﻿1 42 Transactions. ■ — Miscellaneous. 



Stream — that is, in the Clutha itself — is to be found a power that will serve to 

 wash away all its auriferous banks, and clear the same to the profit of the 

 miner. The fall of this river, from tlie lakes to the sea, is about 1,000 feet in 

 100 to 120 miles, and the area from which it collects its waters above the gorge 

 of the Dunstan is equal to 3,325,000 acres. From these data, we can have a 

 rude or comparative estimate of the power contained in it. Allowing twenty- 

 four inches of fall over the area by averaging the greater fall in the mountains 

 with the lighter fall in the plains, we have 289,674,000,000 cubic feet per 

 annum as the discharge of the Clutha at the above point. This is equal to a 

 discharge of 551,130 cubic feet per minute, but allowing, again, half the rain- 

 fall to be absorbed by evaporatiou, the actual result will be 275,565 cubic feet 

 per minute. 



" How to arrive at the object of the inquiry 1 We have the fall from the 

 lakes to the sea, as above stated, at 1,000 feet, which gives 422,500 nominal 

 horse-power. This may truly be said to be a very valuable property of the 

 province, which always remains to it, and which, if only partially made use of, 

 may be fraught with great importance to the prosperity of our interior 

 population. 



" It would not be consistent with the object of this report for me to suggest 

 modes for the economical use of this power ; but I may shortly state that I am 

 aware that the mining population have applied it to a limited extent to social 

 purposes. Of all contrivances, however, the simplest, I have no doubt, will 

 prove the most successful, and the merits of the paddle wheel and the marine 

 screw as motive powers will no doubt eventually be much canvassed. I would 

 presumably advocate the latter, on account of its greater hold on the body of 

 the flowing stream, its ready management and applicability in swift or slow 

 currents, and its easy connection with the apparatus for raising water." 



Since the above report was written, of which this is a short extract, though 

 fully alive to the importance of the svibject, I have, owing to constant 

 engagements in other works and services, been able only to give an occasional 

 thought in its direction. Since then I have heard of various attempts by 

 miners and others to apply the force of the current of the Clutha to machinery 

 employed in these enterprises, but how far successful they have been I have 

 had no opportunity of learning. Some years ago I inspected two machines, 

 one of which was for the purpose of raising water, and the other for working 

 the gearing of a dredge, and in both cases the principle adopted was that of 

 the paddle wheel, though one was of iinusual construction, being set obliquely 

 to the stream. Neither machine had great power, and, having become disused, 

 appear not to have met the expectations of their designers. The paddle wheel, 

 of proper and peculiar form, is no doubt well adapted for driving the machinery 

 of floating mills (flour, bone, saw, etc.) in shallow rivers, where the shallow- 



