AN IMPORTANT UNDERTAKING. MINING NEAR. LAKE KANIERI OPENING A SLUICING CLAIM.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 May 1919, Page 4

AN IMPORTANT UNDERTAKING. MINING NEAR. LAKE KANIERI OPENING A SLUICING CLAIM.

Yesterday afternoon, at the invita-J tion of Mr David Ziman, managing director of tho Westland Goldmining | Syndicate, the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, (Minister of Mines), paid a visit to the new mining field being opened out near Kaneri Lake. Mr. T. E. Y. Seddon, M.P., Hons Grimmond and Michel, the County Chairman and mem hers, and many representative mon of the district also attended. The Minister, Mr. Seddon, and Hon. Grimmond, had left earlier for a visit to the Kokatahi and Koiterangi districts, and they arrived at the scene of operations, at the end of the newly made Ward Road, about three ’oelock, where they were met by Mr Ziman and the remainder of thg party \yho, left town shortly after one o’clock. Knnieri Lake road had been found in very fair order, the motor drive out being a pleasant one. The newly ! formed Ward Road, for portion of the j way was in fairly good order, but the second half was soft, and will require I considerable attention to enable it to | carry future traffic which promises to 1 be fairly heavy, especially when the ! sawmill now in working order has over- ' come the needs of the mining claim and ‘ Ins a surplus for export. Tho country passed through by Ward road is an ex- : cellent belt of bush which will be of ! great value from a sawmilling point of view, and it is proposed to fall and cutin to timber the fine trees, so as to ! clear- the way for the mining opern- ! tions, and so not waste this, valuable

asset of the district. ! On the arrival of the Minister an inspection was made of the intake of the j ppo line, at the top of a terrace close i by, where a big water race bad been ! cut to connect with the Humphrey’s ! Gully water race, a line of pipes carty- , ing the water to tho toe of the terrace i from where the mining operations are .to be begun. Half way down the sideling. an effective sawmill plant has been erected, and. this is now busily ' engaged in cutting the necessary timber for the opening out of the sluicing clam, a fine belt of good timber coun- , try having been secured on behalf of i the Syndicate. A visit was then made to the end of the pipe line and there lin the presence of the Minister and i the party, the water was turned on j through the nozzle. Steps were then j retraced to the camp, where refreshj ments were kindly, provided by Mr Zii man. ! * GOOD AVISHES. j Mr. T. E. Y. Seddon M.P., sand he. j had much pleasure in wishing the: i Westland Goldmining Syndicate every , success in their venture. They j had an opportunity of seeing -some of | the difficulties of the big task they had I undertaken. They had witnessed a ! blow-out, (the temporary pipeline had blown out, just after the arrival of the Minister, but had been promptly repaired), and he trusted that before long they would have another ‘blow-out,’ but that would be in honour of the success of the undertaking. He called on Mr. Ziman to say a few words on the promising venture they all wished to ho highly successful.

INTERESTING PARTICULARS

-Mi'. D. Ziman, (who was received I with applause) said he was delighted to see them all present that afternoon. It was now 2-1 years since he arrived in New Zealand from Johannesburg, and he then had the good fortune to be introduced to the late Mr Seddon, whose son, Oapt. Seddon he was delighted to see with them that day. It was the late Premier who induced him to come to see the West Coast Gold : field. The late Mr. 11. A. Gordon, of the Mines Department, who met him at Jackson’s, brought him first to Hokitika, and Humphreys Gully, and afterwards to llecfton. After inspecting the West Coast .Mines he saw great possibilities of profitably increasing the gold output on the West Coast. Ileforo he was three months in New Zealand, he had invested tens of thousands of pounds, and before twelve months after his arrival, he had provided, for working capital and the purchase of mines, a quarter of a million sterling. With that money and labour we have produced many million pounds worth of gold. He was very ambitious, and at one time he aimed to make the West Co ast gold industry equal to that of South Africa. He was still hopeful of this becoming accomplished, by his son, who is still at school in England. The gold in its virgin state is here. As regards gold in quartz, he assures them that there is not a more true fissure vein carrying gold in payable quantities persistent, and in depth, than the Blackwater reefs. His Syndicate has cut at a depth of 13d0 feet, highly payable gold bearing reefs. With regard to alluvial, he assures them that the 20 millions pounds worth of the precious metal recovered is merely a small share, compared to what is left. Everyone of them here have seen that they have driven practically all the way for ten miles through old workings, where gold in large quantites has been won. Ho had recently been for another ten miles of this race on the Upper reaches of the Aralmra: Valley, and had found everywhere gold bearing gravels. In fact all the ditching is : practically through gold bearing grav. ‘ els. We found gold in the 100 chains of race extension, and in places it was highly payable. With regard to the race itself, it has a total length of 18 miles, and carries about 40 heads of water. Wo have by this race deviation shortened it somewhat, and increased the height of work ! ing pressure by 2d feet. Just where the Hon. Minister of Alines used the.' nozzle, it has a pressure of a little over, two liunred feet. Ho was not far! wrong if he said that this race is capable of developing close on 1000 horse power. About two miles from here, the race goes through a very large stor- 1 age dam, capable of holding 3 days supply of 40 heads of water. j One pijio line 3ft. in diameter, is over, 00 chains long and another 20 chains. The pressure pipes sire also over 50 chains long. It would be almost all ini- 1 possibility to build such si work at so high an altitude just now, owing to .the scarcity of labour. Mr. T. Harris who helped in its original construction, ( and knows it better than anybody had | told him the other day whilst he was taking him, (Mr. Ziman) for ten miles r

