RIVERS COMMISSION.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4305, 17 August 1921, Page 1

RIVERS COMMISSION.

The Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers Commission, consisting of Messrs H. J. H. Blow (chairman), W. S. Shortt, and -G. Buchanan, resumed its sittings .in the Paeroa Courthouse SAFE AS THE BANK. On page 27 of 'the 1910 Commission report it was stated that Waihi’s prosperity was permanent and assured. Waihi G.M. Company £lO shares were recommended to the “widow and the fatherless” as being as safe as the Bank of England. Waihi was assessed at £6677, the Government at £1666, and the farmers nothing. Commissioner Blow: The farmers were liable for one-sixth, £1666.

Mr Richmond: The farmers have not paid. There had been no attempt to create a sliding scale, down for Waihi as the mining declined, and up for the farmers as farming prospered. Mr Blow: It was considered that the gold revenue was more than Waihi needed.

Mr Richmond: Yes, when one mine w.a£ producing a. million a year.

\ A COLLAPSING INDUSTRY.

Mining was now a collapsing industry. in January, 1910, the Stpca Exchange value of Waihi, Grand Junction, and Talisman was £6,147,000; in July, 1921, the values had shrunk to £1,027,000. Of this last sum. 'ihrpe-quarters represents cash reserves and the assets of the Talisman Company in liquidation. The investing public of England and New Zealland valued the assets of Waihi, Talisman, and Grand Junction at £l,027,000.' The value of the mines apart

from the machinery was practically nil. This left out the total of the capital of other mines '.that had ceased, Crown, Korn ata Reefs, etc. In 1910 .the Waihi main mines produced £1;306,550, and in 1920 only £325,000, a reduction of more than a quarter. The ole-reserves in the two surviving mines showed a life of feur or five years for, Waihi and 18 months »o two years for the Junction mine, thaj is, without further development, Mr Clendon : How long will-, Waihi Borough last ? (Laughter.) v The Waihi reserves to work on arc now only half of-what they .were in 1910. The cost of production had risen to 34s per ton ; the dividends of the Waihi mine in 1910 were £369,725; in 1920, £99,181, whole of which latter was paid out of .two extraneous sources, premium aßove*the standard value of gold (24s for the sovereign in Vancoucer, 30s in India),' plus interest on reserves. Had. the crimpany been forced to sell gold‘at standard values it would have worked in 1920 at <a loss. The Grand Junction paid ho i.dividend in 1920. and the Talisman had gone into liquidation. It would be hard to find a more dramatic change. In a few years the mining industry would not be there, and so some other bearer of the burden would have 'to be found. QUESTION OF -SLIMES.

The 1910 Commission expressed itself as satisfied that sands that would go through an 80 mesh'would go out to sea within fifty hours, without settling; . in Mr fenrgess (chairman 1910 Commission), who was well-qualified to judge, said that witnesses could not pqint to any place where slimes were -more than two inches thick. This was before the introduction of the tube mills. The present Commission’s inspection of the river proved that Mr Burgess’ conclusions were •fully justified. 250 tons per day of slimes were carried away by a mere trickle of a sluice stream, on a hydraulic gradient of one inch in 150 feet. The mesh had been fined down since 1910 from an 80 mesh, or 6000 apertures, .to a mesh of 40,000 apertures to, the lineal inch The amount that Would not pass through a hundred mesh screen to-day was insignificant. 96 per cent, would pass through 150. The Wailii Grand Jii’j.tion Company Crushed everything to a standard that would -pass through 150 or 200 mesh. Only four per cent, from either mine .would fail to pass a 150 mesh. All silt bodies which reached .the Waihou were then in a body of water of greater velocity than the Ohinemuri, which’ had broug it the slimes down thus far, and therefore the Waihou would certainly carry them out to sea. PERENIKI’S CUT.

Mr Blow : Wo.i'.i the same epneittion obtain if cut were made ?

