SAYING FINE BEACH GOLD.

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 July 1901, Page 3

SAYING FINE BEACH GOLD.

(To the Editor.) Sxe, —The new era of dredging which is being developed with leaps and bounds in our midst and for which there is but one fervent hope throughout the length and breadth of the Coast that of its assured success is my excuse for trespassing upon your space. It is admitted by all experts in Otago of dredging and so stated by the Government officials that there is a very considerable loss of fine gold in almost every case of dredging. If that holds true even in a limited sense in Otago, the problem becomes serious when we consider the conditions of the Coast. Already there are undisputable evidences of dredges'! at work on the Coast that if all the gold was saved out of the stuff treated, instead of there being a struggle to make working expences, dividends would be the order of the day. And the reason for such is obvious, for, whatever may be the results of dredging the upper reaches of the Grey and Buffer, the great development of dredging from Cape Foulwind to Okarito will he within a breadth of 3 or 4 miles of the Coast line. Within that belt the black sand problem is ever dominant. Very large areas carrying oxydised gold, in every case carrying more or less exceedingly fine gold witli its known tendency to float away. Ido not think it too much to say that upon the practical soluti >n of this problem lies success or failure of what might become the paramount industry of the Coast. One has but to visit one of our so-called up-to-date dredges to painfully realise the fact that all our great up-to-date engineers are simply not in it with the simple-minded beach-comber. He does not reckon to do a lot, but what he does is well done ; that while great expense is gone to to raise the stuff, there is no original effort made to treat the same in saving the finest of the gold. Every condition and principle involved necessary to successful treatment is violated upon all our Coast dredges. If this matter concerned a few it would not matter, but it concerns everyone of us on the Coast directly or indirectly. In fact tins problem has become a question of national polity. That is to say it deserves and requires the service of the State to assist in its solution. The Government recognised the importance of the flax industry to the State, and offered a substantial bonus for a practical machine to treat flax fibre, to strip the llax without crushing it and to remove its gum. It lias offered bonuses and subsidies for the development of its mineral and other resources, and has most wisely assisted mining in many ways. I venture to say that the importance of the solution of the problem of treating the sands of the Coast, of treating it in quantity and at a minimum cost the vastness of our known deposits fully warrants you in calling upon our costal M.H.lt., to bring under the notice of Parliament the need for improvement in gold saving appliances and to get a substantial bonus offered to competitors, the tests to bo conducted by Government officials. The conditions should lie fair and generous to all the competitors, at the same time the conditions should be of a character suitable for our large dredges practical use.

1 am confident that if the Government is faced fairly with the position by our M.H.R., the Premier who is ever keenly alive and solicits for the welfare of the Coast will only be too glad to deal with the subject, that a distinct advance will be made in dealing with this difficult problem is certain. I am &c., West Coasteh.