DREDGING IN THE UPPER GREY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 20 March 1901, Page 3

DREDGING IN THE UPPER GREY.

(7b Iho Editor.) t. Sir, — Thanks for allowing my letter of the <;th touppear in ymir issue of the oth. and hope you will kindly print my ansv, cr to Mr Wylde’s eriticLm. AI r Wylde writes that 1 place my opinion in opposition to the Minister of Mines, ami to experts from Dunedin. Ido nothing of the kind, i simply slate fuels. Then Mr W vide says that my facts "so called’ are based upon tbe working of the \\ aipnma Dredge. Certainly the dredge is a good one and np-te.la‘c, then Mr Wylde "a ■ snmes ■’ a great deal. If lie bad seen the dredge and the result nt it's working lie would not have written as be did. Mr Wylde says that helms known the Grey River for 35 years and he does not believe that an acre of bare rock has been uncovered in that time. I doubt if Mr Wylde has been to the Upper Grey and if he had ho did not use his eyes properly if ho did not see bare rock in the river. 1 will undertake to show him a good many places where there is bare rock and acres of it, if he will take the trouble to come to the Upper Grey. One place in particular, a claim taken up for dredging, where the rock can be seen, the water Hawing about from 2 to :3 feet deep over it nearly the whole length ot the claim. Then Mr Wylde says that what Mr Mackley presumes to toll us what took place some centuries ago, is directly contradicted by the pres: nt days prospecting and working. The working and returns of the Waiptma Dredge, which has been at work about six months, bears out ray statement. It has not earned expenses, in fret, has been losing as <he directors and shareholders know' to their sorrow. It is the only dredge that I s wording in the Upper Grey River, and d is the Upper Grey that I wrote about* If Mr Wylie looks over my letter, lie win find that to be the case, but to try and make good his argument that the dredge is paying, ho takes the returns from dredges that are working miles away, in different ground. Hie lower part of the river below the junction of the Little Grey I know nothing about, but the Upper Grey is full of largo stones. 1 imagine that out of 100 tons of wash only about 10 tons of washable send is left, there is no soil or clay to hold gold, and if Mr Wylde could take a trip up here, I could soon convince him of what I write is the truth. I remain, — S. M. Mack ley.