Mr Richmond : No one anticipates that Pereniki’s cut will ever be put through. There was no accumulation of mining sands in the Waihou tha/t were of the slightest importance, Mr Richmond continued. The amount of mining silt was a mere detail by pomparison with the amount of agricultural land detritus. The Waihou, iti 42 years, had deposited at lieast 22,000,000 cubic yards below high water, and above that 28,000,000 on the foreshore, or a ’total of 50,000,000. Finer sands were deposited over an area pf 88 square miles. The total amount discharged by the mines from their foundation tp t date was under 8,000,000 tons, or under 5.G00 000 cubic yards. It logically followed that the mining industry had lit'-.'.e or nothing to do with the silting A She rivers. Six inches of current per second would move mining sl’mes, but it took 18 inches pace to move coarse river sand. It was said that the Waihi Grand Junction was working, as a mining proposition, at a loss of £20,000 a year; it had paid no dividends for years, but it contribn’cd gold duty, 2s 6d an ounce to the receiver of gold duty. The Waihi G.M. Company paid

£47,000 income tax ’as', year. The Waihi Borough and the mining companies had paid £23.000 to the improvements scheme —surely enough to pay for the paltry damage done. The mines were now wmfcing to ’o fine a margin that an impost of Id per ton would be a serious matter. Mr Blow: We must congratulate Mr Richmond on his able and ex plicit address. MINE SUPERINTENDENT. Edwin G. Banks, superintendent •for the Waihi Gold Mining Co., Ltd., gave technical evidence.. In 1910 the production .of the Waihi G.M. Company’s mine was £210,260, anl in 1920 nil. He was morally certain that no future flood would deposit harmful slimes on the lands. Some of the present-day stuff was inclined, to creep or liag in the slow-flowing stretch, but this was a small percentage. , . METHODS OF EXTRACTION. The of extraction at Waihi were second to none in the world, owing to the gold being so fine. The whole contribution might fall on one company in .time, as -the others went out.

Mr Clendon : On the Rising Sum Witness: I am afraid the Sun would set. (Laughter.) Mr Richmond : The intention of the Legislature was that the gold duty should be spent for the comfort of the miners, in the way of roads and other conveniences in the mining centres, and not somewhere in •the South Island or for improvements on the Hauraki Plains. The companies Were hit twice over, in that they contributed 2s per ounce towards the revenues of local bodies, and also to the rivers improvements scheme. Witness said about 360,000 ounces of silver were produced, which fetched 3s per ounce. Mr Blow: The 1910 Commission recommended ,that slimes of less than a certain fineness should not be allowed to be put into the river. It is a pity this recommendation in. respect to fine grinding was not actel upon, for then the Rising Sun people would not have been able to put all that rubble into '.the'river. Mr Richmond: Nor the quarries that metal and boulders in. To Mr Porritt: That portion of an ore which consisted of the clayey material has been defined as slime ; also that which would pass 100 mesh had been defined as slime.. This latter was a fair definition. A perpendicular current would carry a grain of sand sjx .times more easily than would a vertical current, and therefore a log or ’ boulder in the stream, which would cause an upward current at that point, would, wash the silt upwards and onwards. In any case slimes tijat had settled would be easily agitated and raised in suspension again.

To Mr Clendon: The Waihi G.M Company, Ltd., had 519 acres.

I How many titles dp you hold ?—1 could not say. Mr Blow : There are 36 mines in the Borough of Waihi. 1

Witness: Our mines occupy' 50 acres, bftt the exploration works ex tend over three-quarters of the property-.

Would you bind your company te go put in five years’ time? No, certainly not.

The production of .the company had been about .thirteen millions sterling. The 1910 Commission .was set up on the misconception that the mining tailings had done a lot of damage. Mr Clendon: 800,000 tons of the silt that has been put into the river c.ame from your end, and your contribution is £36,000. You want to glide out. What are you going to do about payment of the balance of £1667 ?

