PROSPECTING BY AIR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 508, 17 April 1933, Page 4

PROSPECTING BY AIR

The possibility of locating gold-bearing areas in South Westland bymeans of aeroplanes is being discussed in the South Island. A syndicate has .already hired a machine and pilot to search the valleys south of Hokitika to ascertain whether landing places can he found. This method of locating inaccessible localities may lead to very beneficial results as the river gorges often opened out into flats on which it might be possible to land by 'plane. The promoters of the venture poiht out that to pack supplies to such regions would be expensive and hazardous, and there was always the fear that a party would be shut off from civilisation and supplies by flooded rivers. It would be much cheaper to land men and supplies by 'plane, and it would be reassuring to prospectors to know that food could always be

taken to them by air. The black gold sands on the West Coast beaches, from which many prospectors are now obtaining a living, have evidently been washed down by the rivers of that territory and it is reasonable to hold that profitable fields may yet be discovered among the unexplored mountains. Results' from the search will be awaited with interest.