RICH RIVER CLAIMS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1506, 14 March 1887, Page 2

RICH RIVER CLAIMS

How often do we hear it said thai oar gold fields are la their infancy, and how many and various are the method* suggested for their future working and for the conservation of the gold extracted ! One subject has reoently more partfcularly engrossed the attention of cipltallsis, i.e., that of working the beds of oar rivers on a larger and more expanded scale than that hitherto adopted, Down country on the Olutha and Kftwaraa rivera dredging is the order of the d«y. and miles upon miles of these river beds are being taken np for tha purpose of developing their riches on that system, la Lake County there are chances of working portions of the Kawarau, Shotover, and Arrow rivers by other means and without the aid of c implicated machinery. We will take that portion of the Kavrarau river that winds rouod the peui-iBuU near Victoria Bridge. There, by tunnelling across the narrowest part of i be pen'neula and diverting the river thereunder, some two miles and s-half cf the old river bed — no less — would be drained a? d be opened for the operations of the miner, the greater portion of whloh could be ground eluioad. This would, without doubt, be the richest river claim m the col< ny, as it has never been worked, and the gold must have been deposited m its hidden orevioes for centnries untold, fud, as it has been, by the richest etreama m Otago — the Shotover and Arrow rivers. Here then would be a river claim of virgin ground 13,000 ft long by an average of some 200 ft m width, or 2,600,000 square feet. This, by means of probably some half O r threequarters of a mile of a tunnel, ocnld be reolaimod. It would, no doubt, be a gigantic echerae, bat the reward is almost a certainty. We can also point to many parts of tho Arrow River where, with an outlay of £1,000 or £2,000 the stream could be diverted through rooky points by tunnelling and the ground could either be ground Bloiced thioagh the tunnel or worked by hydraulic jet, aocordirg to tha natural advantages of the locality. Ground sluicing a river c-aim through a roca: tunnel can be accomplished where a large siip t lists and blocks the river, as Oarl Hein'a claim, Arrow River Falls. There the river bed has been blocked up for some two miles by an enormous glacial slip by the mountain Bide, thus causing the auriferous gravel to be deposited century aftac century m this portion of the river until it formed surface beaches of some 60ft above tha bed rock, at the rive r 's bottom Already a powerful syndicate of shareholders is forming m Melbourne to work this part of the rivor. There is tvory ress n to believe that this system of working will not bo confined to this district aloue. The Arrow River Tunnel Company (Messrs Sco'es and Company), pre the pioneers of tho system m Lake County. We have no doubt there are many point 3 m the Shotover — so famous for its richneas— -where tl^o river bed could be worked m the way above mooted.—' Lake County Press. 1