PROSPECTING DAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

PROSPECTING DAYS.

IN THE WAIHI AREA.

A PROFITABLE TRIBUTE.

(By W. S. C. MCHOLLS.)

[No. 4.1

When I arrived back in "Waihi after my unsuccessful missiion in Fiji I found things starting to boom. Mr. T. H. Russell had bought the Martha mine and all the ground surrounding it and was building a battery at the Union mine, and all hands seemed to be busy and plenty of work for all newcomers,, -but there .was no money to pay them with until the gold was broken'' from the mine. It was easy then to get work in Waihi, but har<i-'to get money. Mr. Russell started-'first with pan amalgamation with McKay pans, but whether the amalgamation was not conducted properly, or the fault was in the pans not doing their work,'he dkl not make a success of them and had them all smashed up for scrap iron. Then he let contracts to burn the ore, and had the t>attery converted into a dry crushing plant; then tJhe Cassell process of treatment was adopted and proved to be the best way of treatment. The gold being so fine It was quickly absorbed by the cyanide solution. Mr. Russell worked a good time dry crushing and filled the graveyard with a lot of the old hands before the change was made to the wet crushing.

The company was employing all the draye and wagon teams that could be had to cart firewood and timber to keep the works going, and with the bad state of the* roads it seemed likely that the battery would be stopped for the want of wood to keep steam up to drive it. I saw that there would be no difficulty in.running a tramway from the mine to Walmsley*B bush, as there was a good grade all the way from the battery to the bush and the ground was suitable to lay the tram without nawying. I saw Mr. Russell and told him that if he gave me the contract for 10,000 tons of firewood at 6/ a ton and supplied me with the raila to build the tramway, I would guarantee to keep him fully supplied with wood in three weeks from the time the contract was signed. 'He agreed and at once got the rails carted to the tram site. T went to work and in. a, fortnight's time was

supplying the mine with wood and a week later the whole supply that was required was brought along the tram and the drays and wagons were put on the load to cart timber and machinery from Paeroa and the Waitekauri forest.

I continued to lay the tramway, until it was one mile and a-half into the forest. By this time the tram was three miles in length. I had 15 men in the bush cutting, the wood and three men sledging it to the tram with three, horses,, and thrfee men and three horses trucking the wood to the mine;'By this time I had 2000 tons of,-wood .delivered to the mine, and had- hot received a penny fop it, and had paid all the money I had to keep the business running, s' On ;the Rocks Again. I went" to Mr. Russell and told him stumped and would have to shut down if he would not' pay me a little money. I shared the mopey among the' wood choppers as far as it would go, then he started complaining about the wood, that it would not roast the quartz. Some man was packing the kilns with quartz and wood, he and his mate wanted to beat me for the con-, tract and would not pu* the Tight amount of wood in the kilus with the quartz. Neither I nor Russell knew this, and we were always at logger-heads. He was at me every day to improve the class of wood, and I told him that it wasn't in the bush to do it. Ho came to me again and was complaining and I wasn't in a sweet temper at the time, so I told h|m to take the contract, that I was out of it. He called me back and said to talk it over, but I had had enough of it and was determined to have no more to do with the contract. The fact was that he hadn't, the money to pay me nor could he get it until the mine produced it. So I was on the rocks again, with a wife and two children and £36 in debt to my store keeper. I heard just then that the Maratoto Mining Company had been wound up and that they had sold the mine and battery by public auction and that Mr. Judd, of Thames, had bought it for f2lO. I went to the Thames and offered to take the mine and battery on tribute at 10 per cent. He told me that he knew nothing about mining and could not do it, but that he was prepared to sell it for £210, what he gave for it. He told me that he had bought it without seeing it and that he was afraid it would take more to fetchi it from where it was than it would to buy a new One- I told him that I had no money to buy it, but that if he would trust me I could pay him in two months' time. He gave me the keys of the battery and told me to go ahead and that he would draw up the transfer when I brought the money. Mr. Russell seemed to regret the way be

had treated me. I had no spite against him and I knew that if I asked 1 him for, the silver I wanted to _charge the battery with he would trust'me until I could pay him. _y\ Charging the "Settlers." I called on him next morning and told him whatl'had done and that I wanted seven bottles of silver to charge the pans and settler. He told me to go to Hop, the battery manager at Waite-. kauri, and get them. I went and told him that Russell told me to get seven bottles of silver; he told me that he couldn't do it without an order from Russell I went back to Mr. Russell, who forthwith rode out with me to Waitekauri. When he got there he went straight to Hop and said: "Give Nicholl the silver he asked you for," and turned to me and said, "Nicholl, anything you want to make a success of your venture .don't be afraid to ask me, and if it is in my power I will do it." I thanked him, and he took the bridle off my horse and led him out to his stable at Waihi.

r started to carry the silver over the range to Maratoto; it is seven miles from . Waitekauri to Maratoto, the first four miles of it all up hill. To the top of Sheep Hill is 1800 feet about the Waitekauri battery, and is is down hill from there to the Maratoto battery. A bottle of quicksilver weighs 901b, and when I picked up the first bottle I thought it would" only be a cakewalk carrying seven bottles over the range, so I went at it, and by the time I had the first bottle on top of Sheep Hill my shoulders were skinned. The bottle had not been quite full, and the silver in the bottle was continually on the move. I filled two bottles next day, so that the silver coald not move, although I found them much easier to carry. I made two trips next day, and the day after I brought my swag and grub in for the week, and charged the settler with two bottles of silver, and the other bottle I kept to charge the pans with, and started the battery going on a heap of stuff that the company had left untreated and went to the mine to prospect it. I found a block lef+ giving pabable prospects, 53. x 32, so 'I started to beat it out first, and by the time the battery had the heap through I had another ready for it. Every four hours I had to charge the pans, but the last charge at night I let run for eight hours, and made it a double charge. I worked the sixteen hours and used the eight hours to rest, get the wood and sleep. I cleaned up, after running the battery for a fortnight, and retorted £103, for my fortnight's run: I took the gold to the bank and sold it, and opened an account in my wife's name; I could not keep money, anyone asking me for it could get it out of me, but they would have a contract to get it out of her.