PUHIPUHI SILVER.

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

PUHIPUHI SILVER.

. A NEW FIND. NATIVE SILVER SPECIMENS. Auckland, January 20. Considerable interest and a little excitement was occasioned “on Change” to - day by the promising reports from the Puhipuhi silver mines by a Mr Morrison, who came down last night from \Vh«ngiiei in the steamer Wellington. Mr Morrison, who is an old Aucklander, now resident at W hangarei, has been prospecting with a number of others, 17 in all, who have each put a considerable sum inio a fund for their prospecting work. He brings with him from Whangarei a couple of specimens of argentiferous pieces of stone from the Puhipuhi, about foul* ounces in aii. ! These specimens are exceedingly promising, showing the native silver very'freely throughout the stone. One sample is said by Mr Morrison to be equal to a run of 700 ounces per ton, while the other, he declares, will from its appearance not yield less than a thousand ounces to the ton. “ Then,” said Mr Morrison to a crowd of mining people in the Exchange this morning;, “ there are thousands of tons of the same sort where this came from in the Puhipuhi.” He states that he and those with him traced the silver-bearing reef which produced these specimens, for a distance of some sixty chains or so. Mr Morrison is unwilling to divulge the exact locality of the find, but says it is in the vicinity of the other finds at the Puhipuhi. Of course, although the small specimens shown may be quite as rich as is stated, this is hardly a criterion of the value of the reef whence they came. Mr Morrison and those associated with him in >end to float a company, so they state, to work the locality of the find. They have just received a telegram from the Government granting the permission to prospect in the Puhipuhi forest, which consent had been withheld for a considerable time. They have ' also been granted a lease of the vicinity of the reel, and a surveyor has been nominated to lay off the claim. As soon as possible they intend, if practicable, to form a Company. Further news from the Puhipuhi is being awaited with great interest. MOVEMENT AT KAWAKAWA. INTER VIE W WI T H M R HUMPHRIES. Kavvakawa, Jan. 20. Mr F. Mackenzie, editor of tlm “Northern Luminary,” and a number of the most influential people in Kawakawaformed a deputation and waited uponMr Thus.Humphries,* Crown Lands Commissioner, yesterday afternoon in the large dining-room of the Star Hotel. The subject for discussion was the opening of Puhipuhi at the northern end for prospecting, as the kauri timber is very thin and scarce three or four miles around present prospecting operations. Mr J. D. Kirkpatrick was voted to the chair. He explained the object fully. Mr Humphries said that as Conservator of the Puhipuhi Forest he could not recommend the opening of one portion of the reserve which, though not containing so much kauri as the rest of the forest, would place the same in as much danger. He did not think the Government would open the bush until the gum season set in, viz., May Ist. He had no doubt parties could go prospecting then. The Government would not grant leases until they were certain the field would be payable. In reply to Cr. Hall’s query : “ And all the good assays, especially of late?” Mr Humphries could not say what the Government would consider payable stone. Mr Humphries received the deputation most courteously, and was thanked for the same. Great indignation is felt, nevertheless, at the apparent oversight on the part of the Government, and it is already proposed to hold am onster meeting condemnatory of the se ui,