A VISIT TO COLLINGWOOD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 223, 20 September 1871, Page 4

A VISIT TO COLLINGWOOD.

BY AN OLD MINER. Some time ago I read with much interest Dr. Von Hocbstetter's book on New Zealand, and with no part of the work was I more takeu than that which describes the Aorere, on the Collingwood goldfields. Like the immortal Captain Cuttle, having found a good thing I "made a note of if," and determined to visit that locality in the course of my wanderings. Leaving Nelson by the well-known steamer "Lady Barkly," we made straight for the point, where having landed a passenger, we steamed on past Totaranui, which, by the way, possesses beaches of that rich yellow gravel so prized in London and. the suburbs, for garden paths, and will yet be visited by vessels to convey that same gravel to adorn the grounds of the well-to-do in Wellington, Nelson, Christchurcb, &c, when the colony begins to reap the rich fruit which is expected from the Loan Tree, now so assiduously cultivated. It was dark when we reached the port of Collingwood, so that the picturesque beauty of the place was not visible until the following morning, when I must confess to a feeling of agreeable surprise. However, I must not dwell upon rhe scenery, as I have not. upon the incidents of the pleasant voyage down, — during which I was inducted by a "Heathen Chinee" into the mysteries of "euchre"— but get ou at once to my impressions of the place .as a mineral district. "We started first for the ground taken up by the Nelson Dredging Company, and our road lay over tolerably flat country, which would make a deep-sinker's mouth water. Here river succeeding river has. evidently deposited successive layers of drift which no reasonable person can doubt contain more or less gold, but there is not a sign of anything haviDg been done to test the value of the land, utterly 1 un6t ! for anything else, the whole, of the ground from Collingwood to the Devil's Boots, a distance of five miles, seems to have been formed into a field for the special use of gold diggers, and yet not one has ever touched it. It presents all the surface appearances of Ballarat, and I venture ; to assert that !^ the, "depths below " possess leadtf of auriferous drift not one whit less rich than the, famed claims of the. richest •alluvial district 1 " iv' : Victoria. * The Nelson Dredging Company's claim is about half a mile below the, 'j;Djft jis_}Boots^ ,"; (a^ collection of limestone rocks, not the least' like boots,, by the : way)jind 'occupies halt

a mile of the Aorere River. The grouad has evidently been selected with great judgment, being comparatively free from stones, and therefore easily worked, whilst the prospects obtained have been quite equal to any procurable elsewhere in the river. The dredge is nearly finished, and within a month the Mammoth " spoon " will be at work tearing up the bed of the Aorere. The work has been well done, but this is nothing surprising, as the Company have ia Robert Swyer, the manager, a practical miner of the highest stamp, shrewd, observing, and honest. From the prospects obtained, I should guess this Company will do well for themselves, and excellently well for the province, as their enterprise will open up a new industry and give a spur to trade in Nelson. Leaving the Aorere, we jogged on to Bedstead Gully, and on our way stopped to watch some ground-sluicing; tbe men were not very communicative, but not less so than miners usually are; however, they washed out a prospect for us, and said they were doing " pretty well." As an old miner, I know what that means. All the made bills from the Devil's Boots to Bedstead Gully, will doubtless pay for groundsluiciDg if there was only water. I don't know auy place where the "Loan Tree" could be planted to better advantage. There are actually square miles of what I should call "likely country," *vhich, some dny or other, will be worked for gold, either by Chinese or Europeans. It will be the fault of the latter if they' let the Mongolians come ia and " possess the land." Certainly no man ought to loaf about Nelson doing nothing, and if I ana asked for charity, or the "loan of a pound," as it is facetiously termed, in future I shall put on my sternest face, and say, " No, go to Collingwood and prospect, I don't mind paying your fare by the Lady Barkly." Passing the limestone caves, which we had not lime, much to my regret, to visit, we made for the Perseverance mine at the top of Bedstead Gully. Here we were hospitably entertained by Mr. Adams, the manager, and after inspecting the machinery, which is good sound work, but would be improved by the addition of Brown and Stansfield's concentrators, we went to explore the mine. The reef has been opened up on three levels, and is, without exaggeration, as well defined in all of them as auy at the Thames or in Otago. The drives have been put ia with skill and are well timbered, the whole of the work being done -by contract. I should judge that the Company could, with the stone obtainable from the present levels, keep twenty heiid of stampers going for two years. I think, however it is worth consideration whether they will not put in the next level in the creek which ruus past the Decimal claim, the latter having struck tbe underlie of the Perseverance reef, and drainage being much more feasible from that side of tbe bill. The fact of the Decimal striking the reef is of the highest importance to tbe Perseverance shareholders, as it proves the continuance of the stone through the whole of their ground. The whole district is rich in minerals, but nature seems to have made the Perseverance mine a sort of depd', where you can get samples of them all except coal. I picked up myself gold, silver, zinc, bleude, copper, iron, and lead. It is, perhaps, anomalous to say there is a welldefined reef without walls, but this is really the case j the quartz is unquestionably there in large quantities, and running with great regularity ior a considerable distance,, but there is nothing like a well-defined solid wall. Nor do I think this nny ground for alarm in the face of the great quantity of stone proved to exist. It is imposssible to give a detailed scientific account of the mine from a hurried visit, nor is that perhaps exactly what your readers would care for. You have had the "Theorists" over there and they seem for once to have come to the same conclusion as a plain unpretending miner has, who, from his practical knowledge, tells you in homely language, the Perseverance mine is a good thing, stick to it. I had no time to visit Golden Gully, an alluvial diggings, nor Appoo's flat, but even the hurried scamper I made through the rest of the districts convinced me that one of tbe richest mineral districts in the world— a perfect Tom Tiddler's ground in fact— is lying close under your noses, and you are letting it quietly alone, and won't even take tbe trouble to pick up the gold and silver. The work that has been, and is being done, is infinitesimal. Capita], whether borrowed from the Government or elsewhere, is wanted at once_ to, bring in water, to prospect for deep leads, to open up the quartz system, to test the deposits of galena, and bring the coal mine into communication with Pakawau, where Vessels of 1 large tonage could take in supplies. The- geological features of the districts are most remarkable, , blocks;; of ; limestone are found .deposited, J possibly by glacial actioD, on the top r o( .old river beds r and these tbedfl ' yary each from ; the other ; (he;