The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times. HATCH BAY, JANUARY 16th, 1926. A NATURAL ASSET.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 January 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times. HATCH BAY, JANUARY 16th, 1926. A NATURAL ASSET.

(loi.u is :i nuturnl asset of Wesflaml. it /Was the magic mineral which at the outset gave life and being to the district. In these later years with the gold-fields believed to he worked out; with the townships built on the goldfields, decaying, we are prone to think off-hand, that the golden age is past, and that the history of Westland as a gold iroducing centre is closed. That this is not so; that it is hut a hasty conclusion to believe that it is so, is borne in on the mind by reading of what the Hi mu Flat dredge is doing for the gold-mining industry. In another column there are some particulars of the dredge, the most essential fact being that last year the dredge won 871-1 ounces, or a total to date of 43,7(50 ounces of a sterling value of £190,000. Looking back over the years to tbo first Tlimu rush, and pondering on the densely wooded flat \vhirih spread out below the mushroom township of canvas which appeared so suddenly on the magic gold-field in the locality, it is difficult to conceive that beneath the forest there was so much golden wealth stored away waiting for the hand of man, combined with his ingenuity, to recover it. The miner did prolve the fiat here and there. A “lead” was picked np. shafts sunk, and all day long the golden drift was “whipped” to the surface. and in due course “paddockod” and “washed-up” later. There were those who had faith in the gold in Rimu Flat in those days. But it was a question of working the ground, ways as well as means. Water was short for liberal mining methods, and there was the disposal of the tailings. About that time the “hlow-up” principle had come into vogue in the Buller district, and it was thought to apply it to Tlimu Flat. The late .T. X. Smytlie surveyed a sludge channel course to the Hokitika river. Mater was to he pumped from the Hokitika river at the head of Soddon Terrace, which hv then was in being, but developments were retarded for want of water. But there were objections raised to the sludge channel—the chief being the silting up of the Hokitika river and harbour. The real difficulty was the want of capital, and so Rimu Flat was soared. Afe.antimo, the sawmiller took liis toll from the forest, and the region was opened up more and more. Road access became a necessity as a link for Rimu with the South Westland railway, then in course of construction, and the township was given direct communication with the line in anticipation of the time ultimately when the railway would he pushing its way via the Hnnst Pass {o Otago) Hut thnt was

only Macandrcw’s dream; yet Rimu got. its road connection with tlio railway nevertheless as the history of the project duly unfolds. By now the dredging boom was arriving. One of the earliest spots Tor promoters to try their speculations was Rimu Flat. It was pegged off for dredging areas. Some of those who pegged off the ground were laughed at for their pains -'-how could a dredge work the forestcovered land with any hope of profitable return? Nothing happened for some time, till at last more practical dredging people took the matter up. and a dredging proposition was actually under way. It was a pioneer effort, and failed as often the pioneer efforts do. hut the germ of the idea was there and flic richness of the ground had been proved. Then came those of greater understanding still, and of riper experience in modern dredging methods, and so that great problem was solved.