemed it advisable, particularly as the shares were fcolliug at a small premium in the cpen market, to issue the 2500 unallotted fh-ire,. They ppccdinsfly 10-olved in February ks.t to offer thc-»,e &bara& to the contributing shareholders at pal. and in response to this offer ]659 "hares were taken up. The remaining &11 shares are still unallotted, nnd your directors intend to dispose or them a', suitable oppotlunily offers in tlie intercut of tho company."' The Chiiimrai, in moving the adoption of the report and b^lnncs sheet, said there hod perhaps been :i little delay in connection with the dredge, but the "company's principal difficulty aros3 from the fact that the firm with whom they first let the coutrnct had made arrai;p PinC j tl « which necessitated them hancmg over their contract to Stevenson and Poole, the Dunedin Engineering Company. Since Messrs Stevc-nsoa and Poolo had taken up- the contract th/y had lo'at no lime in pushing il forward. He had a letter Jrora them that day, stating the progress fbov 3:rd made with the- p-ork. - r l ho chairman read tho letter referred to, and then proceeded to say that it would bo seen 'thit tho dredge was well m hand. The directors when they first met instructed their engineer, Mr Payne,, to call for plans, and this time last year there w^s a great demand for dredging machinery, and iho foundries were all exceedingly busy. The direct oi s>, therefore, decided, on the advice of their engineer, to give as long a time as possible for the machinery, especially as tliev could not have had the dredge ready for the present winter ; and by giving a longer time' to the contractors it was found that they could get the work done st a lower rate; so that they would hardly be anything, if at all, behind time when "^ le work was finished. Mr Stevenson assured him that the dredge would be ready before the end of the year.- The contrast was let on November 29, and it was to be finished in 12 months. The contract for the pontoons was let on October 24, and they had been launched successfully ; and he thought in a daj' or two the engineer \ould lake them ovec fio.il the contractor. There was- a paragraph in one of the up-countiy paper's which would giye them an idea of the way things were garbled from hearsay information. It was' said that the Kawarau dredge pontoons on being launched had their backs broken, and one pontoon came down on the back of the other. Owing to this paragraph appearing up-co.mtry he had the true facts of the case put in the Daily Times. The pontoons were really launched very successfully light down to the water's edge, but one of them ca tight on a sandbank. That, however, was only for a day; and the directors had another letter from their local director, Mr Andrew Reid, to tha effect thai; the pontoons were now off the sandbank and afloat in deep water. He also said it would be a few weeks before Mr Morison got them finished. Going into the estimates, of the cost of the machinery and' the probable cost of, everything, he found that when everything A\as paid they would be very, little r-hort of their capital; so that practically they would be able to start their dredge' free of debt, provided that the balance of shares they had in hand were issued at par. So tolas he knew, and so for as he could hear from reliable authority, they had a splendid claim — > one which Mr Eeid, who had lived and worked on the ground for 30 years, assured him was one of the best claini^s on the Kawarau River. Me Reid had done an immense amount of service for the company as local director, and when his name came up fo; re-election he wished the shareholders would vote for him. Mr Shrimpton seconded the motion. Mr Kyle said he had looked at the claim mpiiy times, and each time he had looked at it the more ho thought of it. It wa3 a claim that could be very easily dredged. The Chairman btated that while they were excavating the road down to the claim they got some very good gold on the terrace at the aide. In the early days Mr Andrew Reid's mate got 261b weight of gold out of a crevice on the claim. A Shareholder asked if any boring had been done on the claim. The Chaiiman said they had bored on the adjoining claim, the Echp&e, to a maximum depth of 32ft. Mr Kyle : There was a good deal of boring there, and they got very good prospects. The motion for the adoption of the leport and balance sheet was, after further discussion, put and carried. Me&srs Andrew D. Reid, Alexander Kyle, and W. J. Burk were nominated for the position of directors. On a show of hands being taken, Mr Reid was elected unanimously. A ballot was then taken as between Mr Burk and Mr Kyle, and tlie former was declared elected, the Chairman intimating that the contest had been a very close one. Mr T. Callender was re-elected auditor. Some discussion took place about the secretary receiving transfer fees, and the Chairman suggested that a resolution should be passed giving him the transfer fees. Tie Secretary however^ iatima-tad t^at lie

[ held veiy strongly that tho secretary of a mining, company was not entitled to the tiansfcr fees, and he would much prefer that they should go to the company. He thought the question would arise some day as to how far it was legal for the secretaries to receive the transfer fees. Mi Kyle said if there was no enactment upon the question it should be decided by custom. He moved that all the transfer fees in future be handed over to the secretary. The Chairman seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously. In reply to a question, the Chairman stated that he expected that the dredge would be at work in March.