WANGAPEKA (NELSON) DIGGINGS.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 202, 6 November 1869, Page 7

WANGAPEKA (NELSON) DIGGINGS.

We (Mail) are indebted to the Provincial Secretary for the following letter received from Mr. Burnett: —“ Blue Creek, October 18.— Sir, —As I have a chance of sending to Nelson I will write a few lines, merely to say that I have seen the reef, which appears to be about 2i or 3 feet thick, running N. N. W. and dipping about 80 degrees to the East. In many places you can see the gold with the naked eye, and before I had been there more than a few minutes I succeded in getting a very nice specimen from the solid reef, which I will bring to Nelson. Of course I cannot say whether this is sufficient to pay for working as a very small part of it has been opened and I suppose nothing but actual mining will prove it; however of this there is no doubt,—it is a goldbearing reef, and crops out in a gully about 800 feet above Blue Creek, and runs almost in the same direction, so that it will be easily worked by tunnelling from the steep hill side, without sinking shafts. There is water-power to drive any quantity of machinery, and if sufficiently rich doubtless it will be worked extensively. There is another reef, about 50 yards from the large one, and apparently running in the same direction, but whether it is gold bearing or not, I cannot say, as it has not been broken into. I only arrived here a few hours ago, and have had very little chance of examining anything, but I thought it would be satisfactory to you to hear from me by the earliest possible chance, particularly as my examination so far is exceedingly satisfactory. I will spend another day or two, and then return if nothing further turns up. —I have, &c., James Burnett. The same paper on the 25th says :—We learn that nothing has yet been done in the way of working the reef at Wangapeka. Some very good specimens have within the last day or two been brought in from the same place where Mr. Culleford’s original specimens were obtained, and we are informed that several other reefs have been discovered, but with the exception of one in addition to that first reported, none have proved to be auriferous The ground has been pegged out for miles, so that late arrivals will have to look out for “ fresh fields and pastures new.”