CORRESPONDENCE,

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 224, 15 October 1887, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE,

Undor no clvQumKUuues is the Editor responsible for the uuittov contained in correspondence,

THE! WAITOA DEPOSIT. (To Thb Editob.) Sin. — Now that attention is directed to wards prospecting in tho Waitoa district, and man)* people uro sanguine th.it payable gold in to bo obtained in the vast duposit ofsund, largely composed of quaitz, with which tin; whole of the Thames valley is '\lled, it might ho advantageous to organise u si-homo of piobpectiug which would include tiding thu value of tho wash on tin* ued ruck. During u period pieeeudin^ the time when by some force of nultiru this exten sive niasd now being piospeeted was deposited, the action of weathering and denudation inu&t have been going on tn»n» the present ranges on the eastern side of the valley. The detritus would be washed from tho hills to the lowest part of the valley, und vast quantities of aunferoiic and argentiferous rook must in this way have been ground down, and the metals .set free. It i» therefore highly prohublo that leads of nuiiiioious wash dirt aro dopoaited vrhere streams <if water have been running from the hills and towards the sea at a very c.irljy puiiod. The wash from the hills which is found near tho lungea and which has been deposited subsequent to the period when the Thames valley wus iilled »vith the deposit alreudy mentioned,^contains gold in many of tho beds of gravel near tho embouchures of tho different crocks, but this mass has not travelled far enough for tho quartz to bo thoroughly diaentegrated and tho gold thus act free. Such gold is found scatteied through the u'ass and not in quantities sulHciant to pay fOlf 01 working. It may therefore bo assumed that when gold exists in the latter depositb of gravel, which are tho wash of tho ranges, the earlier deposits, which have boon carried a much greater dibtur.ee, and as it were concentrated by the action of streams of water, may contain gold in payable quantities. Without prejudice to the present prospects obtained near tho surfaco, it might bo well worthy of consideration to thoso enterprising men who havo taken up tho matter of tho devclopement of Mr J. B. Smith's discoveries at Waitoa, that by prosecuting boring operations to a depth sufficient to roach the bed rock, another deposit may bo found which might recoup thnm handsomely for their pluck and energy in prospecting. I remain, etc.. Wash Dirt. To Aroha, October 13th, 1887.