DISCOVERY OF A RICH QUARTZ REEF AT NELSON.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 200, 23 October 1869, Page 5

DISCOVERY OF A RICH QUARTZ REEF AT NELSON.

Considerable sensation was produced in town on Wednesday last by the intelligence that a rich quartz reef had been discovered on Nuggcty Creek, one of the sources of the Rolling River, a tributary of the Wangapeka, which in its turn is a feeder of the river Motueka. A miner, named Culleford, one of a party of three men who had been in the district a considerable time, arrived in town on Tuesday evening with a small bag well filled with pieces of quartz, which he stated were obtained from a reef. The specimens were really good, and well calculated to excite interest. Culleford immediately applied at the Land Office for a lease of the ground, but owing to the district not being within the limits of a goldfield, a lease could not be granted for mining purposes, so it was found necessary to purchase the ground. He accordingly applied to purchase sixteen acres, and intelligence ■ getting wind, other applications for adjoining ground were made the next morning, and the following purchases were effected before a Gazette could bo issued withdrawing the land from sale : —Alfred Culleford, 16 acres ; Edward Everett, 16 ; C. Everett, J. A. Harley, J. Sharp, T. Brunner, G., Sinclair, and A. Moore, 16; J. A. Harley, T. Harley, W. Harley, R. Disher, Ernest Nehse, G. Landon, W. Lloyd, andT. Field, 16; W. Cooksey, 16; J. Devonport & Co., 10 ; G. Harper, R. Shallcrass, A. Pitt, and C. L. Maclean, 16 ; H. D, Jackson, and C. L. Maclean, 10; J. Smith, and C. McGee, 16; total acres sold, 131. In the absence of Mr, Blackett at Collingwood, Mr. Burnett has been requested by the Superintendent to proceed to Wangapeka to report upon the ground, and a

surveyor has been despatched to lay oft’ the purchased blocks. If there be any quantity of stone of the quality exhibited by Culleford, the field must prove a very rich one. There is a very fair dray road to Wangapoka, and a horse track within a short distance of the reef. Its distance from Nelson is about (50 miles. On Mr. Burnett’s return we shall learn more particulars of the clai ms. —Era miner.

The Colonist says the locality of the reef is on a small stream now called Nuggety Creek, ?a tributary of the Boiling Biver, which is again a tributary of the Wangapeka. To reach the place the traveller must pass through Wakefield, and then there are two routes open to him, either to go by Fox Hill, taking the dray-road over Spooner’s Bange, and thereby getting into the Upper Motueka Yalley and the Tadmore, and thence following up the Wangapeka, first passing the Sherry, then the Dart, and then the Bolling Biver, about three miles from which is Nuggety Creek. The other and the nearest route is by Pigeon Yalley, which leads into Motueka valley at the lower end, and where there is a good stretch of flat country, until the Upper Wangapeka is reached. Great expectations are entertained of the result ofthis quartz discovery, and though we arc rarely disposed*to speak enthusiastically of these contingencies, we are bound to say that the appearance of the specimens justifies these anticipations. Surveyors have gone out to survey the blocks, and the Government have despatched Mr. Burnett, in the absence of Mr. Blackett at Collingwood, to report on the locality, preparatory to considering the propriety of proclaiming it a goldfield.