over a portion of it, that there was not enough money in the Bank of England to pay for its construction at the present time. Mr Harris knows the race well and he know the Bank of England, 40 years . ago. One lias to have regard to his opinion on the construction of the race. Mr Harris did not, however, express any doubt about there not being gold in the terraces to pay for the construction of another race of its equal size. Mr Bassett estimates that the permanent supply of water in the upper reaches of the Arahura River is over 1000 heads.

The sawmill they had seen will cut the timber off the land before the ground is sluiced. He mentioned that the two Syndicates he had formed are most enterprising. The one at the Blackwater, is equipping and developing a payable quartz gold mine and this Syndicate is now dredging for gold, a swamp. They were also cutting and milling white pine timber, clearing tlie swamp before dredging, and will soon be erecting another very large sawmill. He had every hope that the Government will assist in making the Kanieri Lake Road, which his auditors had travelled over that day, fit for heavy traffic.

Ho wa's pleased to state that Mr. It. Speed, their dredgemastor, at the Arahura, has many returned soldiers working at the dredge, (T out of 12), and Mr. Bassett lias had on the race, 9 out of 30. The men at the dredge are in a permanent position and he hoped to find work for many more returned men, to whom they always give preference.

Mr Bassett has had many difficulties in getting the work completed. He thanked him and Mr Harris and. staff, for having finished so as to enable the Mon. Minister of Mines to turn on the water. .He wished to thank Mr MacDonald for having done so. He expressed Ids gratitude to his Syndicates shareholders, all New Zealand gentlemen, for having provided the funds which enabled him to bring this great work to the gold producing stage, and ho hoped that they will get all they, deserve, and be rewarded for their enterprise. He hoped that the shareholders and others will visit and inspect their, extensive operations for themselves. He thanked them all for their kind attention, (applause). THE’ MINISTER’S TOAST.

The Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald said that after hearing the interesting account given by Mr Ziman, he would ask the assemblage join him and drink the health of the Westland Gold-min-ing Syndicate and their director, Mr Ziman. It said a great deal for tho Syndicate, continued the Minister, who have found the money for such a large undertaking. The shareholders include Hawke Bay and other North Island.men and in spite of the shortage of money due to tho war, it appeared they had all pulled together again to help in this venture. It was a work of very great magnitude and would test a great area of country. If it proved successful, as he sincerely trusted it would, it would be the forerunner of many further similar operations on a large scale, lie trusted that the gold that the present undertaking would cost would be well repaid and that it would return a handsome profit, and would conclude by asking those assembled to drink to the distinct success of the operations now being carried out. Tho toast was heart ily drank, with cheers for the Syndicate, for Mr Ziman, for the Minister and for the workmen. OTHER SPEAKERS.

Hon. H. L. Michel in endorsing the good wishes for success, said he was one of the first to welcome Mr. Ziman to this district. He well know the success that had attended attended his ef-

forts in the Recfton district, and he wished him the same success in this part of the district. He hoped he may live to see the full measure of sucess he so thoroughly deserved and congratulater Mr Ziman in having the assistance of such a- trustworthy staff, including Mr Bassett and Mr Harris. Hon. J. Grimmond joined in expressing his best wishes for the success of the undi.i'taking. The mining industry had his best wishes and ho trusted the operations now commencing would lie crowned with sucess.

Mr. T. W. Huff, (County Chairman) expressed his pleasure to be present to wish well one of the largest mining ventures that had operated in the district. Its success would prove a very great benefit to Westland and he hoped that tho management would secure such a return that their large outlay of labour and capital so thoroughly deserved.

This concluded the ceremony and the Minister and party then entered their cars .and motored back to Hokitika which wa's reached about 5 p.m.