Witness : The imposition was monstrous in the first place. Witness said the clearing pf the Ohinemuri of obstructions would enable it to ctear itself. Mr Clendon: Who would pay for that, about £50,000 ?—I don't know. Mr Clendon: You have not paid the proportion allocated by .the 1910 Commission, or anything like it. Did you ever write a letter to the Bqrough Council telling it that it was extravagant ?—No. (Laughter.) Do you think the Borough should spend £4OOO on the Waihi beach for th© benefit pf your miners ? —Yes, I do, (Laughter.)

To Mr Richmond : Unless the next two levels showed marked developments of richer ore the end of ,L he Wafhi mine would be in sight. The mine-owners were never consulted in respect to the expenditure of £60,000 of “the mines’ money. Tt was absurd and outrageous having tp e pay for a bubble.

To Commissioner Buchanan : If the improving of the navigation of the Ohinemuri .to allow vessels to come up to the railway wharf were effected, and would save freight to the extent of 5s per ton, it would benefit Waihi.

An increase from 29/- to 29/6 per ton costs of production would not cause the mine to close down.

FRIDAY’S EVIDENCE.

Arthur Herbert Vivian Morgan, M.A., director of the Waihi School of Mines, said he had assisted in taking samples of material from the beds of the Waihou and Ohinenvui Rivers, 40 in all, in February 1921. The object was to determine the PToportions of mining silt and uver sand contained in the deposit. The bullion content test had been used, as a test in itself and as a-check on the silica content, which had been usedby Dr. McLaurin in 1910.

To Commissioner Buchanan : Pumice and fragments of volcanic rock were present in river sand; free

quartz appeared in both river sand and mining tailings. Gold in suspension in the water would precipitate upon decaying orgaric matter, such as brushwood, which might -become covered with gold deposit. Witness stated that analysis show that the bed of the Waihou river below the junction contains far more fine natural river sediment than tailings, so that the hardening, if it exists, cannot be due to the l/atter. Also, the bed above the junction, where there is no tailing at all, contains just about the same percentage of fine material as below, and in sampling was found just as hard to bore.

The methods of examination were : —(1) A grading analysis,' (2) assaying, (3) chemical analysis, and (4) microscopical examination. He de-*-ailed the various methods oi testing. To Mr Johnstone : The sands .were ■taken in his absence, but Mr Ritchie, had handed him the four samples taken by Ritchie and Ha'-zard in November 23rd last. Sample No. 1 was faken from Coleman’s Creek ; No. 2 at .the crusher plant at Gordon; No. 3 from Cassidy’s draip, Manawaru, and N.o. 4 from the river at Mangaiti bridge. He had graded the samples. Ahl contained deposits ranging fro 1 .! 55 to 77 per cent., all of which could pass through a 30 mesh’. Microscopic examination showed .that 21 to 37 per cent, were possibly mining tailings—they were fine enough for that. Chemical analysis showed that none of the samples contained appreciable tailings. The first three 'were take?i from the Waihou above Te Arohi. The other was .about four miles (felow Te Aroha.

Mr Porritt asked leave > have Mr Morgan’s figures of analysis tested. Continuing, witness said it was general experience that assay tests were indicative of the actual worth of samples. The possible cause of soft muddy places on the banks of the river becoming dense noted' deposits after mining operations, had commenced was not necessarily due to mining tailings. It may; be due to increased quantities of sand coming down from drains. He was satisfied his testing was a perfectly fair experiment.

