GOLD DREDGING

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10592, 26 March 1912, Page 5

GOLD DREDGING

THE MASTERTON COMPANY.

ANNUAL MEETING

The eighth annual meeting of members of the Maisterton Dredging Company was held last Friday. Mr John Hessey' (chairman o- Directors) presided over a small attendance of members. In moving the adoption of the annual report and balance sheet, the chairman said these, which had been in members' hands for same time, gave a very fair idea of the position of the company. With a dividend of Is which had been declared that aft«r • noon, the total amount paid out in this way had been £6 7.s per share; It-was unnecessary for him to go into any. further details,, so he would merely move'tli'e'motion',.; ■' '.-.:.',.''■ ■/";•. - In seconding {the motion,,, Mr John Hessey said that sometime ago the dredge had "broken-into the terrace, and li6had feared the -possibility "of the gold terminating there. He was pica sod to say, however, that iho dredge watS now past this difficulty and in his opinion- the gold wou'.d continue for some considerable time. Prior to the meeting the Directors had been discussing a method o." dealing with the trouble caused by silt and heavy clay getting '.u\o the buckets and preventing them fr.m delivering properly. The managor of their dredge on the We-st Coast Lad installed a small centrifugal pump, which played a jet of water into the buckets. He had just been conferring with the other Direeto-s cs to ■'he adviisability of installing s'.ch fi.n appliance on lite Mastercon dredg?; and thus getting over the dVflk-'iiy .t,:" the. buckets not delivering. Alchoug.'i the Company-was not doing row what it did formerly, he thought ; t would ;my dividends for gome time yet, and that the claim would last for tc.o-al y.tirs, and perhaps more. Mr E. Law son, a former •.Hv.conijaster, said he thought the i-.ioa of putting in a pump for the but frets was an excellent ono. A t.ip c-mdens-er had been erected, and it wis r.ot necessary to lift the water, the only power required being that to force it into the buckets. He thought, with Mr Hessey, that the claim would lastabout two vears.

In reply to a question as to whether a piece of ground recently taken was included in his estimate that the claim would last two years, Mi' J. Hes>sey said it was. A good deal of ground had been taken, but some of it had proved very poor. He could not say positively whether the claim would last two years. It might last longer. The motion was then put to the meeting and carried. Mr John Hessey, the retiring director, was re-elected unopposed, and the remuneration, of the directors was fixed at the sam.eas'oreviouS'ly (£37 16s. Mr Jas. Brown was re-appointed auditor at a fee of £5 ss.