WORKING THE AURIFEROUS BEDS OF RIVERS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 240, 5 September 1872, Page 6

WORKING THE AURIFEROUS BEDS OF RIVERS.

From the accounts received from time to time of the difficulty of obtaining gold from the beds of riverd, any contrivance tor doing so cheap. y must command attention. So certain are many of our mining population that large yields of gold would repay any effort put forward to effectually gather n i from the Molyneux that propositions havt. , oeeu seriously made to turn the current, ai enormous expeuse, and with ncany a certainty that; the first heavy fiooi Would restore the river to its accustomed channel.' Bab science promises to provide means o doing the work at comparatively small expense, and with, it may be said, absolutely no risk oi failure, by the Tararua, a tew days a.;o, Mr JSuttad, of Melbourne, arrived here, bringing with him drawings ol the submarine boat thac has been in use foi many years in several countries of the Cou tinent of Europe, as a vast improvement oi the diving bell. He favored us with a vie* of the drawings, and, on careful examination of them, we consider the contrivauo. Buch as is likely to secure success at a u>st scarcely exceeding the expense of a spoon dredge, and the slucing machinery connected with it. The object*' Co be attainad are, ability for a number oi aien to work continuously under water with out injury to their health. Te this end tb... submarine boat is so contrived that three or four men can thoroughly work a large area under water, and sluice the wash-dirt without auy necessity for raising it out of the water. Light and air are freely supplied, aud when one section of the river is completely ex amined, there are means of shifting the boat without raising it to the surface. Every cranny, every pocket of the river's bed can be narrowly lookqd into. The workmen will be totally independent of floods, and may work as continuously in shifts as they do in quartz mines ; thus the whele length of a river may be traversed. Mr ufctall proposes, in order to prove the utility of the invention, and its adaption to the purposes designed, that those interested shonld subscribe by forming a company for the construction of an experimental boat to be exhibited in the harbor, and that when its utility is thus demonstrat. d, as many additional boats should be built as are necessary to glean the golden harvest that the experience of years has proved to be so rich. We hardly think that experiment is required after the plans are understood, for we were surprised to find that every conceivable contingency was provided against But, on the other hand, experiment imparts confidence, and we think it the duty of the Provincial Government to give assistance in this direction, not only to develop goldseeking, but because a boat constructed on those principles might be made most useful for defence purposes of the harbor in a variety of ways that must be obvious. It is said Russia has pressed them into defensive warfare. The plan proposed by Mr .Nuttali iiA3 ha.<l. tlxe approval o£ competent engineers in Victoria. The whole question is one of the cost of means to ends, and we think in this proposition there is every chance of success.