DREDGING SCHEME

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 February 1935, Page 6

DREDGING SCHEME

LICENSE REFUSED. BLENHEIM, Thursday. In tho Warden’s Court this morning, Mr T. E. Maunsell declined an application by Ernest Herbert Brookcr, a Wellington solicitor, for a prospecting license over an area of 99 acres adjoining the property of Maluikipawa Goldfields, Ltd. Counsel for the applicants said that it was Brookcr’s idea to secure English capital to finance a big dredging undertaking embracing over 500 acres of the Maluikipawa arm of the sound, facing Maliakipawa, and portion of the Cawto Estate, situated between the sea and the 99 acres now applied for. He asserted that it was not a matter of thousands of pounds but of millions. Under cross-examination by counsel for Maliakipawa Goldfields, Ltd., who objected, the applicant admitted that he and his colleagues had not yet secured English capital.

In giving his decision the Warden said he considered the matt'er of English capital to be absolutely in the air, and expert evidence showed that as a dredging proposition the 99 acres applied for was impracticable. For that reason the application would be declined.

It was intimated that an appeal might be lodged. An application by tho Maliakipawa Goldfields, Ltd., for leave to enter on the land and peg a claim was adjourned to 16th March, the Warden indicating that he would protect their priority.—(P.A.)