The Pohangina Reefs

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 77, 8 December 1885, Page 3

The Pohangina Reefs

The meeting of persons interested; which was convened for Saturday last at Palmerejwnjjjwas^jaijlailare, as neither Mr Anderson or Mr Keif could attend. > M* Armstrong-was :yotedi to : the chair. .TheSecretery : sta]be4 that the Minister of Mmesjiad promised to give ;> a sum not exceeding £30 towards development of , the field, if the Oroua County Council would give a similar amount. ; .As the Counties Apt was ' suspended" the^ jpowers of the Council in this respect would devolve on the Eiwitea Ebad Board, and Mr Macarthur had promised to bring the matter before that body at its next meeting. . , ,^ . .>...< Mt McDonnell, who was present, was permitted to make a statement. He" said'he had, been sent by : the Ashurst Company to prospect at'Pohangina, and, hadbeen therefor three months and a day. He had '32 years' experience in gold, . mining, and : he maintained that there was no reef at Pohangina. He had made every en-" deayor to find it,.and had.crushed a considerable quantity of stone, both the brown chocolate colored and the so-called limestone, biit had not got even the colbr^ On Friday morning lie was told by one of Dundas's men that Anderson had struct" the reef, and he asked .him to accompany him to it; ai he and Anderson were not on intimate terms. , : Afterwards observed Anderson on horseback, and in the evening, he went to the drive, taking a candle with him. At the head he observed what was represented as quartz, but it was nothing but a boulder! He called it a "whale," and said the calf of it had been- sent to Itelboorne, and had given the ; magnificent return of 6£ grains. Mr Keif allowed him totafce a piece of tlxe. stone, and he brought this down to Bray's store, and -ho divided it in Mr Bray's presence. -..One piece was seat "by Mr Thomas Nelson to Mr Forbes, of Wangauui,! ! to ibe tested, and the other forwarded -to . Professor Skey. The result of the former was known and the metal produced appeared to be silver : the result of the latter had not yet arrived. li. . ' The Chairman remarked that there seemed to be a strong personal feeling between. McDonnell and Anderson and he would like to hear what the latter had to say. ~ • Mr McDonnell went on to say that: when panning off . the stone he had burnt he observed a scum on the dish. On the West Coast in washing black sand the fine gold' sometimes floated, and caused a milky appearance similar to what he had observedMr McDonnell said Mr Bassett was a gentleman in whom he had perfect confidence, and Mr Bassett had told him that he broke a piece bf*tone and found a speck of gold inside. The stone was not brought down by Mr Basset, but by a man named Hurley. It might be possible to break the stone and stick it together again. K there was gold in the stone there were thousands of tons of it. Mr Bassett had si*oe applied for a v double area. : Mr MeDonaell said he believed gold might beibore, bat it was so fine that a furnace would be required to work it. He would not be guilty of deceiving the public. ' Had the public believed what had appeared in the Standard, Ghroaiele, and Times, there would have been hundreds of diggers there, but he had sent too many letters away;' •*• - •'.■•'■-• ■■■ ' ]/: ' '■'''' <1 - The -meeting then- separated.— Times. .