LIFE IN BURMAH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2615, 24 September 1909, Page 3

LIFE IN BURMAH.

GOLD DREDGING DEVELOPMENTS.

A NEW ZEALANDER’S STORY

During the,past decade gold-dredging operations, which wer© inaugurated m various: pa>rte of the world as a resii.t of the success of New Zealand methods, have been responsible for the departure of many New Zealanders, to foreign climes." Experienced dredgemon from Otago and Westland have been engaged' in British Columbia,' Siberia, Gold " Coast of West Africa, Terra- del Eu ego, Pern, Bolivia, Borneo', Philippine Islands, and' other places, where tlie’y have clone very well. Tlie latest to return to New Zealand on furlough is Mr S. C. Fache, of Clyde, Centra 1 Otago. He has been engaged for the lastsovcn years in gold-dredging on the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy river, Burnnih, and had an interesting story to toll a “New Zealand Times’’ reporter. Mr Fache was a dredgemaster lor some time on the Molyneaux, and then removed to Westland, where he came into touch with two capitalists desirous of nicking up the latest dredging plant. They engaged him to ta.ke charge of the first gold dredge put on the Irrawaddy. The operations of the dredge were go successful that the Burmail Gold Dredging Company, with a capital of £120,006 was floated in Rangoon. They secured a concession of 100 miles of the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy . Four dredges'are now kept going continuously, and a fifth is being built.

THE GOLD RETURNS. “(So far as gold is concerned,” said Mr Fache, “they are getting very good returns, though, with regard to our own company, most of the profits g° into development. We have got a monopoly of the portion of the river on which we are operating, with a concession to the branch rivers as .wo go along. The company has been encouraged by the results to go on. We are more or less opening country that the Government itself knows very little about at present, in unadmin:stored country between Burmah and Thibet and Thibet and China. The dredging returns, on the whole, compare very favorably with those received in Now Zealand, land are, perhaps, better. The dredges each average over 100 ounces of gold per week. The two dredges I have been in charge of the last two vears averaged from 100 to 150 ounces each week. Natives are employed on the dredges as much as possible. On our dredges' we liad three different tribes, aU speaking distinct languages. Each of the dredges carries five whites, and these for the most part are New Zealanders, who like the life. They haven’t got to work as hard as they do out here, the coolies being largely utilised for the rougher work. The Kachin tribe is the one we have to deal with now. They have driven the other tribes out ol the country the Chinese out on their side and the Burmese out on theirs. We get on with them very well. They never quarrel with a man—they simply cut Ins head off. The Kachins are a very fine race, and very honest. Their laws are peculiar. "If a man steals a pig he has got to pay ten backhand if he doesn’t paw them back within a certain time there is a vendetta against him, and he probably loses his head. If you ask a lvachin what his name is he’ll never tell you. except, perhaps, to askwhy ? He never tells you where lie comes from, for fear that you want to know someth ins' about his vendettas;'iese go back for years. In the Kuchins’ 'iinadministered territory no white man has ever entered. We even don’t know what the river is like ten miles from where we are operating. There are any amount of head-hunters yet, and they are only too happy to get hold of a white man’s head: The white man there always goes armed — they have a wonderful respect for him. A FIELD FOR HUNTERS.

“This territory is a great field for the hunter, who can find there almost anything imaginable, except lions. Tigers, panthers (black and white, the latter over towards Thibet), several kinds of deer, peacocks, pheasants, partridge, wild geese, jungle fowls, snakes —all tlic-so are to bo found in abundance.. In one compound I liavo come across twenty different kinds of snakes. Then there are the wild elephants, bison, and buffalo in abundance. The best fishing in the world is probably to be found tlieye, and the Inuian salmon provides excellent sport. If you take aif elepliant ride early in. the morning you will probably come across all the game I have mentioned in one day’s drive. The greatest sport is the bison,* which/ always charges. It is a tremendous animal, and very nearly as big as the e’ephant, standing sometimes seventeen hands high, with six feet across the back. Of course, an .ordinary elephant, not trained to bsonhunting', turns and runs, but a trained e’ephant stands like a rode, and the hunter can invariably bring the chargerdown. THE CLIMATE. “The. monsoons a,re the drawback. The rainy season starts from October until March, during which period yoii don’t get a drop of rain, though you might get a shower at Christmas. During June, July, August and September the river is as much as from sixteen to twenty feet above normal, and rises to anything up to 100 ft up in the gorges, but it never gets below fourteen or fifteen feet. One requires to get out of the .country at least every five years. A condition of employment, out there is that a man must be physically fit; everyone gets mosquito lever, more particularly in the jungles. “On my way to Auckland, via Singapore, I was struck with the fine specimens of Chinese clerks employed in tip, Hon gkonig-Sh a ugh a i b auk t h ore a much better class of men than you see out here. They are becoming strongly iu evidence in business enterprises out there, and have got a good hold of the Singapore trade. The steamer Janet Niocol, which used to belong to the Union Steam Ship Company, trading in New Zealand, is now owned by a Chinese syndicate in the Singapore trade. \