1 THE YON SCHMIDT MACHINE, ■c By thb Wabbiqai. i. Weekly Press. f - The Mew Zealand Government is i present receiving a revenue of sever a thousand pounds annually from ttroai *■■ taken up as special claims for gold dred *■' ing. The ground is utterly useless for ai & other purpose, it consisting chiefly of s< » benches and river beds; bat it might I t* made to yield enormous treasure if apa tlcular system of working and machine! •J were introduced. So confident are agrei ,fc number of enterprising people in tl l - riches of this waste ground, that they & •® ready to invest a large amount of capit v in working it when once a comple d system has been originated. TheWsßKl 10 Frbss has just published an account ; - what has been done in the way of suctic d dredging f*r gold, and has encourage ■ fc the idea of working by this method for tl c last three years. Suction dredging t h means of centrifugal pumps has been au 3 cessfolly. carried on in various parts of tl n world, and it has been proved that th method is capable of dealing with aurife a ous ground that is either beneath water i ; t exceedingly wet. a In Otago the innumerable mountai »• torrents have been carrying gold into tt J main rivers through unknown thousam 6 of years. They have not succeeded in fi) r ing up the beds of those rivers with tt 6 precious metal; but it is known to 1 ;f thick on the bottom. In Westland tt '• same process has been going on, and tt * riven might have been filled only the J have carried a great deal of the gold Int & the sea, which the sea has most generous] a thrown back upon the beaches. Durin 8 the last thirty years men have be*a gathe: ing gold from gullies, river banki • terraces, hill spurs, hill tops and se '• beaches, and have obtaind something lik 8 forty million pounds' worth of the yellow t metal. In Otago they dug along the bank of the mountain torrents, and trace ■- golden leads into the great rivers. I Westland they have followed golden lead into the sea. 