L—4a,

46

[T. GILMOUE.

a man who came up there and put his money into it, is now working at wages for the Waihi Company at Waikino. 1 understand that Mr. Brown is interested in it too. 81. You know some of this land on the Ohinemuri River that the tailings have covered —1 think Marsh's place was one of them?— Yes. 82. What was that land valued at as land before there were any tailings on it 2—l do not know really the value of the land; but I know there were settlers came up from the Thames and took out occupation licenses there some thirty years ago, and they were to get a Crown grant for the land, but some of them got it and some did not. 1 think the land was then £1 an acre. 83. "The Chairman.] About the elevation of the tailings: is it a fact that the Waihi Company at present elevate their tailings in the Waikino Battery before taking them into the treat-ment-shed 2—They elevate the concentrates. 84. How do they get the tailings, after they have been crushed by the stampers, into the vatshed? —They have an elevator. They elevate them into a launder, and then they run into the vats. 85. Do-you think there would be any difficulty in elevating those tailings again 10 ft. after they had been treated?— There would, because the tailings are then separated into so many different parts. 86. They are all run out into the river at the finish? —At the present time. The tailings from the battery are put through the tube mills. 87. 'AVhat I want to get at is this: After they have left the vat-shed they are emptied into the river ? —Yes. 88. Instead of emptying them into the river, would it not be possible to elevate them in the same way as they are elevated after being treated by the stampers?—it would be impossible. 89. You suggested that the whole battery, costing £200,000, would have to be lifted 10 ft.: you could not lift the tailings instead of lifting the battery?— You could, but it would take a tremendous lot of leverage to elevate them. There are twenty- different discharges from the Waikino Battery. There is the discharge from the vats when the coarse tailings are treated by the cyanide; then there is the discharge from the filter-presses, and there are others. 90. And they discharge from twenty different drains into the Ohinemuri?—A good deal of the tailings, up till recently, were selected and put into boxes for treatment. 91. Are there twenty different discharges into the Ohinemuri —that is, twenty different drains? —No. 92. How many are there? —1 could not tell you how many vats there are. 93. How many drains are there discharging into the Ohinemuri? —There are two discharges into the main river, one from the vats and another from the filter-presses; but every vat is discharged separately when ready for discharging. 94. If the Ohinemuri River had not been a receptacle for tailings, do you think the Waihi Company- would not have found some other means of disposing of the tailings?—Up to 1895 95. Take the present year, 1907? —1 cannot tell you. You could not keep the tailings up at the present time very well. 96. If there were not any river there to discharge the tailings into there would be no battery and no mine? —I do not say that. If there was no river there I suppose they would be stacked up on the plains somewhere, and the people living in Waihi would have to shift to get away from them. 97. Do you think the Waihi engineers would have been capable of devising some means of disposing of their tailings if they had not had the river to discharge them into? —It would have been a difficult matter. 98. Do you think they would have done it?— Money would do anything. But they would not crush the grade of ore they are crushing now. 99. Do you think it could be done now: do you think it is possible?—No, I do not think it is possible to keep the tailings out of the liver now They would get into the river ultimately. While the companies were treating with the pan amalgamation, and there was a certain amount of bullion in the tailings after they left the battery, they saved them as well as they could; but there was only the coarse part saved. The slimes went with the water, wherever it ran. 100. Do you think that if there was ten shillings' worth of bullion left in the tailings per ton they would still be able to save them?— That is a question for experts. I may say that the Borough Council went down to the river and took a load of tailings away from the bank, and the owner of the dredging license came to the men and stopped them, and asked for 12s. a load. You are aware that at one time the County Council took some gravel out of the bottom of the Ohinemuri River, and Mr. Marsh entered an action against either the county or the contractor and got a verdict. Ido not know whether I could go down and take a load of tailings out of that river now while a man holds a license to dredge. 101. Does not that show that Mr. Marsh has riparian rights there, that his land does not come only to within a chain of the river, but that the property-owners own the land to the centre of the river? There is not a chain on each side that is public property?—l think you give me that information. 102. You stated a little while ago that the river frontage for a chain back was public property? —Yes. Well, I understood that at the time this verdict was given Mr. Marsh had got the Maori title 103. Have you anything to show that that was the fact, except this case of Marsh's, which proves that it was not the fact?—l think he proved that the gravel there injures his land by taking it away; but the river at, that point branches into two streams, and I do not know which is the main one. 104. Did he not prove, by obtaining a verdict, that the land was his down to the centre of the stream 2 As a matter of fact, do you know of any right, or any public rights, along either bank of that river?—No; but T understand it is on all of the lands that came from the Natives.