REPORTED GOLD DISCOVERY NEAR WAIMATE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 304, 28 March 1881, Page 2

REPORTED GOLD DISCOVERY NEAR WAIMATE.

The Wat mate Times of Saturday last says :—“ We are glad to be able to announce that there appears every probability of the opening up at an early date of an important goldmining industry within a short distance vJ Waimate It appears that Mr M'Goverin, of Messrs Hardy and M'Goverin, was in the early part of this week on a visit to Pudding Hill, on the VVaihoarunga estate, and while in that neighborhood discovered a gold-bearing reef, apparently of considerable richness. He brought up two specimens to town, which we saw yesterday in the possession of Messrs Cameron Bros., merchants, Queen street. The pieces of stone are each of about the size of road metal, of bluish grey color, veined with white quartz. A portion of the casing on one face of one of the specimens is rich with gold, and specks of the precious metal are also to be found in the body of the stone itself; the other specimen also shows specks of gold, but of smaller size. Both specimens were shown to Mr Beetham, who, from his many years’ experience as a goldfields warden, should be an excellent judge, and who pronounces the stone to be of a most promising character, stating that a ton of stuff such as the specimens shown would yield from yoz. to Boz. of gold. The precise locality of the find has for obvious reasons not been divulged, but we should advise the finder to take the necessary steps at once to obtain the grant of a prospector’s claim. Possibly, too, it may not be too late to apply for the grant of a sum out of the L 2,000 voted last session for prospecting for gold, the present appropriations not expiring until the 31st inst.”