To Mr Hanna: The specific gravity of pumice varies. ' Tailings have the same specific gravity as the bulk; of the Waihou River sands. Pumice j. s more easily shifted by water than are tailings. To Mr Clendon: He had bee.n in Waihi about 15 years. During the dry months there was very little water in the Ohinemuri River. Thepoints at which the forty samples were taken were by Mr Young; as thej r were points easily identified and at which cross sections had been made. If a bi ; g flood in the Ohinemuri disturbed and shifted, the large quantity of deposits 'on its banks it would have sufficient force or impetus to carry it right down the Waihou. . / To Mr Richmond: It would be much easier to get an accurate s<?mp.le from a river than from a mine., He agreed with Professor Jarman’s opinion that quartz sand added to stiff clay would, make the mass move free. <-

To Commissioner Buchanan: 'it would’take'approximately fifty hours for a particle to be carried from Waikino to the sea. There was no appreciable deposit of tailings apparent from the launch on the bank of the Waihou below the junction. The bulk of any deposits would be carried right out to sea. There were deposits of fine material oh the river banks, but they were not He would not say'that deposits on the bern in the Koutu cut would remain for all time, but if they were deposited by a high, flood, another flood no greater than that one could hardly be expected to move the deposits. To Mr Richmond : The Waihou was just a normab river, wish just ah average amount of vegetation on its banks. The deposits on the banks oi the lower Ohinemuri had apparently been there a long time. To the Chairman: He believed the deposits now on the banks of the Ohinemuri were gradually being removed by successive flood's. The scour of the river may easily ‘change from side to side. The removal) of all the willows would tend to hasteu the removal of the deposits. Samuel Leah, managing director of the Waihi Grand Junction Gold Co., Ltd.., said he did not claim to be an expert in mining. He was the company’s business manager/ He sented tables showing- the fl-Ashed product of the mills from 1906-|o 1921. Since 1908 his company had been grinding to a fineness of mesh. 3 total of 1,222,048 tons of material had been crushed. Of" this 17,353 tons would not pass through a 100 meso. The company at present employs 343 men. Thirty addition skilled miners had been engaged in the past few months. He would put on more skilled men if they were The. company was vigorously developing its property. The company had to date contributed £1412 8s 9d towards the cost of rivers improvement. Rents and fees paid to the Receiver of Gold Revenue in .the past ten yearjs totalled £4290 ; rates to Waihi Borough were £2lOO, ■’ To Mr Porritt: It should take from two to three hours to form the cake on the'filter basket. The Mining Act of 1910 sought to penalise any mining company which did not crush finer than 100 mesh. Those who crushed more finely should escape all penalty and be afforded as muph opportunity <0 use the river as any other section of the community, such as farmers draining their lands into the river. To Mr Clendon : He claimed that his company had a right to use the

Ohinemuri as a sludge channel. The Legislature had placed the liability upon mining companies “because they were the easiest to bleed.” The mine had produced about £1,700,000 since 4906. The £l4OO paid for rivers improvement in the past ten years was £l4OO too much. His company had never put coarse tailings into the river. He was prepared to “stand or fall” by tile Waihi Co. To (.pntinue payment would be a hardship. If a ’eallocation placed the whole of the burden\upon the farmers he was convinced the farmers would accept it in view of the fact that tliey had, done very well.

