THE NEW OPHIR.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1236, 6 November 1885, Page 3

THE NEW OPHIR.

Ophir is the name of the township at Blacks, and from what I know of the locality in the pa*t, and have recently seen, I think it is very appropriately so named, for-like Havilah, “ the gold of that land is good." By the way, it is rather strange to find gold-diggings so specially commended in the second chapter of Genesis, but the fact U so- Bet that pass. In the olden -days many a rich pile was made at Blacks, aed nti to the present date there art Isrge psychic claim* on btfth Me* of

the wide valley, which extends from Galloway station to Blsckstone Bill In one direction, and from Tiger Hill and thereabout* to the Dunstan Ranges in the other. The only real limit to the production of gold in this wide area appears to he the supply of water. Given water in sufficient volume, and it is quite impossible to conjecture the amount of gold that could he easily obtained. High up in the ranges, amongst the old terraces which once bordered a vast lake* low down on the foothills which have subsided from loftier peaks, on the bedrock of the flats, and in the gullies running from the mountains to the valleys, gold has been obtained in prodigious quantities, and still is being obtained in claims which, after a score of years, show no sign of exhaustion. Ido not hesitate to declare my certain conviction that from Mount St. Bathans to the Clntba River, at Clyde, almost every spur and terrace is payably auriferous ; and the range extending from Hill’s Creek to Alexandra, on the other side of the wide valley, has been found to ba gold-bearing wherever it has been wrought. Indeed, on the southerly flank of this range, in the Ida Valley, there exists the only proved continuous deep lead over discovered in Otago. Why has this not been more extensively worked J it may be asked. The reasons are palpable to any observer of events. In the first place the miners have not had sufficient means at their command to open out the ground properly. They have, therefore, only scarred, scratched, and scraped the surface for the most part. Then they have never hitherto received any intelligent assistance nor any advice or direction from the Government. In fact, since the breaking-np of the Mining Survey Department in 1866, tha mmers of Otago have been left to grope their way along as best they could. The Ida Valley deep lead was lost, and the ground abandoned through the apathy and positive discouragement of the late Government, when a paltry s ibaidy of L2OO would have ensured its development, and the Manorburn water race, which eost something like L 20.000 has been sold for L 350 to a small mining partnership, owing to the want of encouragement and absence of knowledge. Thus things have gone on from bad to worse. I cannot spare time, nor can space be afforded to enter more fully into detail at present; but 1 will do so on some future occasion, with the editor’s permission. My object just now is rather to show how matters muddled in the past are assuming a different aspect, and why* genuine revival of the raining industry in the Manufaerikia Valley may be fairly anticipated. But hero I may point oat a very sad and unfortunate fact. Our people here in Dunedin seem not to care for the development of the Otago goldfields. They want to have goldfields ever so far away. “ Distance lends enchantment to the view ; ” and the men who would button up their pockets if asked to assist in developing local mining enterprise, have cheer fully thrown their thousands into bogus speculations on ♦he West Coast and elsewhere. What could be more absurd than this course of procedure ? Even supposing —which I am very far from admitting - that they would have equally lost their morey on Otago speculations, this result is beyond the possibility of contradiction their money would have filleted back through i he channels of trade into their own pockets, whereas as matters stand they have simply paid away ready cash for the benefit of West Coast storekeepers, and—shall I say smart- mining speculators and their agents. When I was at Ophir last week I made it my business to -inquire into the actual position of affairs there, and this is what I found. Mr Green's discovery is a very valuable one. The ground which he is working has been worked over twice by experienced “ practical ” miners men some of them accustomed to mining in Victoria an 4 here also from their youth upwards. They skimmed the surface again and again. They actually sank shafts 20 and 30 feet deep in the ground Green is working, and went through the richest deposits without discovering them. They laid bare and exposed what appears to he a genuine quartz lode, bearing in the true geological magnetic direction for such lodes, and there it is, some lOfr, high exposed to view as it has been for 10 or J2 years, but like Sir Charles Coldstream, who went up Mount Vesuvius and looked down the crater, they saw “ nothing in it.” And here is a man who knows little or nothing about mining, who quietly potters about and drops on a mine of wealth. I am Sfrsid to say what he told me about his earnings, or to state what I saw with my eyes.. It is as Dominie Sampson would say—“ prodigious.” He has only a Chinathan to help him with a clumsy sluice box and. a cradle— very primitive appliances—but he is making something more than wages when he can get water, which is not often, for water is scarce on that side. It may be that he has struck on “ a patch.” Other parties are out prospecting, but I could not bear of auy of them having “struck oil.” And I am not prepared to express a positive opinion about the matter until I have more fully informed myself as to the true geological character of the strata of which 1 have been careful to secure samples for the inspection of Professor Ulrich. But there is nevertheless a pretty powerful conviction in my own mind that, if only water could be lifted ou to the summit, or even half-way up the range, the whole of the “made hills” behind Ophir would pay handsomely for sluicing from the surface to the bed rock, and there are a few miles of them. The gold is course and rough, and occurs in the forms of “ fine” gold and “coarse” gold—the latter being found in layers of broken quartz, going from half au inch to perhaps an inch and a halt in thickness, which permeate, so to speak, the clay deposit which Mr Green is working. And it is a curious fact that far down below in the ‘ flat,” where men are prospecting in the vicinity of the new tail race, there also the gold is “coar-e,” rough, and angular, showing that it has .pot travelled far nor been exposed to the action of the water. A sample kindly brought for my inspection by a party of miners was entirely of this character. And speaking of this, I may say that many years ago the Provincial Government grintcd a suhsidy for cutting np the lower portion of this tail race, with the result that a very largo area of ground yielded profitable employmentjto the miners for some years. Then there ensued a period of stagnation until last year, when I induced the Government to grant a further subsidy for cutting the channel farther up, and again the prospect of a considerable area of payable auriferous ground is becoming realised. If only the pre-emptive of the ran (92 acres) is purebssed, there will bo, 1 verily believe, a large accession to onr escort returns and the means of profitable employment for a large number of miners for a long time to come This and the bringing in of water to the top of the range are the two necessary things to ensure the revival of the prosperity of this portion of the Dunstan district.

I shall have more to ssy ahont these things next week. Meanwhile I deprecate anything like a “ rush” to the locality. There must he more time allowed for the development of the hills and flat, and none hot accustomed miners who are prepared to "chance it” and work manfully for a few weeks in prospecting operations should ifek anything upon it.