Dredging in Southland.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 18

Dredging in Southland.

Mr. McNab, M.H.R. for Mataura, has compiled for the Southern Standard an interesting table setting forth the results to December 31, 1901, of gold dredging in Southland. The figures are interesting chiefly because they show what profit has accrued from what is known as dry land dredging, from which so much was expected at the beginning of the dredging boom of two years ago. It was then thought that a new era had dawned on the mining history of New Zealand, because if dredges could make their way into the flats, whether in the valleys of rivers or not, large areas would be brought under exploitation not possible by any other known method, with the hoped-for result that large gains would accrue. It was chiefly in Southland that such areas were accessible, for in Otago, and in Westland these claims were mainly taken up for speculative purposes, and have since failed to give results consistent with the rosy pictures of the prospectus. In Mr. M'Nab'B return the figures are thus Rummarised : —The public have invested in all £129,639, of which £96 723 is sunk in companies still in operation) the balance having gone int) companies since liquidated. The yield from the investment co far has been £64,421, of whioh only £4660 has been rescued out of liquidation. The return embraces 26 companies, of which eight are operating in the Waimumu distriot) a similar number in Waikaka, cix in Charlton, and four are in outlying districts. Of the total net yield of gold, which is valued at £59,761, only £8681 has found its way into the pockets of shareholders so far. The Waimumu dredges have been the most successful, up to the present date, having won gold to the value of the eight which have been built, the Waikaka group comeß next, the Charlton next, and the outlying group a bad last, with no dividends at all, and with a gold return of only £2511 against an expenditure of £13,612. Incidentally Mr M'Nab's figures give the cost of running a dredge under the exceptional circumstances which prevail in dry land dredging. Three of the dredges were dividend paying in December, 1900, and for the year they produced a total yield of £10,987, of which £3421 was paid in dividends. The balance, namely £7566, represented the cost of working, and this works out at about 12jz per week. Certainly the number of dredges is not sufficiently large to furnish an accurate estimate, but it was expected at the outset that the coat of running would be much smaller. The moral to be derived from Mr M'Nab's calculations is that which might have been anticipated. No phenomenal fortunes are to be made by investments in dry land dredging, and the investor ii extremely lucky if he gets that fair return for his money that an investment should give. Of course such a view of the position takes no account of operations on the share market, whioh are susceptible to other influences.