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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Mining
Mining.
The most important mineral product of Otago is gold, and the most productive form of gold mining is dredging. But all the recognised methods of gold mining are practised in Otago—hydraulie sluicing and quartz-crushing, as well as dredging. During 1900 there were 120 quartz mines in operation in New Zealand, of which twenty-six were situated in Otago. These employed 272 hands paid £29,314 in wages, and produced altogether (in 1900) 7790 ounces of gold valued at £30,161. Of the 130 hydraulic and sluicing claims worked in 1990 in the colony, sixty-eight belonged to Otago, while Westland had only fifty-one. The Otago claims employed 525 hands, and expended £40,721 in labour. The gold won (1900) amounted to 24,889 ounces (more than three times the Westland total) valued at £96,329, against Westland's £28,160. But by far the most important from of mining practised in Otago is dredging, which demands a certain amount of seperate notice.
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Dredge Buckets of the Past.
What this solution meant to the province and the colony, may be roughly estimated by reference to one or two famous dredging returns. On the Kawarau the Magnetic Dredge between the end of February and the end of May, 1899, obtained over 1800 ounces of gold from a piece of river-bed three times the lenght of the dredge; in other words, for three months 600 ounces of gold were taken from every 100 feet of the river. But even this splendid result was utterly eclipsed by the Hartley and Riley dredge working below Cromwell, near the spot where the two pioneers, whose names the dredge bears, took out 87lb weight of gold for a few months' work in 1862. In July, 1899, Otago and the mining world generally were startled into enthusiasm by the news that the Hartley and Riley dredge had taken 693 ounces 17 pennyweights of gold for one week's work. The record of the Electric dredge was 658 ounces 19 pennyweights for a week; but later this was completely out-classed by the Hartley and Riley return for the week ending the 18th of August, 1899–786 ounces 10 pennyweights—a return which is likely to stand as a “best on record” for a long time to come. The Hartley and Riley total for the seven weeks ending the 18th of August, 1899, reached the astonishing figures of 3590 unces 17 pennyweights. It is hardly necessary to say that such returns are altogether exceptional; but they certainly throw light upon the phenomenal richness of portions of the province already worked, and indicate wonderful possibilities in other directions as yet untried.
It is a matter of history that the speculative public of Otago and the colony at large, have responded eagerly to the inducements held out to them for investment in gold dredging. Ever since the days of Mr. Siedeberg's spoondredge (1863) a certain number of Otago enthusiasts had followed the variable fortunes of the dredging industry with an anxious eye; but it was not till the collapse of the Kawarau and Shotover dredging boom in the “eighties” that really powerful dredges were put upon the Molyneux; and the importance of the industry was incontestably established. Messrs Gards, Spencer, McKersey, and Finlay, who worked the old Dunedin dredge on the Molyneux, were the forerunners of the recent dredging “boom,” and the regular publication of dredging returns intitiated in 1891 by Mr. Gards and Dr Hyde has done much to bring the industry permanently into public favour. The recent “boom” ran the course natural to such financial convulsions; and failure and disappointment became the portion of many who looked for untold wealth in every dredge bucket. But when the worst is said, the fact remains that dredging offers safer returns, under favourable conditions, that any other form of gold winning, and that the conditions, including the presence of large quantities of gold, have been proved to exist in many parts of Otago. There is, in fact, ample evidence to justify the assertion of the “Otago Daily Times,” that “the wealth in gold disseminated through the drifts of Otago is sufficiently rich and extensive to enable Otago to rival for permenance and productiveness any gold mining district of similar extent in the world.”
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The Hartley and Riley Dredge.
In 1901 the total number of dredges in operation in the colony was 145. Of these 121, or five-sixths of the total number, belonged to Otago. These employed (in the year 1900) 824 men, and paid £68,208 in wages. Their total expenditure for the year 1901 was £232,838, and the return for 1900 was 69,675 ounces, valued at £278,871. The total capital invested in dredging in Otago at that time was £568,134, so that the return, morely as a precentage, is remarkably high.
On the whole, Otago produces about one-third of all the gold annually won in New Zealand. In the financial year, ending on the 31st March, 1901, Otago's share of the gold returns was represented by 128,200 ounces, valued at £515,256. There is every prospect that this average will be maintained for a considerable time. Not only is dredging now established on a permanent footing, but hydraulic sluicing seems to have a long lease of life. The construction of the great reservoirs on the Mount Ida goldfields at Naseby to hold 500 million gallons of water, and to tide the miners over the dry season, is a proof of the confidence with which the central Government, as well as local speculators, regard the Otago gold industry. While dealing with this subject, its may be of interest to note that between January, 1857, and March, 1902, the colony of New Zealand produced over fifteen million ounces of gold, valued at nearly £60,000,000 sterling. Of this total Otago has been responsible for 5,852,642 ounces, valued at £23,199,030, an amount somewhat less than that due to Westland (£24,268,118), but far surpassing the return from Auckland (£10,673,452). Of the total quantity of gold exported from the colony in 1901 Otago contributed page 27 29 per cent., Westland 24 per cent, and Auckland 46 per cent.
Next to gold the most important mineral produced in Otago is coal. Of the 140 coal-mines working in New Zealand in 1901 (last census returns) 105 were in Otago. These employed 920 men, paid £87,508 in wages, and turned out 399,564 tons of coal, valued at £142,450.
The Nelson and Westland mines, though only sixteen in all, turned out 594,183 tons of bituminous coal valued at £321,806. The number of Otago's coal-mines is, therefore, hardly a fair test of their value; as a matter of fact, there is no workable deposit of bituminous coal in Otago. Good brown coal is found at Shag Point, Green Island, Kaitangata, Nightcaps, and in various parts of Central Otago; while lignite is also distributed over a wide area. The output of coal and lignite for Otago and Southland for 1901, was 366,921 tons, or an increase of 41,579 tons on the previous year. In addition to this, 12,048 tons of shale were raised and reduced at the Orepuki works.
Otago further possesses valuable geological assets in the shape of building stone. Bluestone of good quality is found in inexhaustible supplies at Port Chalmers, freestone at Wailkawa, and a good granite at Ruapuke. The Oamaru limestone is known throughout the Australian colonies, and there is a similar stone found in large deposits at Otekaike, North Otago. Limestone suitable for the manufacture of lime, is found at Oamaru, Otekaike, Otepopo, Waihemo, and the Penisnsula, Waihola, Maniototo, and several other locaties; and the Milburn Lime and Cement Company does a large trade with builders and gas companies in all parts of the province. But, after all, these are minor assets, and Otago's mineral wealth may be said to depend at present chiefly on her gold and coal.