The Westport Times. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1872.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1008, 27 September 1872, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1872.

The difficulties attendant on obtaining gold from the beds of New Zealand rivers, have prompted many ingeuious experiments, but none as yet have proved more effective than the somewhat, clumsily arranged, and slowly worked, spoon dredges, first brought into use on the Molyneux Eiver in Ofcago. With a moderately steady current, and shallow depth of water, net exceeding five or sis foot, it has br-en found possible for parties of dredgers to net as much as £2O per man per week each, for many successive weeks in the winter eeason. Bat no sooner does a flood arise from rain or melting snow, and the volume and ve'ocity of the current become increased, then dredging has to be suspended, and the profits arising from a few week's work are absorbed during several months delay. In fact of all mining ventures, river dredging is, as at present conducted, the most precarious and uncertain. To r medy t lis many plans have been suggestod. At present an enterprising machinist at Clyde is engaged in perfecting a steam dredge, by which he hopes ultimately to successfully work rich and poor b dtoms alike, and make the quantity of stuff putt through, taken wherever the spoon ran be worker', pny ns well or b* trer than the richer ' depos'ts of wash dirt only obtainable in narrow rails iu mid stream. Last i winter an engineer of Dunedin

designed plans and models of what he termed a Combination Dredge and Diving Bell, wherein the chief uovcity consisted of the dredge being fitted with paddle wheels revolving by the action of the current, and available as a motive power for shifting the craft, for cradling the wash dirt, and also for raising and lowering an oval shaped diving bell suspended from davits projecting over the stern of the dredge, in which bell it was proposed that two men should worlc, scooping up dirt from the river bed and sending the same up to men on deck in baskets or crates. The idea, as embodied on paper, looked feasible enough, but practical miners choose to place little faith in the scheme. It was argued, and with some degree of reason, that the rapid scour of New Zealand rivers would fill any excavation in the river beds almost as rapidly as it could be opened out, and that the risk of life to the men below would deter many from risking the experiment of mining under water. After various efforts to bring the scheme into favorable notice it ultimately fell through. Recently some of the engineering stuff employed on the liangitati Bridge Works have sought to utilise the pneumatic apparatus used for siukiug the bridge foundations, as an adjunct to gold mining in the Molyneux stream, admittedly the richest gold bearing river in New Zealand, and a company has been formed and registei-ed, under the titlo of the Pneumatic Gold Mining Company, with a capital of £IOOO, with the object of thoroughly testing the scheme. There has also been just submitted to the Dunedin public a very similar invention designated " Baird's Tubular River Bed Explorer," described as follows: " A barge or punt is fitted with a water-wheel to be driven by the river current, pumps, and hydraulic presses, &c. The water-wheel for working the pumps and presses is in front of the barge ; in the centre there is an open space through which tubular sections of iron 4 x 18 feet are forced into the soft bed of the river by hydraulic pressure, allowing the water to be pumped out, -when the ground can be worked, the tube going down with the shaft, and fresh sections being joined by screw bolts, at wanted. The sections can be unbolted and drawn up, to be used again. A pressure frame fits over the tuba. Tiie inventor of this new gold-searcher elaim a for it a greatly increased field for operations. The bottoms of rivers can be searched for deposits that cannot be touched by the usual spoondredge, and shafts can be sunk in ground, under water to any depth." While New Zealand genius has been thus employed in devising new methods of river working ; the subject has also received attention in Victoria, and another scheme known as the Villaine principle has been just in. troduced to the mining public in Otago. This last scheme is not altogether a new idea, as it has for some years past been in use in the European rivers. The object to be attained is, as stated by the prospectus, ability for a number of men to work continuously under water without injury to their health. To this end a submarine boat is used, so contrived that three or four men can thoroughly work a large area under water, and sluice the wash-dirt without any necessity for raising it out of the water. Light and air are freely supplied, and when one section of the river is completely examined, there arc means of shifting the boat without raising it to the surface. Every cranny, every pocket of the river's bed can be narrowly looked into. The workmen will bo totally indepenJeut of floods, and may work as continuously in shifts as they do in'quartz mines. Thus it is averred, the whole length of a river may be traversed.. It is suggested by the Dunedin press, that to impart confidence in the project, tho Provincial Government should give assistance, not only to develope gold seeking, but bicause a boat constructed on such principles might be made mostusefu] for defence purposes of the harbor in a variety of ways that must be obvious. Tho result of any su--h experiments, either by private individuals or under government sanction, will no doubt be watched for with interest, by the mining community. To the West Coast public the subject is of great importance, inasmuch as tho successful development of sub-aqueous goldmining would open up a new and profitable branch of mining industry, that might ra idly expand here under even more favorable circumstances than in Ofcagi. The West Coast streams are, for the most part of lesser

depth aud velocity of current than the Otago streams, while draining an equally rich gold bearing country; and may be prospected under moie favorable circumstances, inasmuch as the river beds have not yet been covered to any appreciable extent with tailings and debris from sluicing claims, as in Otago, where in many instances deposits have been formed some seven or eight feet in depth and,,'extending for many miles ; causing in fact such an appreciable raising of the river beds that settlers on the banks in low lying localities have pleaded strenuously for legislative interference, failing the expansion of alluvial mining on dry land, West Coast miners may do worse thau try their fortune by water. The Buller may yet prove a Pactolus to its explorers.