DREDGING AT TERRA DEL FUEGO.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13316, 19 June 1907, Page 3

DREDGING AT TERRA DEL FUEGO.

Mr A. A. Mac Gibbon, -Hor.', has received an. interesting letter iroin _\ir Thomas Hogan, who recently went to Terra uel Fuego under tngagemtnr- dredging tyndicaue there, lit* savs : Wj Wti'.; put, to -work til..- day after we arrived litre, liuilding two divugts which we ;:re to work wlu n (Oinpkied ; but irs will' not- dredge any this Reason, as we havo to char out. of here in the- winter (ime, the. climate is so cold—vtiy heavy snow, There is no cliance of doing anything or going about. The company shift us to the seaport town —Vorveniiv by nam.—and h-_ re w-a stay,, doing nothing until ,h.- spring com.ix There are throe or four dr.Jg<.s at work, not far from us, but I have not seen them ytt. They are all managed and manned by New Ztaiander.—.hey will not have any other winchnien here. 1 have mat several of the in. Tli.y all flocked »vtr here when they heard oi our arrival. I knew most of them in New Zealand. I also met Charlie J-acey, from Gore, in Punta Arena?, which is th -< principal town down south, containing about- 12,000 inhabitants. . Th.'' dredging jno.vp.cts from what. 1 can learn, are good, and there is likely to be an extensive fit Id of dredges Our company are to build four dredges for a start. They ccot an enormous amount of mousy to build here, expert labour is so dear—all imported. There are abuot 7CO men building our first two dredges. There are gangs of Dutchmen, Germans, Au.--triar.s, Chiliiios (native ), and men frcm all parts of the British possession:-;. It is comical to work with tlieni. Sparii.h is the common language, and most of the crowd can speak only their own language. So each has to address the other in ."Spanish, and very often miserably fails to make himself understood. It- hj no uncommon occurrence, .for one man to addr+ss another in execrable Spanish and receive an answeT supposed to be in the same language. Resuit : Neither understand:-; the other, until one fellow blurts out som-;;thig beginning with a big D, when t-hty find out that they both are English. The people hers only take two mealy a-day—breakfast from 11 a.m. till noon, dinner from's.3o to 9 p.m. Ws did not like this, and now 'we've got an English cook, and get our meals a la Angle terre. They work, carry on business, run the traffic, trains, and steamers on Sunday just the same as any other day. We drew the line ab Sunday, and flatly refused to work, and they had to give way to us. We have an engagement- for two years on full pay (£4 10s per week) and everything found us. They look well afeer 'us, and none oi the other workmen.. are allowed .to come near our We have a special house, with cook, etc., and are not aeked to do any menial work. We luive lumpers to do all the pulling and hauling, etc. The average cost of working a dredge here is 40Coz par .week—this is well within the .mark . Coal, all imported from England, costs £5 per ton here. We are 30 miles frrom the seaport town, and everything has to be carted by bullock teams.. There are seven or eight engines on every dredge. They have two to work the winches, two for the pumps, etc.; all are lighted by electricity, and have a screen and elevator.