RIMU DREDGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 March 1922, Page 3

RIMU DREDGE.

OTAGO COMMENT

Writin" editorially on March 22nd, the Vnedin Star” had the follow-

m “Tlie information concerning the operations of an American gold-dredg-ing syndicate at Rimu Flat, given by the Minister of Mines yesterday « likely to he received with mixed eelings.Mr Anderson gave New Zealand mining enterprise rather a rap over the knuckles. He said that this particular ground was tested by Government boring some years ago, and the results were made available to anyone.. but it remained for the Ameneans .to put the matter to praoHeal uro of. Tliis they have done, it is believed with results very gratifying themselves. They are working on a big scale and propose to enlarge - Seeing that dredging for gold is a Now Zealand invention, it is rather a blow to our armour propre that t mse who ha)vo imitated us in the process elsewhere now apply it on our own soil. It may he that so many local people have lost money over gobdredging that they are extremely loth to til row good money after bad. Experience bus tangh move tlwJi once that promising results from bores are no .sure guarantee of success on the commercial scale. The upshot of the combination of American enterprise and our own excess of eaufon is that nothing of any benefit accrues to New Zealand out of a big and evident > profitable venture except wages. The equipment is American, and the gob won goes to America, though the itention in the Dominion of all that is won from the bowe-ls of the earth is a matter of far greater economic consequence in these days than it has ever been before. “There is, however, another aspect and a, much more serious one. In a mdinner of speaking this American syndicate! may he despoiling us m a double sense. Rimu Flat lies closei to Hokitika, It is well timbered. This forest o-rowth is being cleared in advance of dredging operations, and the sur-face-stripping overlying the goW-bejr-ing wash consists of several feet depth of magnificent soil—virgin bush soil. This is the only land of this kind adjacent to Hokitika, and should he doubly valuable on account of Its limited area and its position Yet it is being turned into waste land foi < time at a rate which is now to be doubled. The dredge leaves m its wake a stretch of huge boulders. Leaving aside the destination of the gold won, is it worth the true economic value—not the market value-of this particular piece of land for "grrcrdtiiral purposes to Hokitika, to,the MeCoast to New Zealand? The Smith Island has provided in the past too many instances of the destruction of arable land by dredging and sluicing The occurrence of gold is such tha it is usually the only arable land in a district which is thus marked out for destruction. Th e district represented bv Mr Anderson in Parliament .abound in these cases. There have been many protests against a penny wise and pound foolish policy, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, in particular, never failing to raise his voice against it. Before dredging languished as a home industry’ an was made to ameliorate tbe evil by the authorities Insisting that the surface alluvial soil should be redistributed over the gravel and boulder tailings, instead of being washed down a sludge channel. Why has not a similar proviso been made in regard to Rimu Flat? Several questions in regard to this particular enterprise have been asked in Parliament. Mr Stntham having been pertinacious in tne matter but no amount of pertinacity Ims availed against Ministerial reticence. Now that Mr Anderson has brought the subject up he might as well go on with it and say all that there is to be said. He will have some eager listeners.”