GOLD AT MOTU

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 557, 14 June 1933, Page 6

GOLD AT MOTU

UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD IN VESTIGAHN G ITS POSSIBILITIES. OIL CAUSES TROUBLE. A search for gold near Motu has been in progress for several months, and the prospecting party has now tunnelled into a hill over a distance of about 100 feet. Gold has been found there on several occasions, but not in very payable quantities, and it is to decide thiis point that the Unemployment Board sent a party of three men and an experienced mineh to the locality. The site of the prospecting is a few , miles from Motu township. The route turns off near Mr. F. Peddle's timber mill, and runs up the valley over a f country road for some four miles until Mr. Boys' residence is reached. Then horses are utilised for another three , or four miles until' the tunnel comes ; in sight. The party in now facing an. unusual problem, due to the presence of oil in the locality. They have already tuni nelled over 100 feet into the hill. fWhen a blast is put in, however, the resultant explosion is so severe that it sets , fire to the timber in tbe tunnel, and I this has to be quickly extinguished by | th'e miners. In consequence of this, jvery slow progress is being made. The prospecting work is being carried out under the direction of the Unemployment Board, which recently ■ requested the Ma.yor of Gisborne, Mr. 1 J. Jackson, to report on the operations. Accordingly Mr. Jackson visited the locality, and will report to the board iis due course.