Kawaran Notes. (From Our Own Correspondent.) May 22.

Otago Witness, Issue 2515, 28 May 1902, Page 22

Kawaran Notes. (From Our Own Correspondent.) May 22.

The weather has beer, very stormy all the ■week, w.*h furious squalls of waid, ram, sleet, and suo v on the ranges. The liver is keeping ve:y low, aijd, if no warm rain comes, will be at a, remarkably low level this season.

The Meg and Annie dredge will have worked through into the old ground by Saturday, and will then lay up for a fortnight or three weeks for an overhaul. It speaks volumes for the dxedgemaster (Mr E. ll'Doua'd) and his crew that the dredge has been working so well and consistently without breakdowns, as several mouths have r.ow elapsed biucc the previous overhaul. The fact afso that the dredge has been getting very handsome returns all the time, enabling two good dividends to be declared, and a substantial rearve fund provided, must be very gratifying to the shareholders. The Upper Magnetic is still on the rich lead. A bar of hard reef may be struck here and there, but there is now ample evidence that the same heavy gold extends 'hrough the claim right into the Grand Junction's. The nearer the Upper Magnetic dredge is getting to the former's ground the richer and heavier the gold she gets.

As an officer connected the Defence Department has been empowered to visit the gorge claims below Cromwell, with a view of removing the debris by blasting, I think it would be judicious if the directors of tlie Upper Magnetic Company got him to ha<:e a look at the rapids (nboufc six chain 1 -) .n the ccntie of ihp Annie Qnp-nn claoin. These i<"imls aio caused

by some enormous boulders lodged in 'the bed of the riveT by the subsidence of what is locally known as Black Jack's Slip. Were the bulk of these removed by blasting with guncotten or dynamite, although the rapids themselves could not be worked, the dredge could with safety be navigated through them to the upper portion of the Annie Queen's cliim. Moreover, the removal of the obstructions would lower the depth of water now lodged above the head of the Tapids by several feet, a great desideratum when a couple of feet to spare in the length of the laddar makes the vital difference of bottoming on rich gold or not being able to reach it. A couple of Jitmdred pounds judiciously spent in the direction I have pointed out would be a good investment. I don't think it woxild cost more.

Although the Gentle Annie dredge has as yet got nothing sensational, she will, I am sure, be among the big returns before long, aa the wash and the nature of the gold is of the right sort. Last week she came across one of those tantalising hard bars of reef just as she had struck a patch of soft bottom, carrying good gold. However, ahe is over it now, and if "the soft reef keeps on she will be on the " metal" as well as the two dredges immediately above her. The dredgemaster (Mr D. M'Lean) has had to go to town to visit an eye specialist. A small particle of steel entered his eye some time ago, and as it is impairing his vision it has to be removed. Mr Joseph Hazden, the engineer, is in charge of the dredge pro tern.

Mr Charles Eillston, who is well and favourably Imown r.s having erected the machinery on the Metallic, Galvanic, Kawaraii Bridge, and Kia-Ora dredges, has bean engaged to recaulk and refloat the Grand Junction pontoons previous to the machinery being erected on them. Mr T. Jopp has the contract of cnrting the machinery on to the ground, and it is rapidly being landed there by him. Mr Eillston has a staff of men busy at the pontoons, and under his able management no time will be lost before the pontoons are launched. The buckets will be working yet this winter, I hope.