Ernest F. Adams, civil and mining engineer, who had practised for over 33 years at Thames, said he had vi intimate knowledge of the Goldfields districts. He had made a special in vestigation of the Waihou and Ohinemuri rivers for the 1910 Commission. Since 1883 the Waihou', Ohinemuri, and Piako rivers had been subject to floods. Mining operations had not increased .the floods. Floods were due to rajnfall.- In 1887 there was a rise of 27ft in the Ohinemuri, and in. 1889 a flood, nqgrly as high occurred. In 1894 a survey was made of the Thames Valley for railway purposes. The 1910 flood apparently was the only one to exceed the figures taken in 1894. A large amount of material excavated by roading operations years ago was thrown into the Ohinemuri —fully 50,000 tens, mostly hard rock’. Railway construction would, account ■for a further 60.000 tons of materia!, half pf which would be hard roc k. The Grawn Mines discharged the whole of its mullock into the Waitawheta. The Talisman mine added a' considerable' quantity. Metal quarries were responsible for small©>• amounts. Waihi, Waitekauri, Owh'aroa and Karangahake mines all deposited quantifies of coarse rock up to 1908. Some of . this would be carried down during torrential downpours and deposited in the . slack water of the Ohinemuri, Mr Richmond here pointed put' that when the batteries 1 cease work at mid-day on Saturdays the riv.er' gradually clears, and by Monday morning the water is almost clear. At Komi the clearness is apparent fifty hours later than above Waikino,\ He had not iieard of complaints 1907 by farmers on the lower Waihou of damage caused to their lands by the floods. In the flood of 1907 deposits of tailings were distributed in the lower Waihou. The 1910 flood practically cleared the Ohinemuri River of tailings. The 1907 flood affected -both the Waihou and Ohinenoturi. In January. 1907, the rainfall: in Wiahi for a fortnight was 25 inches. The Waihou and Ohinemuri since 1910 have /been capable of removing all deposits by natural process. The removal of willows assisted materially. Up to 1904 one company had deposited 140,000 tons of tailings in the Waitekauri stream. He believed that now that stream had cleared itself. The Kauaeranga stream,, "Thames, was practically the same as the Ohinemuri, arid he described the policy of dealing with deposits brought on to the Thames harbour foreshore by that stream. He knew of no deposits*of .tailings in the Waihou River help v low-water mark that could affect navigation or drainage. The amount of 'tailings above high-water marK was negligible. The Waihou will, by natural process, grade back' as far as Mangaiti as a result of the removal of willows. Had there been no mining industry, the problem of the Waihou would not have been different. The Extraction Co. had dealt with' half of the 2,000,000 tons of tailings deposited in the Ohinemuri by the Waihi companies. The work done by the Waihi-Paeroa Extraction Co. iriits.t have the riyer. The stop-banking was something bettfei* than the original state, for it apparently protected Paeroa from flood. The mining industry had .contributed about £23,000 for river improvement. He considered this" an adequate contribution towards effecting remedial works considered necessary by the 1910 Commission. Continuing, wjtness said he had made a special study of deposits in the Waihou and Ohinemuri. The top catchment of the Waihou was 197,000 acres—all in the Matamata County. This was upstream from the Mangawherp junction th© next section from Mafigawhero to the Ohinemuri ' junction, 108,000 acres ; the Lower Waihou', 99,000 acres; .and Ohinemuri, 81,500 acres. Total, 485,500 acres. The lower Waihou tidal bed from the old junction to the sea has an area of 3156 acres,. A deposit of lin in deptn from the whole of the catchinent area would mean a, total) of 12ft lOin cf detritus over the Waihou tidal bed. The waters of .the Ohinemuri were slightly charged with mining deposits. The companies would, have been much better off if the question of compensation for damage caused to lands were 'left to the ordinary method of settlement. Everybody had magnified th.© damage done by the 1910 flood. He had exaggerated, because nobody was able at that time to accurately compute the damage. Rcc’amation zi great tracts of country, protection to Paeroa and much farm lands liable to floods, had, been achieved by the rivers improvement work undertake;!. by the ' Public Works Department since 1910. A big area of Crown land in fhe Awaiti would become valuable when the Waihou stop-banking extends to Mangaiti. It would be folly to construct a big canal up the ■Awaiti until the Waihou stop-bank-ing was completed to the point mentioned. Payment for these improvement works should be confined to those who benefited. He had no idea in 1910 that the Commission set up

to evolve remedial measures would become the promoter of huge, improvement works that would' cost over £150,000. * To Mr Johnstone : He would be surprised to know that those works would absorb £OOO,OOO but that figure was certainly never suggested in 1910. To Mr Porritt: The velocity of the Ohinemuri River would average about 15in per se,cond. If the proclamation of 1910 were repealed he did not think the mining companies could meet the many demands for compensation, but they could have met .them if there had been The principle that anyone discharging material into a river from above should pay damage was a new one; the oftl principle for drainage boards was that the people below, who . require sediment removed for drainage purposes should pay. Mr Blow : Yes. It was a new principle adopted tc apply to the local rivers. Mr Gilchrist: If the Ngar.arahi: cut caused deterioration of the navigability of the river, what would be the remedy ? Witness : Ask the Public Works Department to alter the cut by mechanical means to restore the liver to the old meander. (Laughter.) Witness said .the upper swamps were "ponding areas,” and if they were entirely shut off the river yrould have more wa,ter than it could possibly carry.

