The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1926.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1926.

GOLD DRUDGING. The addition of another electrically driven dredge to the \\ est Coast field is a forward step which is a reminder that gold-mining is not dead yet. Although there has been a. slow passing of the alluvial gold miner, and the places which knew him best are hut shadows ot their former glory, we have got to hear in mind that in mining as in all other industrial pursuits, there is a process of evolution going on, and so changes are accounted for. Yet that fact alone does not account for the vanishing of alluvial mining, nor does it mean the end of the gold rush. It is too much to suggest that all the alluvial fields have been discovered and worked out.' There is such a wide range of maiden country in the hack blocks that there must he much hidden wealth waiting for the mo venturesome miner to try his luck again in out of the way places. The reports from the experts embalmed in the geological papers refer to many places of likely promise, hut whether it is that the type of miner who delighted in prospecting for himself has passed away, we know not, but the fact remains that the gold rush period is but a memory of the past, and interest in a revival in mining nowadays is mainly a matter of faith, without the hacking of deeds to assure hopes coming true. But if alluvial mining is decaying. the work left undone by the alluvial worker is being followed up by the gold dredge. At Rimu Flat there is a great tract of country, which in former times carried a large operating population. When the easily obtained gold was won by the methods usually followed by the alluvial worker. the ground was abandoned, and in its place came the gold dredge. Now more gold is being won than ever in the past, hut it is by a different method, one calling for a considerable capital expenditure. It is necessary to delve deeper and more difficult ground is being worked, hut the results achieved suggest to the mind what treasure must still be below in many alluvial fields where the ground was considered worked out long ago in the days following the rushes. In the second dredge which set to work last week at Dunganville there is another case in point of an alluvial field operated upon formerly providing the promise of payable ground for a costly electrically operated dredging scheme. Although New Zealand was the nursery of the geld-dredging principle, it was from America came the more advanced development methods, and like the dredge at Rimu, the dredge at Dunganville is founded on a similar arrangement of machinery, and largely resembles 'the successful venture at South Hokitika. It is to be hoped that the success demonstrated at Rimu will be repeated in the north. A healthy revival in gold mining is now well overdue and would be very acceptable. With the sawmilling industry rather overdone at present a second string to our outlook for future prosperity would be welcome indeed, and so in all earnestness every success can he wished the gold dredging ventures in our midst.