It is with deep regret that we are obliged to record the death of Mr Louis Gards (formerly of Alexandra), which took place in Dunedin on Thursday last. By the decease of Mr Louiis Gards Otago his lost another of the early pioneers of the mining dredging industry. The deceased gentleman was well-known throughout the length and breadth of the Otago goldfields and in Dunedin. He was a most enterprising man, and infused a large amount of energy into mining in Otago, while his practical knowledge and experience were highly valued by his numerous friends and the directors of the many successful mining companies he was connected with. He will be mourned by a large circle of his friends, and the rapidly-thinning ranks of his old "mates." He lived for many years at Alexandra, where he was best known, not taking any very prominent part in public affairs, but always ready and willing to help in any movement for the general welfare of his district and its institutions. He had for the last few years lived a retired life at Roslyn. In the sixties he followed the various rushes, and was one of a party of diggers starved at Switzers for want of provisions who made their way across the Old Man range in a blinding snowstorm, some of the unfortunate ones dying, from exposure and frost-bite. After this, Mr Gards spent some time in working one of the pioneer spoon dredges on the Molyneux, subsequently settling down in Alexandra as a blacksmith and wheelwright. In 1880, in conjunction with Messrs G. Spencer, J. McKersey and the late O. McQueen, of Dunedin, he started the old Dunedin dredge, one of the first steam dredges on the river. Apparently they did not bottom, as the dredge was afterwards shifted to Roxburgh. A few years after this Mr Gards built a current-wheel dredge and worked the ground now known as the New Perseverance Company claim, the dredge paying well. Upon the collapse of the dredging boom of of 1889-90, being quick to perceive that the class of steel dredge then in vogue would be eminently suitable for the river at Alexandra, he bought the Shotover River Company's dredge and removed it to Alexandra. His success with this induced others to follow, and the Chicago Company, Dr Hyde, and the Enterprise Company quickly followed with dredges of the same type, and soon brought Alexandra into prominence all over the world as a dredging centre. His energies were applied into converting the old Molyneux Sluicing Company into a dredging company, putting an extra thousand in every time he found the shareholders were not coming up fast enough. In this spirit he also started the Nil Desperandum Company, taking about half the contributing share capital himself. Mining appeared to be his hobby, and although at times he met with reverses, he was on the whole most successful. He was the first to initiate the custom of publishing the returns from dredges. Mr Gards was for a long time a member of the Alexandra Borough Council, and always took a keen interest in the welfare of the town. He left Alexandra and took up his residence in Roslyn about the latter end of 1898, and resided there until the time of his death. The deceased gentleman has left Mrs Gards to mourn him, but no family. -Otago Witness, 15/7/1908.
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