THE WAITOA GOLD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1691, 19 October 1887, Page 4

THE WAITOA GOLD

: LETTERS F'OM PROFESSOR HUTTON.

nj , f eiter has been received from Professor Hottcn, under date Christchurch, October 15th :— TO IH E SD.TOB OFIHB «' TRES S. Sib,— The rapcrt of Mi J. A. Pond, of Auckland, concerning tho alleged find of gold at Waitoa, cells for some comment. The facts of the csss, as reported m to- I daj'a "Press." appaar to bo aa follows :- t A company called the Waitoa Prospect ing Association has been forced Auckland, to ascertain whether uu> pumice sands and days m the valley of the Waitoa contain gold. Several of the members went out collecting, and the sairnles co obtained were .u&ltted to- Mr !>•>. d for analysis. Tho<e all showed traces of gold and silver, but only one of thorn contained gold m payable quantity This sample had been broaght m by a Mr Kelly, who said that he hid g.k it i.om stuff lying on the wrface " ce*r the B haits on Smiths land." Which <.f tho numerous shafts b not stated. The gold m this sample contained v.o silver, and und er the mic oBcope the tpecs were seen lo be "mostly Spiral m shape, having • rough graining on the Inßlde and a smooth clean face on tho outside i". Evidently they were filings, or more probably boring* of gold which did riot c ntaln any Bilver. From the accounts to hand it would seem that the sample received by Mr Pond direct from Mr Smith m January last aho contained the same kind of gold ; but there must here be some mistake, for I find that the result of the analysis of that Barople by Mr Pond gave 17tz 19dwt B^rs of gold and 4ozs Bdwt 4gr of silver per ton. That it, the bullion contained about Zb per cent of silver. I may here remark, m a parenthesis, that this sample wbb from the rock near No. 1 shaft, which was pounded and then concentrated In a dish. It is, therefore, not a fair sample of the Btnff, but it is quite a fair sample of the quality of the gold. . From these facts Mr Pond seems to infer that Mr J. B. Smith, or someone employed by him, had pot the gold Into the sample. Now, no doub* Mr S/nith had an interest m selling Mb land, but he mast have scattered a good dtal of cold about if a Btranger fonnd some of it by accident neßr a shaft several weeks after the Walhou Company had taken their ■ampleß. Mr Pond has also omitted a great deal of evidence which mußt be taken Into account before forming any opinion as to how the gold got into Mr Pond's Bamplea. 1, One of the sampleß which I collected from Sir James Sector consisted of solid rock from No. 1 Bbaft, into which no gold could be put clandestinely without being | teen on the surface ; and yet this sample gave 2iz oiwt 12gr of bullion to the ton, whioh bullion contained about 17 per cent of silver. 2 Specimens of the same rock collected and taken away, as I was informed, during the absence of Mr Smith by Mr Wilson, the Inspector of Mines at Te Aroha, gave as an average of five different assays, loz, 6dwt 9gr of gold and Bdwt 6gr of silver, per ton, the bullion here containing 31 per cent of silver. 3. The sancß are derived from the decomposition of this rock, and consequently migh be expected to contain gold of the same quality, as m fact they do, except m the case of the sample given by Mr Kelly to Air Pond. All the assays and trials made for Mr Smith and for the Company show a gold alloy varying m value, but containing on an average between 20 acd 25 per cent of silver, not a single cample beirg without silver. Sir James Hector s&ys that the gold he obtained has the same average composition as that found elsewhere In the Te Aroha district, which contains from 16 to 23 per cent of silver. Ihe quality of the gold obtained by the Company Jb, therefore, quite different from that lately obtained by Mr Pond, which had no silver In It. 4j Sir Jameß Hector says that In his samples " the gold Is leafy, and occurs In twisted angular grains about l-100in In diameter, and has the appearance of being liberated from a matrix by decomposition 5 Several of the directors of the Walhou Gold Mining Company, bb well as myaelf, have examined with a mioroeoope the gold from a sample of aand obtained by Mr Smith himself from his land &nd given to the Directors. We find that it does not antwer at all to Mr Pond's dewrip'xi for the grains are never spiral, nor even much elongated, and are never smooth nor striated on one fiie. They aid rough on all sides, m nearly the same ■late m which they left the matrix, and In some of them the hollows shew the red color so characteristic of native gold. They ate certainly not filings nor borings, and they contain too much silver to be alluvial gold from the South Is'and. In fact, I do not know where Me Smith could, have obtained this kind of gold, to pu,*-. into the eand. Mr Pond'e gold certainly appears to have been borings, or cuttings, but the sample has passed through several hand*,, arid it vrould not be difficult to suggest reasons for Bopposing that some other person than Mr dmith had put them m. But I forbear doing so, as afler all, the whole thing may be a j-ke or an ingeuions method of advertising. A.t any rale, it Is evident that Mr Pond's gold is quite different, both m quality and In shape, from the gold on which the Directors of the Wa.hou Gold-Mining Company have based their opinion of the ground ; and Mr Pond's report should not diminish the confidence of any eLareholder m the value of the property. — I am, etc. F. W. Hutton.