THE COROMANDEL REEFS

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1154, 10 April 1872, Page 2

THE COROMANDEL REEFS

.An Auckland correspondent of a south-.. :erh contemporary furnishes the following interesting particulars of the recent discoveries at Coromandel : — „ Frq.m, l ,Corpm,andel .the ,jnost« exciting*rumors come. Near the jetty, and within fstonfc throw; of a hillion" which thousands of pounds were uselessly spent some ..years, ago.,, the 4ow~spurs--;come^down* to* the sea, and, have been^burrowed: into at different Js^eiihtCduring' the last few .months, with results which seem,toQ.marvellous^ for belief. The Green jßfarp crushed ten tons, and the proprietors determined to do no more till they' had put up a battery .of , their,. own, instead of carrying the stone 'without roads to the only available battery at a considerable distance. rN Meantime,. being ■wprking,miners, they have gone on quietiy_ exte.n.ding ""■fcfieif" "drives and getting ready to stope out when the" battery- was erected. This, will be finishedin about a month— the New : Zealand 'Crushing Company (English)' haying taken 1 c it 'in -Hand. The stone is being iaken. put,, and, ; the; size, richness, and quantity of some of the blocks pro--mises to make it rival the Caledonian. The shares, which have long been held at L 3,105, have risen to L 6 10s,, and if the glowing accounts we hear are confirmed, and the supposed extent of the reef be proved on further .working, the, shares will no doubt be eagerly sought : : at a much higher, figure. The .Golconda, another claim near the Green Harp, but; !. working . a reef :; entirely ' distinct from it, is getting out stone equally rich; It is,: however, 'situate •' oh; land cut up into sections, and sold years since as the township 1 of Wyndyardton. Not a-house was erected, nor even a tent . put , up, on-the -hills forming thejsto^n';; ri'pf^after the firs'f hopes of Coromandel were . disappointed, did the owners v of these sections appear to place upon ;thjsm the least value. The miners wfio first thought of drivinginto the cliffs; in; which the township abuts on the sea, soon found' reason to suppose the sections .of morie more' value '"than' they were' de'enied by the 'real "owners; " "Th'cT'pegs " had' disappeared ; the ? neighboring country was unoccupied, and it became impossible to . identify the 'separate sections;' 'A'n^assoJ-j ciation of township owners was formed, but the miners' refused -them admission to their or into, ..the • drives,-; in the prosecution of the necessary survey. The Golconda, as th£ "chief of these claims, . has been, in the 'deepest and hottest cjf '. ; these -disputes 1 ; 'The miners',' adnutting' [ the^ ownership of the land by others', 5 maintain that it is, their exertions which . have giverr it 'valuej and that 'Me proper „ time, to warn ( them, them ,pff, ,was '.' they openly 1 , and with' the knowledge' oi ', .the owners, ■ .commenced/ prospecting : the " ground under the belief jtnat they had a J right to do so" if they did. not disturb thfe , surface. These 1 disputes are still many of L them unsettled ; i built' is -said that; teo fat ; as the Golconda is concerned, the owners of the land have accepted shares in the company. : . If so, the. other, .claims will probably make, the same -arrangements', and save costly litigation, which must . keep back the district. In that case, s as two batteries will soon be. at work L near the beach, we tnay expect ;to r hear of large returns from these mines . in the course of a couple of months!. , Between these beach claims and th^ r Tokatea (Range; numerous /companies are ( at work, and many of them with the most t encouraging prospects. ;, Among; others is ? the neWi Kapanga claim, scut . out of the [ ■; old one of the same name,' and now being j worked by a company formed in' England : in connection' with the^Ne'w' Zealand 1 bat ] tery erected nenr it. The old Kapangi . claim had thousands spent upon it/lnd [ was, on : rich stone ,when,flopded r oui . those'days the mmm'g 1 skill available was t very slight. , Much money was wasted in , ineffectual attempts to clear off the water, ] and eventually the brilliant prospects of . the liong'D'rive ahd : Shotover, r ,which!were . just then opened at the Thameis^teihp'ted L f w Kap;an^rT!lSiiH~'to s abandon it. andi'mp've^their plant— as it; . has since proved .very, foolishly— to .the : I' Thames!' '' The English 1 ty [ work calculate, -'I hear, I.lßnl1 .1 8nl iari outlay oiE ; LIO,OOO, but hppe^tp.havie a very valuable , property, worth many times its cost. Ij; . is in rthis neighborhood that the various , batteries haye been erected.; The distance I from the' beach' is -aboui; three miles; ; , There ; are two, townships. . The lowerj [ just springing into importance, i is lont the . flat at .the beach. The upper,- about one \ mile and a half offs),is among the lower , spurs of the range, and in the neighbori hood of all the older mines, but being | rapidly cut out by the new town below. ' Five miles from the. beach, along steep hill Bides, or up a steeper, tramway, we j l reach the Tokatea Range,? with its system J . of large and valuable -mines. The chief of [ these, the Tokatea,- is ,at present under a f. cloud. It has -during ;the last year paid [ between L 35,000 and L 40,000. in divi- [ dends, and has -in hand a reef calculated , to produce 'similar dividends |f or years t to come. 'But the greater part of the mine— in fact all but the small, hill top [ now being worked — is below the level . of the tramway. Either, therefore, the ( stuff will have to be carried at great ex- , pense upwards to the tramway, or there : can be no crushing from the lower levels i till a battery is put up on the Kennedy Bay side of ! the range; The Bismarck, , another valuable claim,"" with "a^large ; . amount of; stone irdady. for !crushing, is in the same position. Fortunately, an enterprising Melbourne ; Company : has jor ] operated with Mr J. Bennett of this'city, and whafpromises to be the best and most ] complete battery in the Province is being , erected-on the Waikomorito Creek, low : down 1 the hill, where there is abundance ,- of water- power; 1 •• The- tramway' connect- : ing this battery With the Tokatea 1 and immediate claims is surveyed, and the con- ■ -ti?acts~are to be"let .at. bhce.-"lfw^exj-pected that.tKe yrhole'will be in working order by July - next, when this districtj, with its- magnificent and proved Sreefs 1 , must come to the front as one of the best and most ..permanent in . our goldfields|. Below the Bismarck, the Van Company, the Margaretta, and the Argo are jointly^ . running, an, extensive drive to cut the. ' reefs, 1 which, " in' yarious claims, s^uihss. the Royal Oak, Harbor View, and iPfide! of Tokatea,. proved so. rich Jin. the. highe r levels above the tramway. The Pride cf Tokatea has taken ' rank among these bs next tp,: the Tokatea Mitie, > haying, ik merely sinking the winze, , taken Jout a^ parcel of stuff (24 ; tons), from which the y crushed: over ( il000oz. i When the drhe to connect Twith this • wiuze isfinisheel, an d stopihg . out is 1 begun, there are many who look for large returns from this mine.