KAWARAU GOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 25 November 1924, Page 3

KAWARAU GOLD

THE SCHEME DESCRIBED. INVERCARGILL, Nov. 2:1. Notiiing in the way of a speetaele was afforded in the bring of such a first shot, in itself, it was no more imposing than the turning of a first sod, hut it may mean a great deal in this instance. Ii indicates the transit from calculation to action. Something is actually done. The dreams and the hopes and the beliefs of thoughtful men, from Yr.gel onwards, are about to be pm to the test, and the presence of the Minister gives the test oliieial sanction. Two years have elapsed since Mr E. .1. lies, the engineer, started taking levels about the Kawnrnu River and otherwise preparing |'or putting Ids great scheme to Hie experimental proof. Nothing has so far been published about bis doings nl that early stage. My and by they will conic into the history of ibis prodigious mid iomaiitic venture. Suffice it to state just now that he verified his ideas to the extent of warranting him committing himself to the enterprise ami taking others into his confidence. SteJ) by step the Knwarau Gnldmiiiing Company was whispered about, I ben sketched, then organised, then launched, until to-day the rights that! be orginally acquired are participated in bv numerous shareholders, who talk quite confidently of the scheme (I) Win Ibe gold; (2) preventing Hood in Ihe Moly neux at Malclutlui and oilier point.down the river; and Cl) so controlling this mighty stream, which discharges more water than the Thames, as to make it available for the generation of power.

Most of (he inleresled public think chiellv of the gold. Mr lies is not unmindful of the main chance, lint he says id' No. 3 that “it is the biggest item of the group.” The engineering design may be thus slated: It is to open out the whole of the present outlet of Lake MaUalipu at Frank ton Falls fo about four times its present size, bv taking away a large portion of the bank on t.lie hospital side, by removing all the islands that now contract the outlet, and by lowering the natural sill which at present exists, and replacing the natural harrier, which is not under control, by an artificial harrier consisting of ten gates that can be worked at will, thus securing control of the level id the Kawaiau River and enabling the crevices and hanks lo lie worked. The winter time is naturally the most favourable for working torrential rivers, lint in this case the winter level can be assurred in the summer time. No such plan has ever been adopted before, so far as is known, for goldmining purposes, but the principle of the locks is exactly the same at that employed at the Assounan dam. on the Nile, and it follows the experience of hundreds of places in India. F.nglanyl, (lei many and other countries. 'I he length of the Kawarau is about thirtyseven miles, hut it is proposed, to fry for gold on.a stretch of only thirty-two miles* from the confluence of the Slmlover downwards. One hundred and nineteen claims are planned for, and ol that number 109 are taken op. three in Melbourne, thirty-one in Dunedin, twenty-seven in other parts of Otago and Southland, seven in Christchurch,, twenty-seven in AVellington and fourteen in Auckland. None of the claims are regarded as suitable for simple methods of mining, therefore they will not be allotted unless men come forward who are prepared to put on dredoes or some other form of expensive "machinery when the engineering works are completed. The outlet will he spanned by a bridge 477 feet long and 10ft fiin between the wheel guards. This bridge is to lie for public traffic and therefore built to the requirements of the Public AYorks Department. All being favourable, the Haims should lie working in about six months ftom now.

record appetites. AA'liat is the big-rest meal ever taken bv one person? In the Transactions of the Royal Society, mention is made of a ten-year-old boy. who ate 3,31 b. of food in six days: while another, suffering from acute hunger, consumed 3.8411). of food in the same period, and then started to gnaw his own flesh '• A doctor records seeing a Norfolk f irm labourer eat a whole leg of mutton at one sitting. A woman natient in St Bartholomew's Hospital ate three quartan loaves. 31b. meat and several pounds of potatoes every day for tluee The ease is recorded of a child aged throe who drank two pails of water dailv and seemed none the worse Glassblowers have lieen known to drink fortypints of water a day. A French physician had a patient who habitually drank fifty pints of red wmo a day.