SATURDAY MORNING.

Resuming on Saturday morning, the cross-examination of Mr E- F. Adams, civil and minipg engineer, continued. To Mr J. F. Montague: The willows to some extent held back thetailings. The Waihou had, in 1907, 1908, and 1910, overflowed its right bank. These were exceptionally higii .floods. In 1910 possibly 2500 acres were submerged..

EFFECT OF WORKS. He nad-nqt suincient data .to say whetnei' the stop-banks would be quate to checn all tne water back. It would' depend upon several tactoiw, one being the amount of watbr it was proposed to bring down. Mining ..commenced in earnest at about 1894, synchronising with the introduction of the cyanide process. Mr CiendonWas not .the old river board set up .to smash Mie Thames Harbour Board ? —I don’t know. Witness said there was a certain amount of farming between Paeroa and Hikutaia in 1894 ; some of tie people had orchards on the bank of the river, Thorp, for instance. People appeared paralysed at the apparent damage of the 1910 flood, which took place during March. The outcome of the Commission.uf 1910 was to outline a scheme for the improvement of the river, and making protection against a similar inundation. The 1919 Commission .was set up to devise means to protect the lands north of Ngahina. The werks in hand were, generally speaking, of benefit to the whole district. If they were commercially practicable they should be continued.

Mr Blow,: That statement is axiomatic. Do you think £he scheme is commercially 'practicable of completion ? ' V

Yes, provided that reimonable assistance is forthcoming from the Consolidated Fund, and that, the mining companies and all other beneficiaries in the whole district contributed.

Mr Jackson said thpt neither Waihi Borough Council nor the mining companies were given any notice of the . 1919 Commission, which was set up at' the request of the Thames Valley Drainage Reference Board. They were told that it was purely an engineering commission, having no- * thing to do with finance. ,

A FINANCIAL. SHOCK. Witness (Adams) : Sufficient had | been paid by the mining interests and gold revenue to pay for all the damage done. He was not surprised that the amount of £150,000 had b.een exceeded for the improvement worko,. but £62s,ooo ; 'was a distinct shock. Th J rock the Public Works Department had put in the Ohinemuri when constructing the railway was only a proportion of the total amount-of rock in the river. It would have cost the Department about £llO,OOO to remove 2,200,000 tons of mining tailings out of the Ohinemuri River; it would have cost a further £6OOO to remove the willows'. Stop-banks would have cost £lB,OOO. No part of the land and town protection works were made ■specially necessary on account of the mining tailings. It was 22% miles / from the Junction to Kopu. SIMPLY A CAMOUFLAGE. Mr Clendon; Would the stop-bank around Paeroa keep back a flood similar to that of 1910 ? Witness: No; the stop-bank is “camouflage.’-’ The railway runs through two feet below the stop-bank, and there is a gap big enough to let any flood through. The Ngararahi cut was quite unnecessary. The river was blocked by a groyne put in ]jy a county engineer. The cut was not necessary in the interests of mining or drainage, or navigation, and neither was’the Koutu ; the Pereneki cut was undesirable from a damage point of view, £23,000 was sufficient to pay for any damage done by mining.

Mr Clendon : And yet you said it would cost the Public. Works Department £llO,OOO for remedial works.

Witness : Oh, but the mining companies would not spend money in that fashion! Mr Baker said the amount of debris that came down the Ngararahi cut per annum was 150,000 to 200,000 cubic yards.

