A dredging company’s Golden Bay venture

Golden Bay Gold Dredging Company, with its head office in Whanganui, was formed in early 1901 to work dredging areas in the Aorere River at Bainham.

The properties included two miles of the river, Bain’s Island and Cedermans freehold.

The capital of the company was £21,000 in shares of £1 each, of which 11,500 were offered to the public.

There was some excitement about the venture with the river considered to be of a ‘highly payable nature’ even by the crudest form of mining.

By May 1902, the pontoons were constructed and launched and were ready for the machinery.   Some 45 tons of machinery had arrived at Collingwood with the remainder still to come.

It was anticipated that the dredge would be at work within a month, and they could then expect substantial returns.

Unfortunately, there were some difficulties in the initial stages, and it was not until October that the venture got underway.

The opening ceremony in connection with the company’s dredge was held at Bainham with almost every resident attending, along with visitors from Collingwood and surrounding areas, reaching a number of about 200 people.

The company was congratulated on having reached an actual starting point.
The dredge was designed by Messrs Baldwin and Rayward, engineers of Wellington, and cost around £835O.

The company secured the services of Mr Kitto, an experienced dredge master to oversee operations.

The pontoon dimensions were 90 feet long, 28 feet wide and 6 feet deep and built of kauri and Australian hardwood, the work of construction having been carried out by Messrs Sutherland and Sons, of Dunedin.

The boiler, main engine and winch engines were imported from England, but all other machinery was turned out at Cable and Co.’s foundry at Wellington.
The dredge was nicknamed “Alison” in honour of the wife of John Bain and was christened by Mrs G. Allan by releasing the ribbon from which was hung a bottle of champagne.

Despite showing such promise the fledgling company was soon in trouble.
In December 1902, only a few months after beginning the work, Mr A Willis, chairman of the company, visited the site.

All the gold obtained to this point came to 2.5 ounces.

The dredge was still making its way through big bank tailings so it was thought that it would still be around six weeks before they would start seeing results.
By June 1903, they were advertising the sale of the properties of Bains Island and Winstone’s freehold.

A meeting was held in April 1903 to consider the option of voluntary liquidation.
The gold that had been obtained was low and an ascertained loss for the company amounted to £13.618.

In September 1904, it was advertised that the operations had been a failure and that any rent owed to the Department of Mines was now unrecoverable.