THE THAMES DISTRICT.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 35, 26 August 1867, Page 210

THE THAMES DISTRICT.

, ; MpoMijfi &ews.;' ’; ■ _ '.’;; SiS&dTEEY. ii' A EldH QIJAETZ 'i ;.' • REEF; .•' '■/!' -' .'• '' k r.-. .fili.REE^ fJVoiti the New Zealand. Herald’s Correspondent.] August 13. : 1 fiiys already .forwarded % the r Pet S specimen of quartz found, by Mr Messenger; I send, you now by the a pret,ty' large idt of quartz found.on the I ''surface of the' reef 'mentioned in my last, -despatch as being So much talked about. The..reef was discovered on,a.small fjreek-called the Kuruniii, beyond the Waiotahi; and on the extreme limit $f the land sold in the 7000 acres. There are no two persons holding a like opinion as to this quartz. On Saturday evening a rumor got abroad that a find had been come upon ; there was something that would startle you in Auckland and make all our fortunes here. To-day, although we lire all in a most excited state, and the great bulk of the population is either going or lias gone to the reef, |ret quite as many declare it to be iniea, rnundie, or schist, as believe it to be gold. I send you a lot given to ine by Mr Commissioner Mackay; and Some pieces that I have myself tested Vilh nitric acid and by roasting—the t>nly tests we have here. If gold at Sill,’it is of a very inferior quality, Owing to the weather we have bad Since Saturday evening; all the shafts lire from 10 to 12 feet in water, and Some of the claims cannot be baled out Vilh buckets.

If these samples were handed to •Mr Lynsar,*of Albert-street, he would possibly test them. In any case we Shall look with great anxiety for the result.

All the claims are taken up, as far %,s it. is now possible to take them. At the time I close this despatch, Hiree o'clock the steamer has not yet fhoye in sight.

• The native meeting which was to iave come off to-day, has not taken Jilace. The severity of the weather lias preveuted the whole of the natives here. The meeting now stands postponed until to-moirow. [The quartz, as will be seen elsewhere, has been tested by Mr Beck, &nd proved to be auriferous; 1 oz. flwts. of quartz yielding 6 grs. of gold. —Ed.N.Z.H.]

August 14. Having no later paper here than the 9th, uj) to the time I write 1 — ’Tuesday, 3 p.m I —l am unable to say Which of my despatches may have you. But supposing that you tuust now be aware that a rich quartz 3reef, extending for some three miles, sias been discovered, I proceed to state to-day’s proceedings. . Early this morning I proceeded up the Kuranui Creek, and was fortunate enough to fall in with the original prospectors, and a party of Otago %niners. The country itself, is a Ht caution ” to get through, most of the travelling having to, be done through the bed of the creek, which is some What wet at this season of the year, or up the side of a range that you Siave. to climb by bolding on to anything you can. catch hold of. One of •our party, who was. up the creek yes* terday, missed, his footing, and. went ■down the side of the range for twenty feet, when lie was brought up by falling into the creelc. "We had no such misfortune to-day. On going to the place where the; "specimens which I Sent you yesterday by the Fly had been procured, I saw the’ stone taken from; the side of the reef, and' there «could be no doubt that there it was—: t>ne great mass of: quartz, making a beautiful waterfall. . The.claims.: start

from this pojht; and -extend fori three ; miles. Our party then . went up the very : easy or pleasant; jdb, «.UkougfoduriDg all the terrible storm > of Satui day : nigh tup to midnight, men Were ; c here■; marking out claims >:and putting, in pegs;-,.; Prospect after. pro/Wa^tageof. two svefyi good ; la. ; ;eac!h;;and:>eyerylprospe'qt /is -fja^aUoy, rofo silver—but all .here ; ~ totfae c^idusioniJiiat-yha^

libelled by calling it mundic, or mica, or schist, is to-day gold—with, say, 20 jjer cent of alloy. The juicing claims were only • bailing out this morning,- io that 1 cannot give you any additional news. The excitement of yesterday has toned down; aihd the men are going work again .with good heart. Shortland Town is going a-head with great rapidity; and wooden buildings -are all the order of the-day—-to-day—while yesterday canvas was quite good enough. I find that Mr Mackay has tested the supposed mundic while I have been away this morning, and that the stuff lias stockl all the tests. I presume you will have had the specimens tested by this time, as we are anxiously looking for the result. Weather fine. Blasting powder, driving tools, and license fees are in demand.

The meeting has not come off to day.

August 15.

I send this by the Blue Belle, which ieaves at high-water, or about 6 p.m. We had a whole day of furious wind and rain yesterday. Nothing was or could be done- We had tents blown down, but none carried away. It was about as bad a day as ever I saw. To-day all hands are again at work, and three of the claims are sluicing, they are the Government prospecting party; Williamson and Smallman’s party, and Dean’s party. Williamson and Smallman’s party are putting everything that comes up the shaft through the boxes, and intend to find the bottom. We were to have bad the native korero to-day but a pig belonging to the Maoris having been killed by two miners this morning, the proceedings at the Resident Magistrate’s Court —which I enclose in extenso —occupied the whole day and prevented the korero coming off. It will take place to-morrow.