ANOTHER £600,000 SHOCKER. . Mr Clendon to Witness Adams• How does that agree with your “rough shot” estimate ? Witness: If the Department tried to plean out the river on that basis of estimation there -would be another £600,000 shocker !

Mr Clendon said the stop-banks were not going beyond Wharepoa.

Witness said that lands bounded by a straight line from Wharepoa to Kerepeehi would get benefit, but uofii

further north. All that portion of Piakp which would get improved buile.t for drainage should be rated, including the Thames Borough endowments. The western boundary might extend beyond the Piako River; it probably would, as a result of the works. Piako district generally would benefit tremendously by the bringing of the flood waters back t ; Waihou. Mr Clendon : How can you logically say the lands in the vicinity of Patetonga should be included ? Witness : They would be benefited. Mr Clendon did not appear to enjoy the reply ; other counsel laughed., .

Witness said Te-Aroha must benefit from the river works, especially by the removal of the willows, Paeroa would be benefited when the stopbanks were .completed, and would ge appreciation due 'io appreciation of the surrounding farm lands, and the navigability improvement of the river, to Auckland and Thames.

Mr Hanna: To Thames! (Laughter.)

Witness : Waihi was dependent on a wasting asset, and could not receive the same benefit.

Mr Blow: Is not the Waihi district responsible for much silt being dumped into the river ?

Witness: Yes, and 'the, 1910 Commission came to the conclusion that £5OOO out of a gold revenue of £26,000 per annum was; sufficient. Mr Montague : Waihi has not contributed £5OOO per. annum; it has paid £17,000 in 10 yearsWitness" The principle of making Waihi pay for outside works merely because it had "the gold revenue was bad. An extra shilling could be put, oh passengers’ tickets on the steamers to pay a contribution towards improvements. Witness believed in a sliding scale. The farm lands benefited would, in the area from Mangaiti to Wharepoa and Kerepeehi, be about 50,000 acres, roughly.

ROLAND FOR YOUR OLIVER.

As the Borough of Waihi had been penalised on account of the mining tailings put into the river from that end it might be fair that other areas should be penalised likewise for the detritus put in. To Mr Richmond : The damage was done by flood waters, and not'by the mining industry. The Piako lands would be enabled to drain because of the flood waters of the Waihou would be shut off by the stop-banks, and should pay. Also the Matamata County deposited detritus into the liver, which was the main drainage and storm water canal of the whole district; The more these lands were drained into the Waihou and protected the more .they lost their “ponding”, powers, and the more water would be thrown upon the Hauraki Plains. *30,000 acres of Crown lands would be improved. A certain area should be load.ed to the extent of £5 per acre, charged as betterment and paid towards the improvements. Certain land that was now practically worthless, except as a speculation in view ef the works in .contemplation, would sell, when improved and drained, at £2O per acr,e. ' ' Mr Richmond Then the Consolidated ,Fund, should pay ?—Yes>. Mr Blow: Before,! left Wellington I fully realised would all be unanimous in approving of the princi - ple that’,the Consolidated Fund should pay. (Laughter.)--Mr Richmond : .The 1910 Commission was’ probably, ‘‘paralysed” by the “apparent” extent of the their fihding was to some extent as the result of hysteria ? Yes. Mr Blow: If the 1910 Commission sat again to-day it would work on different grounds. Witness : Had the mining companies beenobliged tb clear the tailings out of the river they would not have paid £llO,OOO for the work; they would have given the Waihi-Paeroa Gold Extraction Co. a subsidy of £20,000 to do the work, which would hay 3 been a commercial proposition. The reason fpr why the Public Works Department’s method of estimating the amount of debris in such a place as the 'cut was not correct was that neither the cut nor any other' artificial excavation would be big enough to hold all the ,w.ater in a time of high flood, and therefore all the sediment could np.t settle there. Commissioner Buchanan-: What should it cos.t <o restore navigation up to Paeroa as it was in 1895 ? I do not know whether it could be restored ;; it would cost a great sum of money. The present state of Ohinemuri was due to the river filling up with mining debris. From the point of view of flooding, the Pereneki was a better scheme than Ngararahi. Commissioner Buchanan: Ngararahi and Pereneki were recommended by Mr Metcalfe ?—As surface cuts-.

