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Hokitika Guardian, 12 May 1927, Page 2

Speaking at the County Council meeting on Tuesday. Mr Chinn referred to the gold-hearing prospects of the AA*ata.rnii river bed, and stated some striking quartz specimens had been picked up in the upiier reaches. The find and the fact that very little is known of the hack country, again calls to mind the need there is for a prospecting effort to probe the hack country in regard to its mineral wealth. AA'estlnnd lias produced so much goTd. and traces are being found in so many places, that it seems to be more important than ever to seek out its situation in the matrix. Not only in tbe river beds, but also along the sea beaches, gold is being recovered all the time. It conies down the rivers from the back bills. A r or nothing is being iloue in a systematic way to trace out the actual deposits. This is the age of research more than at any other time. Every country is providing money for research work in various avenues. Prospecting is research work and might well be taken up as such. AA'e know that the regular gold-mining centres are petering out. and although we have a fnilv equipped Mines Department. staffed with scientists and what not. nothing in the way of practical research, covering the secrets of the hidden treasure is attempted. The once active Goldfields’ Branch of the Department seems to have been forgotten. Nothing is heard in this highly mineralised quarter of New Zealand, at all events, of its activities. The Government is neglecting an important, part of its duty by not following up the spade work done in former years to develop gold-mining in particular. The need fr this work appears to he more urgent now than at any time, when the country is passing through a very difficult period. A gold find would soon place a difficult complexion

on the general outlook of affairs, and do a great deal to lift the pall of depression hanging over the country. It is time then for a revival of the prospecting spirit, and if public opinion could he stimulated iu that direction the probability of a healthy industrial revival would he always present.