ISLAND BLOCK DREDGING AND SLUICING COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 28

ISLAND BLOCK DREDG ING AND SLUICING COMPANY.

ANNUAL MEETING. The eighth annual meeting of shareholders in the Island Block Gold Dredging and Sluicing Company was held in Wooda'e Hotel oji the 21st. Mr F. J. Lake presided, in the absence of Mr H. F. Nees (chairman of directors), and there were six other shareholders present. The report presented for the year ended December 31 was as follows- — Your directors much regret that, for the second year in succession, they have to report that operations have not yielded satisfactory results. The year began with a balance to credit of profit and loss account of £482 14s Id, and ended with a debit of balance of £20 3s, making the gross deficiency on the year's operations £502 17s Id. The direct return frcan gold was £1248 10s 3d, the royalty from gold won was £75 14s lid, and all other receipts £73 13s 2d— a tmtal of £1397 18s 4d. The wages bill amounted to £1344 11s 4d, and all other expenditure to £556 4s Id, equal to £1900 15s sd. Operations have been conducted during the ye«r 1907 by means of the hydraulic elevating plant only, and that at considerable disadvantage, owing to short water supply during a considerable portion of the time. At the beginning of the year work had to be entirely suspended owing to want of water, and all hands but the race men were thrown idle for some six weeks, and it was the 20th of April before the first return was obtained. Again, in April and in July, the water supply ran short for some weeks; so that, in addition to having been unfortunate in respect to the goldbearing quality of much of the ground stripped, we have had the additional and very serious handicap of a short water supply. Various proposals were made by Mr R. T. Stewart for working the company's claim on lerms. but your directors did not see their way to accede to *ny of these proposals, believing that none of them would have been to the advantage of the company. It will be seen that the amount ad royalty received indicates that no greet success "has attended the operations carried on at the top end of the Tsland Block by the Golden Run Company and it 3 successors. The arrangement as to royalty, etc., continues in force One of your directors— Mr Lake— devoted his holidays to visiting your property, where he spent a, week, from the 7th to the 13th January, in visitmg and inspecting everything m connection with our operations He reported prospects in the paddock to be pcxxr and this forecast hes turned out to b« only too correct, as you will have observed from the return reported of 14oz 3dwt for about three weeks' work. Three days of that time wer& lost owing to the pips line across the " ve r having been interrupted to permit of the Otago dredge passing It may be pointed out that, up to the 30th June, gold to the, value of £18-1 10s 5d only had been won, the balance of £1063 19s lOd having been won in the latter half of the year, so that, poor as the latter half-year was, there would have | been a surplus instead o? a deficiency had {he first six months equalled it. j The Chairman said tha-t operations during the past year had again failed to yield satis- '' factory results. Their water supply had been on and off during the 12 rmon'ths, and they had not been- able to work for any length • of time. There was no snow on the back ! country, and it seemed as if it would be ' some time before there was sufficient water available to go on with At the present time the claim was closed dovn, and the manager was acting as caretaker Mr Robert Stetcart s-v:d (ha report indicated that the gl-oss dflici^ncy on tho year'a operations was £500 17= It 'further stated ' that operations during the year had baen conducted by means of the h} dra-ulicelevating-plant only, and that at considerable disadvantage owing to short water supply during a, considerable portion of the time. It waa Btated that at the beginning of the year work had to be entirely suspended owing to wani of water, and that again in April and in July tho water supply ran short '"or some weeks. The actual time that the water supply was short was not mentioned. From the conditions obtaining he knew that the shortage of water did not obtain for ni'OTe than three months in the year. It could therefore be taken that work had been carried on for nine months of the year, and the value of the gold won during that time was £1218 It was further stated in the report • that during the first half of the year work > was only carried on for three months, and . that the gold won during that period was of a value of £184 10s, tie balance of £1063 having been won in the latter half of the year, go that poor as the latter half iraa there wootld have been a surplus instead of a deficiency had the first six months equalled it. The point was that with, the water that had been availabie during the best nine months fully five times the j He found from calculations' th*t nok more than. 10 cubic- yards had* been treated per hour. It might reasonably have been expected that from 30 to 40 cubic yards would have been treated, and with the gold tk«t had been shown to exis-t on a. 10 cubic yards per hour baaia, if thai nad been done they woujd a/t the end of tlie year have been very umch better off than they were. There should have been no difficulty in. getting over tihat quantity of ground. Then, test year he h«d pointed out that the plant waa obsolete in many respeefs. In regard- to hia own pro- , posals to the company last yea*; he main- j

tainecT that had even the least favourable of them been accepted the company would have had a balance in hand of £661, even assuming that he had got no more gold than had been obtained. But he was quite confident he would have obtained three times the gold that had been won. He would certainly not have used the same plant, and. further, he would- have imparted a, good deal more energy into the working of the claim. It was only necessary to look at the quantity of ground treated to see that. He still maintained that no improvement could be expected until a different method of treating" the ground was adopted He had made a strong point of the fact last year that the workings were being taken away altogether from where the gold was. Instead of working in the direction of where anyone with a ltnowledge of the ground would exp ct to get gold, operations had again been continued in a north-easterly direction. The result was j that operations had been confined to the poorest ground. If operations were conducted on that bloc-k of ground which was to the westward of the paddock, in which the elevator was situated laat yeer, -there would have been very much better results than had been obtainad over the past year. The company would have been in a very much better position. Mr James Brown (secretary) said, with regard to the statements made as to the gold won, he could oay that pretty well the whole of the gold was struck in one month and m one spot. Mr Stewart said it was just on the fringe of where he maintained the gold was that those returns were won, and if the manager had kept on in a wes-teily direction instead of working away from the gold, then further good returns would have been obtained. The Chahman said he mj^t acknowledge that the claim had not been worked to his ! liking. Mr Thomson said he had been led to believe that results this year would show sub- | stantial improvement. Such, however, had not been the case. And Mt Stewart had sftid that nothing would be done until the company dispossessed itself of the obsolete plant now on the claim. He would like to know what the prospects of the company were. The question was becoming a serious one, and he thought that someone would have made some suggestion for a betterment. The Chairman said they had been closed down since February 2. When they did gef sufficient water to justify a start being m«de he would strongly recommend the directors to meet and decide what was to be done. Mr B. H. Nees said it appeared that the only way to work the ground moTe efficiently and thtis make it profitable would be to carry out alterations to the plant, as suggested by Mr Stewart. Mr Stewart said it would not be necessary to expend more than £100 to bring the plant up fo 1 proper state of efficiency. He did not blame the board of directors foT lack of energy, but he blamed them for not seeing that the claim had been worked in a different direction. It would now be some time before they would ba able to start work Mr Nees said it was no use expending money now *nd finding out later, when the rain did come and their water supplies augmented, that all the money was gone. The Secretary (Mr Brown) pointed out that the company had about reached the end of its tether. They had about £70 in hand at the present time after all debts were paid. There was no such thing as uncalled capital to fall back upon. The report was atlo-pte3. Messrs Nees and take, retiring directors, were re-elected and Mr T. S. Graham was reappointed auditor.