The Guardian And Evening Star with which is incorporated the West Coast Times FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1932. PROSPECTING.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 December 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star with which is incorporated the West Coast Times FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1932. PROSPECTING.

Some interest ha s been shown in prospecting operations in the high mountain country between Canterbury and Westland!, following the activities of the deputy cii.drman of tiie Unemployment, Board who has recently visited Central Otago, and who has now proposed the sanding out of prospecting .parties in vl .e direction ot the head cf th© Rakaia, and the Wilberforce Rival's and , Whitcombe pass. It is interesting to ffnd the movement in. support of the prospecting in the mineral belt that divides the two counties, and every possible endeavour should be made to assiist in every possible way the Stimulating of operation in the proposed direction. In a recent reference to the subject it has been pointed out that the conditions to be faced in the Upper Rakaia region can b e judged from the fact that the Mathias Paas is at a level of 4700 feet, and the. Whitcombe Pass at 4025 feet, while claims formerly worked in the Upper Wilberforce' were at over 5000 feet. Apart front th© region at the head of the Wilberforce rivet, the geological survey import gives little promise of much gpW being found in the Upper Rakaia area. “Some of the rocks,” it says, “are decidedly gold-bearing, hut well'defined lodes are almost absent, and the cost of prospecting such rugged country, when the small chances of success -are taken into account would hardly he justified under present conditions. The writer believes that prospecting here ought to be limited almost entirely to what might be called casual prospecting—carried on at odd times; by men who have ,a little spare time and money, or bv mountaineers, surveyors, or others who nua.y chance to have_business in the mountain area.” On the Wilberforce, however, prospectors were not entirely unsuccessful in former times. Of one of the reefs that was worked there the report says: “Will,son’is Reward reef is situated at an elevation of 5339 ft on the southeastern slopes of Mt. Harman, or 900 ft above the main headwater branch of the Wilberforce river. This reef was discovered in 1882, and a company was formed to work it, a tunnel 1000 ft long being driven in 188-5. The main reef was not reached, though another was intercepted, and tests of this quartz yielded 12dwt to the ton by the ordinary battery and amalgamation process. operations, were afterward suspended, and the company eventually went into liqnidin - tion.” Other areas in the district in addition to Wilson’s Reward have received attention, and numerous quartz veins, some of them auriferous, have been located and prospected' to a certain extent along their line of outcrop. Th© geological survey report of 1993 showed that the ore en masse then exposed was of low grade, though it included hunches carrying high values. The sam© report states that Fiddle’s Reward reef on Grave ‘Greek, and Pf ah lor ids reef on Snowy Creek, lower down the Wilberforce, vv>re fiir prospecting propositions. The Whitcombe Pass region, at the head of the Rakaia, was first crossed l>v G n "--ge Whitcombe in April 1863. and Jacob Lonper, who noeomnaric' 1 him. a, few (lays Infer discovered gold on the hanks of a stream on the Westland side. During 1 9C8-7 a party of prospectors took stores over the Mathias Pas; and worked the upyer stream bed for some time, obtaining mere than wages for their work. I hev left at the end of the sf’ ison. and did rot return, apparently <T"‘idermg the return in gold was not worth the li.aidsliins t hev had to eiulur*. There is undoubtedly much country in the Southern A'pn that would repay systematic pre-poet ing, hut m new of the many difficulties to be encountered if would ’ e necessary for the party to he piropr-ly equipped, and to ho under a <«i"ibl© loader before ‘success could lie ;n In err ’. Tie interest row being shown will help to stimulate

further 'attempts to solve the quest for the mineral secretions of which there are such favourable indications.