NEW ZEALAND GOLDFIELDS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 27 September 1901, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND GOLDFIELDS.

Mr. Warden Hawkins’ Report on the District.

I have the honour to forward herewith statistical returns with detailed reports from the several districts of my Courts of Greymouth, Ahaura, Eeefton, Lye 1, Westport, and Charleston. I am r--4ebted for these detailed reports to the

painstaking assistance of the Clerks of the several Courts, and to secretaries of companies, mining agents, and others for much information and I have to express my thanks to all for the service rendered. The department has sustained the loss of a most experienced and excellent servant in the death of Mr. Lucas, who was for over thirty years Clerk of the Magistrate’s and W ardon s Court at Reefton. I have to report that the district has been worked in the last twelve months without any difficulty, and, I think I may say, with no inconvenience to suitors. I have, I think, in every case except two, been able to open my Courts at every place at the precise hour and day appointed. Delays of a day hare twice occurred at Westport, on both occasions owing to the state of the sea and flood in the river. The new facilities given by the Railway Department for a through service between Grcymouth and Westport on Tuesdays and Fridays will not yield the full advantage until the Inangahna and Buller Rivers are bridged. The former will, I conclude, be bridged by next year. As to the latter, it is a matter for regret that the Government should have been induced to enter on the costly and tedious expedient of a loop-line road, which loaves always inconvenient and frequently dangerous punt connection, for which the Government and the public are paying several hundred pounds a year. This obsolete form of river-passage is the more to be regretted as an excellent site for a bridge exists a little above the Ferry, at which the river is conveniently contracted. While reef-mining and sluicing industries arc making fair progress, the chief development in my district is in the dredging enterprise. The following tables show the number of prospecting and special claims granted and the number of special claims cancelled and surrendered during the nine months ended 31st December, 1900. Nearly the whole of the prospecting licenses, except a few of those at Reefton for reef-mining, and at Charleston and Westport and jAhaura for sluicing, are for dredging purposes. It must, however, be remembered that an appreciable number of these prospecting licenses are renewals of those granted up to the 31st March, 1900.

At the end of April last I sent out, by permission of the Minister, a circular to 102 dredging Companies, which were all that I could then ascertain to have been floated, of claims within my district. Only fifty-eight of these companies have sent replies. The result of this circular is given in the Table A appended; in Table B the returns arc supplemented as to the remaining fourty-four companies by recourse to the “Press Investor’s Guide,” a well-compiled and valuable little boot. I must observe that the returns made were to some extent disappointing for the purpose of comparison, different companies having adopted different measures of certain units, and the return to other columns were so loose that I have thought it better to omit them altogether. If the Minister should be of opinion that such returns have a sufficient value, a well-considered form ot return should be issued in future to all companies on the 31st March in every year. It is not one which imposes any great trouble on secretaries. If the course which I suggested in my last year’s report had been adopted, much of what I have asked for could have been tabulated by the Clerks of my own Courts. It will be observed that out of 102 companies registered fifty-three only, as far as my information goes, had dredges at work or ordered, and out of this number, as appears by a report kindly made to me by a broker and mining agent in Greymouth, seventeen only are working. The return of gold obtained during the year is 7,G080z, but of this 0,4G10z were pioduced by one dredge from December, 1894, up to March 31st, 1901, and I have no return as to the proportion produced in the last year. Averaging the return of this dredge for, say,'six years, it would give 910 oz a year. Assuming that it is reasonable to adopt such an average, the entire dredging output in the district for the year ending March 31st, 1901, would be 30570 z. It must, however, be borne in mind that few of the dredges got to work before January, 1901, and that some are already indicating substantial and steady returns.

The following return, which I take from the Greymouth Evening Stae of 4th Juno, will indicate the progress made since the 31st March lasts “For the month of May—or, to be more accurate, for the five weeks ended Saturday last—the gold yield from twelve dredges was l,ooßoz 6dwt, made up as follows: Nelson Creek (five weeks), 2700 z 16dwt; Pactolus (five weeks), 1290 z 18dwt; Grey River (four weeks), 770 z; Reeves’ Prqr prietary (four weeks), 7ooz 19dwt; Leviathan (four weeks), 740 z sdwt; Maori Queen (five weeks), 7Goz Gdwt; Buller Junction (live weeks), 88oz IGdwt; New River (three weeks), 470 z 12dwt; Ford’s Creek (two weeks), 16oz Gdwt; Waipuna (four weeks), 250 z 19dwt; Greenstone Creek (two weeks), IGoz; Greenstone Junction (five weeks), 430 z 19dwts: total (forty-eight weeks), l,ooßoz Gdwts.

I do not think it within my province to express opinions on particular dredges, and I have purposely excised from the reports of the Clerks and agents all such expressions of opinion. ISoLdo I think that at present' the industry has been tested sufficiently to enable any one to arrive at any definite conclusion as to them. What I think can be said is that it is now proved that dredging can be worked to profit both on the Duller and Grey sides. There was too much haste at first, and it is not to be regretted that the state of the market effectually stopped many “wild cat” schemes which would unquestionably have been otherwise floated. Shareholders and directors have had time for consideration, and the result is evident in increasing prudence. I have thought it my duty to somo_ extent to try and discourage the entering’ into contracts for dredges until the ground has been better proved, both for its auriferous value and for the depth and character of the stuff to be raised, and I

obstacles which the dredge would have to deal with, and to meet which it should be designed. I announced at my Courls[tha if I was satisfied that a company wat diligently carrying on operations for ] th above purposes, I should gladly extend them time for commencing actual dredgebuilding operations to the full two years rather than sec them hurried into imprudent contracts. (To be continued.)

return of prospecting licenses GRANTED TO 31sT DEC., 1900. No. granted. Area granted. Acres. Grey mouth.. 172 14,724 Ahaura 331 26,980 Eeefton 82 5,518 Westport .. 93 6,088 Charleston .. 5 420 Lyell 47 2,618 Total 732 56,348 RETURN OF SPECIALX!LAIMS GRANTED TO 31ST DECEMBER, 1900, No. granted Area granted. Acres. Greymouth.. 28 1,871 Ahaura 89 4,744 Reef ton 12 599 Westport .. 36 1.810 Charleston .. 8 172 Lyell 27 896 Total 191 9,592 SPECIAL CLAIMS CANCELLED AND SCREENDERED. Number. Greymouth .. ... 36 Ahaura ... 21 Eeefton ... 34 Westport . ... 12 Charleston .. ... 4 Lyell • ... 14 Total .. • ... 112