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Dunstan Times, Issue 366, 30 April 1869, Page 2

Aftfr writing so often upon the value of the new industry, dredging the river beds for gold, it gives us great pleasure to learn that all we have written upon that subject has not been in vain, and what we have said about the certainly remunerative nature of this novel system of obtaining gold is upon the eve of becoming vc_ rifled. At the Teviot, great attention is now being paid to dredging the bed of the Molyneux, and we learn from the most reliable authority, that the whole number of the machines there are upon payable ground. Those of our Alexandra friends, who have chosen the Teviot as a field of enterprise this winter, are very sanguine of their prospects, and trials already made leave no doubt but that upo the river reaching a little lower level, their golden expectations will be fully realized. That dredging for gold will presently assume gigantic proportions there is no reason to doubt; besides the Molyneux, the Upper Clutha, Kawarau and Shotover rivers all contain gold in large quantities, each have been famous for their beach workings, and gold has also been obtained from them by hand dredges, but the appliances used being of such

a primitive nature, little progress was made, yet, from What wo personally know, about the matter, we feel convinced that had operations been conducted upon a more extensive scale, success Would have been certain. The beeches of Lakes Wakatip and Wanaka both contain gold, on the shores of the former only last- winter, we saw men getting gold in remunerative quantities by merely fishing up the gravel with a long handled shovel, the depth of the water only prevented them from continuing their labors for an indefinite period. If we look at our water courses with a practical eye, they are nothing more than “ ground sluices ’on a large scale, they have done throughout ages past, and are employed still in doing precisely what our miners are washing away the gravelly banks and terraces. Whole mountains and hills have crumbled down and been washed away by the rivers, and we all very well know that gold does not travel far, and that ensconced in rocky crevices or favorably situated gravel beds, it lies waiting to reward the ingenious and enterprising gold-seeker.