COLD PROSPECTED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 10

COLD PROSPECTED.

Sir,—ln your issuo of this.morning,there is.a paragraph stating .that "four surveyors will leave,for..thp-'Mouiit Arthur district, between' Nelson and'Karam'ea, within the next, 4 few■' days,-jto icommence Ahe'. gold prospecting; operations; J^whioh)'^he'• Government has decided 'to institute; •>it'^l i 6VeAipent geologist will sujgerriSo the work,atr intervals.' 1 There jsurely is an; .error witli regard. to the word ■'"survejori''., it-! nfust- be ''"prospector" that :was' .meant..' •'• ■:

''. Now! I wish ,to\call'.the attention of members of Parliament to this intended waste of money.' If .prospectors' are to, b9 Bent out, let. them, be_ sent to localities (if there arc any), where "no prospectors have been. The district mentioned a^ove'has been more prospected than any-other in New Zealand. Thero are old workings on the tableland, and now and again a few/diggers go there for the summer months, but have to, leave before] the winter. The area 'of known auriferous country- that has not been much worked, is • that calle.d "Government Hill." ; Various companies and private individuals have tried to bring in tho water, from Lako Peel to' 'work this ground, but without, success, due 'to the, small'amount of capital. No large company, would ijouch it. Tho-' amount of washdirt in most places, is only a few feet, and often only inches,,'a' good, deal of the gold beihg ; found in .th<j roots.of the tussocks: ' All. tho creeks running into the Taknka River, notably 7 the Balloon, Golden Gully, Gridiron, ajid 'ottjers have .been worked out. A small quantity'of gold- was got in the Leslie, above where it runs into tho Karamea, also somo/in tho Crow at the head of tho Karamea.' The country is rough' to get provisions iuto, and there is no area of alluvial ground. " The whole, country has been examined by American and Australian geologists, and by. prospectors sent out .by Auckland, Nelson, and Wanganui syndicates, and 'nothing; has been found,'not even "economic -possibilities," so often. found by Dr. Bell. '.It-'is a , shame that money should be 'so wasted—l .am, etc., .. • A PROSPECTOR. . March 16. . >, .