REPORTED GOLD DISCOVERY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20170, 24 February 1931, Page 8

REPORTED GOLD DISCOVERY.

PACTS EXPLAINED. STATEMENT BY MEMBER j OP PARTY. ' [THE pssss Special Service.] DUNEDIN, February 23. The facts upon which it was recently reported that rich gold* reefs had been found at Preservation Inlet are stated in a communication which Mr Bobert A. Keble has prepared and: published. Mr Keble is palaeontologist: to the National Museum of Melbourne,.and as such was a member of the pa,rty that • visited Preservation Inlet. . The, purpose of the expedition was to investigate the age of the slates. As far as may be determined ■by graptolites, fossils that are commonly used in Victoria to zone the auriferous :beds, slates of the same age as' thdße that containsd the goldbearing reefs jit Bendigo were found; but 1 apart fron\the importance of this dißcpveiy by -110 means follows that similar rich reefs to thosb at Bendigo exist at Preservation Inlet in beds of the same age. Many factors other than age are involved, and no investigation of the lodes, such as would be necessary to Teach conclusions as to their economic value, was made by the party. Dr. W. N. Benson, Professor, of Geology and Mineralogy on the; staff of , the Otago University* was another member of the party, and he said this morning, when spoken to bya teporter, that Mr Seble's statement embodied aU ■ the facts necessary to put the public right on the subject. It may be {idded that gold was ,found at Preservation Inlot forty or fifty years ago, but not in snch quantity as to pay the prospectors,,