PROSPECTORS AND MR SYMMS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2998, 3 February 1881, Page 2

PROSPECTORS AND MR SYMMS.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.] Sir,—" What shall I do to be saved," is not of such moment to me just now as what shall I. do to get a living ? And a thought strikes me, if I only had the profound geological knowledge possessed by Mr Samuel Symms I would only have to go up to the Kuahine ranges and spot the root of all evil right away, and he evermore happy. But, worse luck, I have devoted more time in studying the contents of quartz of she-oak than quartz containing auriferous metal. I wonder where this quidnunc obtained such a valuable store of mineralogical knowledge ? Some nine months ago it appeared probable that gold would be got at Stony Creek, Tarawera. Then Mr Symms came boldly forward as having predicted it as a likely place long before. I have Messrs Hunter's and Sinden's published report, wherein they say that this district and the Mohaka are composed only of limestone and papa, a jumbled mass, and no reefs. Again, Mr Symms suggests the Ruihine ranges, be does not say on which side, nor point out any particular part. Verily a safe prediction, considering it is the backbone of the country. But he evidently forgets that to prospect that place would take at least half a life time. His information would be just as useful to us if he said the moon. The word prospector is sickening to Mr Symms; there is only one bona fide such here, and that is evidently himself, and of course he is galled because people won't assist him to go out. But, before going, one is compelled to take out a prospecting license, and thereby become entitled to the term, in a legal sense at any rate, as the fee-males say (those who are generally so dear you). He should start a sort of school of mines here, doubtless he would get many pupils, if competent. My idea is that the Government geologists ought to visit likely places, instead ot hanging about Wellington. With respect to Messrs Allen and Hunter who have just gone to the Buahine they go only to a particular spot where auriferous quartz has previously been found by gentlemen of undoubted integrity, when they were surveying this locality, so that if the' stone shown by Allen and Hunter was got from the gentlemen I have indicated, and there is no reason for doubting the fact, it is almost a certainty, because gold can be distinctly seen in such stone as wasshown. The worst feature in my mind about the matter is that the place ii in the Wellington province, wad « all the

Revenues derived from goldfields aro to he spent in the province in which raised Hawke's Bay would not derive go much benefit from the opening of a fiel_ as if in its province; yet it is not far away, and of course would be an opening for labor, &c. As I am an unfortunate prospector (in a legal sense only), and am anxious to learn, perhaps Mr Symms would kindly inform rae, one of the veriest tyros, why gold is not likely to be found about the Mohaka, or in Scinde Island. Napier ? Is it because gold cannot be found where limestone is in the locality P And is a district that is of a slaty nature likely to be auriferous? I have been in the colony quite as long as Mr Symms, and am, through my deficient knowledge, quite prepared to learn of the fiuding of gold anywhere, save and except in my own (alas!) and his pockets.—l am, &c, H. B. Thompson. Napier, February 3,1881.