Great sympathy is felt here for the two men Young and Craig convicted of killing the pig, and it is hoped something may be done to mitigate their punishment. As I write the Sydney has arrived and the steamer is in sight, Monday’s Herald has not reached here, and I do not see in Tuesday’s which is to band by the Blue Bell. We look anxiously to know what our great reef is to turn out.

August 16.

I wrote last night by the Blue Bell not anticipating that the steamer would leave until the evening tide. As she leaves this morning at 7 a.m., I merely add to my other despatch that all the prospects yesterday were better than any we have had yet. Some gold from Dean & Co’s claim was very good. Barry' & Co’s . next claim to the prospectors showed half an ouuce to 3 lbs of quartz.

THE EUR UN IT I REBP. [From tlic New Zealand Herald, 17th August.] The intelligence, brought up by the Enterprise is not only encouraging, but actually exciting. Some very valuable specimens were brought up yesterday by various parties. One of the prospecting party which found the reef brought up between 81b. and 91b. of the quartz, nearly 61b. of which has been left with us on exhibition. It is even richer in gold than the 2 pounds smelted for us by Mr Beck from the same reef, and which produced at the rate of 280 ounces of gold to the ton of quartz. Some little account of the finding of this reef and of its character may not be uninteresting to our “readers. . The fortunate party to whom belongs the credit of finding the reef .consists of four members; Messrs. J. E. White, Grark^opV';;-='Cpbley,‘' and Hunt. Oh Friday last One of : their number, came in and informed his mates that he had found a decent prospect in the bottom of a blind giilly. They proceeded forthwith ’to follow;Jup the prospect; that it was gocd; after h deiiberatipn among thefoselves, decided on pushing lip the creek in ; pirpspect. The;y had not up the bed : of the stream, when Mr White, who was leading up the.creek, and who proposed pushing on a-head, was’met, by a barrier of stone^ririnu thh height ifeet/'jwj'S&pyofls

the creek to either: bank. Over the stdne the water ran in a small fall. Looking at the stone they found it to be quartz, and climbing by the crevices to the top, stood upon the surface, when tbev found it to be nine feet across. . They returned back again and re-examined the face of tiie stone. One of them then struck it with his pick, and the first blow brought down a piece of stone, in which the gold was clearly visible. Satisfying themselves that this was no extraordinary sample of the reef, they started back to the township and sought Mr Mackay, who, having furnished them with their, miners’ rights,- proceeded back with them to the reef, and to gether with the Warden, Mr Bayley, saw their prospecting claim of 300 feet square marked oft. Further inspection satisfied the party that the reef or rock contained as many as four distinct leaders, which commenced on the face at only an inch or two in thickness widened out witkiD the reef to as many feet, and equally as rich in gold. That night the creek was rushed en masse. By candle light the bearings of the reef were taken, and the ground north-east and south-west was marked off in chains.

Then began the dispute as to whether that which was taken for gold was really gold or mica. Opinions differed. Some really thought it mica; others pretended to do so, wishing to induce holders of claims to abandon the same as worthless. One man, anxious to put the metal to the test, brought down some quicksilver. The gold was placed upon it, but floated. It refused to amalgamate. The claimholders looked blue—the sticklers for the mica theory were exultant. At this critical juncture a man named Barry rushed^ out, and returned with a shovel, and placing some of the gold upon it, held both over a fire till the shovel was red hot. The gold thus treated was again placed in contact with the quicksilver, and lo! it no longer refused to amalgamate. The sulphur in connection with the gold, winch the action of the heat had dispelled, had been the cause of its not uinalgating at first. We need not say that a general feeling of joy and satisfaction was felt at the result.

Our correspondent’s letter contains much interesting intelligence. We are glad to say that Barry has a claim next to that of the prospecting party, and still more so, that on trial 3 lb. weight of the stone yielded half an ounce of gold.

(TProm tlie Evening News, August 17.] It is hardly necessary to say that the excitement caused iu Auckland, by the good news received by the Enterprise yesterday was most intense, and that , the very rich specimens of gold in | quartz taken from the Kurunui Reef, and exhibited in the window of the Evening News office, formed:the centre of . attraction. Our office was literally besieged, but a close inspection of the specimens satisfied all who saw > them, that no mistake had been made. The specimens were pronounced to be richer than anything that had previously been brought from the Thames. ! But these are only some of the speci- ? mens brought up. Others equally rich have been sent or brought up by some ,of the fortunate claim holders. The i discoverers of the reef are Messrs i White, Clarkson, Cobley, and Hunt, ; who lost no time in procuring miners’ rights and pegging out their claims. At first a great deal of doubt was expressed as to the reef being gold ■ bearing, many being of opinion that the glittering material on the quartz was only mica. Chemical tests at first i supported , this opinion, , but further tests proved it to be gold; The reef is situated 11 about one mile and a half from the landing place. As soon as I it was known that the reef was really auriferbus, claims were taken up with great rapidity., One of . the claimholders, who did not go down to dig, but was engaged upon a survey party, was, so satisfied of its payableness that he relinquished liis engagement, and took-upa; claim at once. . He was siibsequently ofitered 1 togive it up. Notwithstanding the favourable overcrowding the field. The reef has, we are informed, been all taken; but one there'are likely tb b&^iniany^^moref-and- :ye eufrigh f9t