GOLD PROSPECTING

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1932, Page 8

GOLD PROSPECTING

NOT MUCH BENEFIT TO ; UNEMPLOYED.. ; HAZARDOUS VENTURE. •f : ' CHRISTCHURCH,' July 13. “A man,with a few pounds who goe; to the West Coast to find in gold pro.-- • ppeting some lucrative employment s more likely to be disappointed than -successful. If he is inexperienced, i is’hopeless,” declared,Mr G. Lawn, lec '■■turei’ in 'economics at 'Canterbury Oollegi?, - who has,a fairly intimate know--1 ledge of the West Coast and its possii bilities for gold. He said that prospeofing was so highly speculative tint 1 it > scarce!}’ provided a safe basis for the absorption of the unemployed. Mr. when aoproaclied as tin result of complaints from disappointed prospectors who bad gone.to the We? 4 Coast as the result of optimistic reports, said that he had been , brought up in. a.'gq®-mining district, and had no illusions about tlhe matter. H" had seen too. much of; the .speculative nature of prospecting'to be impn/ssed with stories of rich finds. His fatW m had been a. gold-miner in many part' rf Anstr-lia and New Zealand, and had been .at Gabriel’s Guftly in, the ’sixties His. fatliier had told him that in 4 very heyday of gold-digging in New Zealand,- when fortunes were, .hemp roadie; .there were, thousands,- of dig--gers who had no -money. VERY DISAPPOINTED. Mr Lawn gave an instance of a ma’ v who had been very disappointed,, in. vierw pf optimistic repoits from the Ross district. Mr Lawn and liis'Trend while on their -return., from .the, h/a' 1 of the Matak : tahi : -River, Fn r ountered near Murchison, an expe v ienced prospector who had.; walked .from.Hok'tika. The-man told them that lie and 1 hi? mate had been attracted from th'.? .Otago fjelds .by reports oif gold discoveries ■ near- Rons. He and hi.® mafe hadle- each put £4O into the venture, -anj had been given directions from residents of Ross. The up,shot of it was that this man,, after cmapding monlp.y with no luck, was heading towajids Nelson for work, and, if, none was available there he intended tramping back to Otago. The ma-n’a 'opinionT-was'-thfit -the statements marie .about the opportunities for returps. fiipm- the Ross district iv-ere fwossly: exeggpirtated. and that tlyyse /who gained principally were tradespeople a,nd ; those- pjei'sons-interested in having tracks' mi'rde- into -the - back country, at the expenre of ,t-lie unfortunate men who had isp-nt their, money gpd , were diyiUws’ooed. r Hokitika, and Ross, continued Mr Lawn contained dozens of experienc’d .miners who would not lose any* opportunity, of: prospecting .likely . ground jf there wnis apy return!to,he had. Spme of:.those men wei'e doing a little prospecting -and sluicing; to supplement their incomes, and fum rs, part'eiflarlv along the Bu'ler River, were earning a few extra shillings from the streams. -. v" “LIKE HORSE-RACING.”

“Prospecting is {like horse-racing—-one hear® of the few wins and nevef hoars .of. the losses,•sia-tsd Mr Lawn. “In a certain number of cases gold has bleen found unexpectedly in places where.thle country .-wa-s..ve;y thorou-ahly prospected years ago. A case of that kind happened in a very spot about three miles from) Murchison. The place had beep., prospected years ago, 'and ... though . two ,old diggers l-'y 'd,;. pn the site,-no one dreamed, that gold was still there. A young.fellow,-coming .up from the river noticed gol'd in the wash, in the coTigloim-frate rock face; -and made ~a/very good find.,.that, gave .a fillip to prospecting in.-the.yicinjty. , : “It is useless to go prospecting without a technical knowledge of the-game, as it is if skilled:job. A certain, amount of expense is involved in equipment and stores for-the baclcblocks, and one lias to put up with ai good dea] q{ hardship, and then there is ( the;, : very great element of uncertainty. „It is probable that a pi-ospeetor wjH not get enough gold to pay expenses, though he may happen, with a certain amount of rare luck, to- strike a rich find.

“A small area Up the Howard River, a tributary of the' Buber, has bleen found to be very rich, hut, while some men are doing well there, others are not covering expense's at all. I know of two men who sold th.yiir claim there for £2, and a littilie later coarse gold was found by the now comer. While that man might do well for a while, he may go for months without winning anything.”