Commissioner Buchanan: And two engineers recommended the 19 1(T Commission to - deepen" them. What do* you think is the effect of deposits of sand being carried by the high spring tides up the .tower Waihou, forming islands ?—r-It blocked up a stream at Kopu, It would be composed of clay, marine mud. and slimes' DIRECTOR OF COMPANIES. Charles Rhodes, N.Z. Director of the Waihi GM Co., and of the North-, ern SjS. Co., said>that -the Northern S.S. Co. wpuld probably not .come up with their steamers to the old wharf at Paeroa, as it was too difficu.lt to navigate. The boats- would not how come even up to the Junction, as the advantage would not outweigh 'he z extfa time-taken, Mr Blow : If you came up., to Paeroa you could get goods straight on to railway .trucks. The rate for cartage is 7s 6d. Witness: Waihi pays 4s 6d for cartage to the railway.Commissioner Buchanan ‘ It is 7s 6d to the stores. Witness: The steamers could not come right up on the one- tide. Commissioner Buchanan: They used to do. • Witness : There are more stoppages now. It was a tight fit now, and sometimes the boats got stuck. It Was cheaper f.or Waihi GM. Co, to put the stuff on a truck and take Vright up to Waikino. The directors, owing to the views of their shareholders, a. spirit of enterprise, and a felt debt to the Dowere trying deep levels. The.

Government was not assisting finan-

cially, not a cent, but were assisting with its geological staff. - Witness said the decision of the 1910 Commission, advising to undertake work costing up to £150,000 had astounded the directors. He hail heard that an expenditure of £625,000 was to be spent. This left him aghast. If was preposterous that mining 'nterests should contribute to such a colossal scheme. The Waitekauri stream was now clear, showing that a river clears itself of mining debris. He was just as much impressed, as others at the scene of desolation in 1910, but time had proved that the apprehensions were illusive.

To Mr Porritt : The Ohinemuri River in the pre-mining days was clear and deep. There was a ledge of rock opposite' the Criterion Hotel which the boys used to dive off. The 27 fee.t flood in 1895 was recorded by the bridge, and had not come over the banks there-. Other parts of the town were frequently flooded, the water coming in at Wharf Street. Rains had sometimes flooded Paeroa when there was no flood in the river. He remembered steamers coming up to the railway rate. 7s 6d was an outrageous charge per ton. Evidently' his company, on account of the .large quantities handled, got it dope at a cheaper rate per ton. Until two days ago he never heard such a preposterous statement as tha.t Dr. Bell, in 1900, had said the lite of t’re Waihi mine was-,two more years. The mine then had 1,500,000 tons of payable ore in sight,* and it would have been impossible to take that enormous quantity out yvithiii two years'. He would not object to .the prohibition of the putting of anything into the Ohinemuri River which would not pass through -a hundred gauge mesh. But this could not apply to mines n the Karangahake Gorge, where there was no place but the river to put the spoil in. Mining localities there were hemmed in by walls as steep as those of a house.

Mr Hanna: What is the cost of carrying gelignite by rail?

Witness : I am not a walking encyclopaedia. Explosives were dearer by rail than by river. Freight could be consigned from Auckland to fe Aroha and back to Hamilton cheaper than it could be consigned from Auckland to. Hamilton.

Mr Montague: There is a fall f 200 feet 'in the Waitawheta stream before it reaches the Ohinemuri River, and therefore it would clear itself, whereas a lesser hydraulic grade such as the Ohinemuri fias might not. ■Mr Clendon: Your company found the money for the railway, and did not trouble whether the rocks were dumped into the river or not. (Still sitting.)