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Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 439, 22 January 1890, Page 4

The “Northern Advocate” says :—“ Mr G. C. Walker brought in from Puhipuhi on Tuesday an even larger and richer specimen of ‘ native ’ silver than that previously brought in by Mr Fraser. It shows the pure silver in a vein, thick as a half-a-crown, and running right through the stone. The prospectors have now ready 9cwt. of the ton of stone which they intend sending bo Auckland bo Mr Young, who represents a syndicate which is willing to buy all the ore at a certain percentage of its assay value. They own a milling plant designed on a new process of treatment. Recently the prospectors received a telegram from the Crown Lands Office stating that their lease expired on the 15th inst., and that a letter on the same subject, bad been posted them. No letter came to hand, however, and the thing was treated as a hoax. Now comes the news that Ranger Garsed has informed Mr Frasbr that he has instructions that the'prospectors must cleatout of Puhipuhi by next Wednesday, the 15th. The thing is so grossly unfair, if true, that we wait for confirmation before making any comment. The prospectors meet tomorrow to consult with Mr Thompson, M.H.R., as to what course they will pursue. It is hardly necessary to add that the prospectors will hold the ground by force if need be.” '

The agitation at Whangaiei for the opening of the Puhipuhi silver field appears to be increasing. In its last issue, the 44 Northern Advocate ” says : —Prospecting is sedulously going on, assays of an uniformly favourable character are steadily coming to hand,and very much sooner than the Government seems to anticipate the inevitable rush may set in. The probable consequences are too grave to be lightly dismissed. Numerous parties have “ soobted ” promising locations, and it is nob to be imagined that they will part with them tamely. The chances are that in many cases there may be dozens of hostile claimants for the same piece of ground. Might will assuredly be invoked at the critical time to decide the question if the Government do nob promptly step in and settle the conditions of right. So far, the prospectors have merely knocked off the caps of the reefs, and if ..from this surface stuff they have got such good results, is not the augury most hopeful for rich returns when the leader has been driven upon m l cut? But silver is not bj any means the only valuable ore known to exist in Puhipuhi. Splendid deposits 6f antimony have been discovered, and this ore is immediately marketable, for in its crude state it may be shipped to the London market and sold there at highly profitable rates. In any other country such a promising field would be thrown open Without a moment’s delay. For New Zealand is reserved the unenviable distinction oi possessing a Government which seems reluctant to accept the evidence of the presence of mineral wealth within its demesnes and is strongly disinclined to allow people to enter and develop it at their own expense.