DEEP LEADS & QUARTZ REEFS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 244, 7 November 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

DEEP LEADS & QUARTZ REEFS.

A. motion by Mr de Lautour, one of Mount Ida's representatives in the Provincial Council, is of great interest to the mining community, and to those who favor the development of the auriferous resources of Otago. . The motion, which met, we are glad to notice, with the unanimous support of the Council; desires the Superintendent to secure such scientific service as he may deem-sufficient to efficiently report upon tne deep leads and quartz reefs throughout the Province. Mr de Lautour is to be thanked for his movement in this matter. The result of a good scientific research in the directions indicated, there can be no question, will be of a highly satisfactory character as regards its after influences. Indeed, it is hardly possible to calculate the benefit that will arise eventually from such a research. In the matter of deep leads, especially, we believe that the reports asked for in the motion will be of a surprisingly

satisfactory character; and perhaps it . would not be going- too far to say that they will do much towards introducing a ,kind of new era in gold mining in Otago. In several localities, the existence of deep leads has been investigated; but the'investigations have not been b r ' reason of any expressed scientific - dpi nion, for the opinion of science has never been asked. On nearly every field in the Province,—indeed, we believe no exception need be made, —the practical miner has a more or less fixed belief that deep leads exist. It is needless to go into any consideration of the reasons why those who so believe do not take steps towards testing the truth of their belief. . Without asssistance from the public -funds, this would be beyond the means of the miner;. and since the failure of the Wetherstones trial, miners have been no less chary of asking aid than the Government would u have been of granting it, upon pure spe- * dilation. But the light which science will let in upon these leads —light as to their locale, their depth, their direction and so forth—will of course very" largely , diminish the risk in connection with prospecting for them; and doubtless, Government having, to use a rather slangy phrase, laid the miner on to the whereabouts of the precious metal, private enterprise will quickly do. the rest. Many experienced . practical men in this neighborhood have been led by indications to form an opinion that at least one extensive lead traverses the' Cromwell flat,, and this opinion has been held also by gentlemen of scientific attainments who have visited the place. And, with this motion before us, we cannot help thiuking that the day will come when the existence of such a lead will be proved a fact, and when the flat will be worked by a busy population of hundreds, perhaps of tens of hundreds. This is certainly possible, and who shall say it is not probable ? - Mr Macandrew may mourn the non-fulfilment of his Garden of Eden prophecy, in such case ; but all others, . and even he himself, must admit that the neVer prophecy is.an improvement. Mr de Lautour's speech when he proposed the resolution is only summarised - in the Dunedin papers (and thence we copy it in our report of Council proceedings elsewhere), but he seems to have gone into the matter at some length, and lias bestowed on it some of consideration of which it is worthy. He appears to-nave intended the scientific re- -- ports to take a wider range than is tioned in the motion. The defective methods of treating gold in quartz-mining are known to be consider- ">i able, and to militate strongly.in many | cases against the payable prosecution of that industry; and in this respeet scientific teaching is calculated to be of y vast benefit. We will not, however, pursue the subject further. We direct the attention.of* our readers to the motion, and-lalso.to one in-tha .same direction proposed by Mr Oliver, tne other member for Mount Ida. That were so favorably received may be regarded a happy sign on the part of. the that " the desire of developing the ferous resources of the Province " is vancing with them somewhat beyond the mere expression of it. And it is to be hoped that, speedy effect will be given to the requests, for we are satisfied that the ultimate result will be of such a character as to prove the resources of the Province in the matter of gold great beyond any present calculation. —' Cromwell Argus.'