The Wellington Goldfield.

Manawatu Herald, 22 August 1895, Page 3

The Wellington Goldfield.

♦ The major portion of the City Council paid a visit on Monday afternoon to the Karori City Water Reserve, where the prospectors of the now somewhat celebrated Wellington goldfields have within the 'past few days discovered what they, and what everyone else interested in the progress of the City of Wellington, fondly hope may prove to be a new El Dorado. The party was met by a number of the miners who are intent upon working the ground, and Mr Thomas Thompson, on behalf of his six colleagues who have pegged out a claim for seven men close to the caretaker's house, escorted His Worship to the " face," where a dish of stuff from what they contend is a i reef was procured, and washed by Thompson with most satisfactory results. The gold was very fine, and resembled nothing so much as flour. It was gold similar, as regarded weight and colour, to that obtained in the long long ago on the terraces at St. Kilda, Brighton (Foxe's) and like workings in black sand almost anywhere between the Buller and Hokitika. But, as Thompson and his mates observed, yesterday's test could not be regarded as a crucial one, for the reason that " the stuff" is not alluvial " wash dirt " but simply a brown conglomerate, known to most people as " rotten rock," and to extract the whole of the gold from it the stone requires to be crashed. However, the prospect washed was regarded by the councillors as satisfactory— and very justly so from a prospector's point of view. party next proceeded southward along the reservoir for about half a mile, till the claim of the prospectors Charles Thompson and Cftttptfi? WM retehvdi The prci*

pectors have got a good clean face on the hill, and have bared the " reef" well. From thence Charles Thompson took at haphazard a large dishful of stuff which he washed out in the presence of the visitors. The prospect was decidedly better than that obtained from the claim first visited, and the prospect was presented as a souvenir to the Mayor. The prospect from the first-visited claim was secured by Councillor Tatum. The Thompsons state that they are old West Coast and Thames miners, and have been fossicking about the Earori stream for months past. They and all of their mate?, like a'l diggers, are enthusiasts in their quest for the precious metal. The Thompsons declare that they desire to thoroughly work and prove the ground, and as they are, as they assert, backed by " good men," no fear need be entertained that they intend to create a " boom '' with the intention of floating " wild cat " companies. The country from which the washings yesterday were taken is, to anyone who is at all acquainted with quartz-mining in Australia, to say least of it, peculiar. The reef--if such it proves to be- is not quartz, but it as before stated a conglomerate, popularly and well described as " rotten rock." Whether this wall, for such it is, is a defined reef is yet to be proved, but as the prospectors state positively they do not desire to boom the "show," but intend to keep " the plum " for themselves, ] no one need be apprehensive that his pockets are the anticipatory dividend.— N.Z. Times.