QUEST FOR GOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1928, Page 2

QUEST FOR GOLD

USE OF DIVINING. AUCKLAND, June 20,

The divining rod is being used in the Auckland Province in an effort to uncover gold-boaring reefs. Good money is being spent in following tho direction of the diviner and it is being spent none the less cheerfully because of the knowledge that some at least of tho direction of the diviner fly in the face of accepted mining practice, and send the gold-seekers on a course which no miner would follow. The diviner is Mr William Platt, of Opaheke, Papakura, and lie is voijfhed for by Mr L. Percy, of Alfredtori, Wairarapa,. who 'has known hint for years, and who lias faith in his divining powers. With others Mr Percy has /backed the diviner in a- quest for gold at Colville, Coromandel Peninsula, and lie is prepared to let tlie -sceptics laugh, believing that be and tho other gold-seekers will laugh last.

Describing the venture at Colville, Mr Percy said that pursuing for part of the distance a drive made by goldiseekers 40 years ago, the drive has been continued to a point 140 feet from the hillside, and, on the advice of Mr Platt, the workers are now rising vertically, the distance from the end of the drive to the surface being--60 feet. Just before reaching the end of the drive the workers struck an oblique reef believed to be gold-hear-ing at a higher level, and it is hoped to intersect the reef again on the vertical rise. The reef, according to Mr Platt, is about a chain long and eight inches wide. *,

An interesting feature of the divination is the use of a sugar-bag filled with coal. It is said that Mr Platt, working on the surface, can locate this coal when placed at any point in the drive, and by that method checks the direction of the drive. It is claimed on his behalf that walking on an upper level of a large building he can unerringly detect the presence of the hag of coal on the lower floor and successive changes in the coal’s situation are followed Ibv him with the aid of his rod, usually a clierry-plum stick, because of its toughness and liveliness. Mineral divining, more particularly in the quest for tin and coal deposits, is said to have been practised with some success in" Germany, while a Thames resident claims a similar power in divining for gold. The fact that there had never been any scientific substantiation to such claims was commented upon by Professor Bartrum, Professor of Geology at Auckland University College, when the subject was brought under his notice. “Such claims are not new,” he said. “They go hack at least to' 1550. when mention of divining for. minerals was made in De Re Metallica. One would think that if there were anything in such claims some substantiation would have been forthcoming before now. Meanwhile, all one can say is ‘not proven.’ ”