THE KAIMANAWA PROSPECTORS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 940, 10 February 1871, Page 2

THE KAIMANAWA PROSPECTORS.

The following interesting report has been handed to Mr H. S. Tiffen, the Legal Manager of the Company, by the head of the party :—- We have already made you acquainted, in an imperfect way, with the greater part of our proceedings during the last • six months ; but as some account of our work and the country we have gone over may not be uninteresting to those gentlemen concerned in the prospecting of the province, we beg to send you for their information a condensed report of our doings since we started in August last. The far greater part of the first two months of our search was spent in examining the eastern slope of the Ruahines. We traced nearly all the principal streams in that district from, the Manawatu northward nearly up to their source; but in none of them did we succeed in finding gold or anything denoting its existence in the neighborhood. More for sake of satisfaction than in hopes of finding anything, we prospected many likely spots, but in no single instance did we succeed in obtaining even the finest color. At a later period we penetrated some distance southward on the western side of the range —as far indeed as we could take our horses —but there the indications were not a whit more promising than we had before seen on the other side. Subsequent examination of the same district further to the north, and on the same line of country, led us to the conviction, which we have no hesitation in expressing, that the probability of any payable goldfield being discovered within the boundaries of this province is very remote indeed. Leaving the Ruahine, we next made for the Ngaruroro, which we traced to its source, taking the Taruar rau on our way. In neither of these streams were we more fortunate than we had been in the country to the south. After crossing some spurs of Kaimanawa range, we reached the Rangitiki, which we prospected very carefully for some distance, and also some of the smaller tributaries running: from' the eastern side, but with no better luck than had hitherto attended us. A month or two afterwards, we were enabled to prospect the same river, near its upper waters, hut the result was no more encouraging. Travelling westward, we reached the Pa.tea country, and here, for the first time since setting out, we succeeded in obtaining the color of gold. We traced it westward for about twelve miles, and here the auriferous strata seems to dip. and is overlaid by the scoria formation. We traced it south to a line where the sedimentary rodks overlie the older formation, and the auriferous country is gone or, in fact, entirely blotted out. Shut in on those two sides, we worked our way to the north, finding gold, more or less, in nearly

every stream or watercourse, but in quantities too small to pay for working. Although impressed with the belief that payable ground will yet be discovered in that part of the country, we are not sanguine enough to suppose that it will be of any great extent; and, in all probability, it will require more time to find than we could have bestowed upon the search, circumstanced as we were, short of provisions, &c. From the very regular manner in which the <yo!il is strewn about, and from the abundance of quartz found on the ranges, and in leaders intersecting the bed rock in the various watercourses, there is every reason to suppose that payable reef's will yet be discovered in the same locality. We were not fortunate enough to find any stone in which gold was visible, although we obtained one piece of gold in which vou could discern quartz, thereby proving, beyond doubt, that some of the numerous reefs in the neighbourhood contain gold. Many of the samples we picked up looked very promising indeed. Quartz prospecting, however, is very tedious work, and with so much untried alluvial country before us, we could not justify ourselves in turning our attention to it. Since leaving the Kaimanawas, we have seen the Aripia and Mohaka, and have no faith whatever in that part of the country. Should the mining news from other parts of the world be as void of interest as they were when we started on this trip, I think we might be tempted to spend some few months yet in the country we have left. We will be glad to give all information in our power to any one desirous of visiting or learning anything more of the various districts we have visited, meantime, I beg to remain, Yours respectfully, Edward King. (For self and party.) H. S. Tiff en, Esq.