PUHIPUHI AND ITS UNDEVELOPED MINES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 463, 16 April 1890, Page 3

PUHIPUHI AND ITS UNDEVELOPED MINES.

(By a Travelling Correspondent.) At daylight the next morning the hoarsevoiced kaka woke up the echoes of the sleeping bush and “ yours truly,” to recognise the fact that here he was—“ far awa ’ ” from hame—in the erstwhile littleknown Puhipuhi, and in a nikau “ lean to ” at that. I notice as I sit up in my blanket that the said “ lean to ” (originally shoved up in a hurry to hold three) is just a leetle crowded with seven in it, but then quantity is warmth, as I found, and tired bones and body make a capital antidote to fastidiousness. Early as it is, I see a merry fire built, and the billy on the boil, so I turn out, shake the bush feathers of my torn belongings, take a towel (which apparently by its colour is a company one) and go for a rinse, after which, returning to the “ lean-to, I find all hands are out of bunk. There is the usual amount of laughter and joke - cracking amongst the boys, showing that, despite their treatment by “ the adjective Government,” their hard lot, and rough fare, they are still what all miners and bushmen the colonies over are—thorough jolly good fellows. How is it that we city folk cannot take life as these men do ? Is it because “ Yes, of course it is—who said it wasn’t ? only, don’t moralise, old man. Give us what you know and have seen of the Puhipuhi. Your ethics will do for another letter, don’t-cher know ?” Round the festive breakfast table, I beg pardon, we eat the meal off the ground at least our pannikins and plates rested on

mother earth —while we ate our breakfast I should say, I gleaned a great deal about the past, present, and probable future of Puhipuhi. “When you go over the Prospectors side, sir,” said J.D. McK. tome, “you will see very little more done than you see here.” . “And how is that, Mr Me •? It is a pity it should be so, for that is exactly playing into the hands of people who say that Puhipuhi is a fraud, and that outside of the Prospector 3 there is nothing.” 1 Yes, we know that, sir ; but there has not been, and unfortunately, is not even now, although the bush is open, any help for that state of things. _ People outside do not understand the difficulties that, from the very outset right up to the present, have beset us pioneers of Puhipuhi. Of course, you know that until about a month ago the forest was a sealed book to prospectors.” “ Nominally so, Mr Me , but was it really a sealed book, now ?” “Yes, it was. Although the ranger, Mr J. Garsed, did not prosecute any prospectors, yet he took your name down, and one did not know whether a summons would follow or not. That wap pne danger, and I am sure that every legitimate miner in the bush is grateful to Mr Garsed for his forbearance and courtsey during those trying monthsbefore thebush opened. Hecould , if he feltso inclined, have made things awfully nasty. Anyhow, we were always in fear of him and kept out of his way as. much as possible. That was danger No. 1. The second was the danger that if I located a find, for instance, I would have to keep awfully quiet, or some one else would also ‘spot it,’ and as his right was equal to mine, I could not tell him to clear. Is that not so, boys?’ . ‘ Yes, it is, Mac; but eat your breakfast, old man, or you will get none. Charon, here, has collared all the spuds.” “ Ob, blank the spuds. Charon can have them. You fellows wire in ; never mind me.”

“Well, sir, as I was saying, the two dangers—the ranger, and loafers who dodged around the bush to jump other men’s finds —made us mean and dodging, in fact despicable. We knew what we had, bub the adjective Government did not, or would not , understand things as thpy were. Then came the miserable attempt to muzzle us unfortunates by opening the bush up under special regulation ; but, thanks to the ‘ limb of the law,’ a gentry I have, as a rule, not much opinion of, the Government found they could nob carry out their little game. So it went on from week to week ; a sugarstick was offered us here ‘ in the far North ’ that the regulations opening Puhipuhi would be out in this “ Gazette” and that, week after week. At last, after all sorts and descriptions of shuffling and finessing, the bush was opened under the ordinary regulations made under the Acts of 1886 and 1887. That was on the 7th of March, nearly a month ago. To-day thore are only two licensed holdings surveyed, and the titles obtained for none; so you see, sir, our position. If we open up our reefs now, will we be sure of the ground ’ W T ho can say? You see there is no doubt, perhaps, that all the licenses luill be obtained, bub then, as things are, toe have no title. Reefs we all have, in galore, and everyone thinks hi 3 own is the best; but this I will say, sir (and I think you will endorse it when you see all the field), that a great many of the already discovered lodes show first-class indications, and my own opinion is that few, if any, of the claims taken up will turn out duffers. But we local men have not the knowledge or the means to develop what we have.” “ What am I to understand by that, Mr Me. ?”

“ Why, that none of us are silver miners. Many if not most of us have had more or less experience at goldmining. You see, for many long months it was gold we were after here ; the silver ore was not known, and was chucked away as useless. Then again, without outside capital, Puhipuhi will never be developed. ” “ Perhaps so, Mr Me ; but I must tell you frankly, that outside capital will not be got unless you can bonajide show something good.” “We know that, sir, and we are quite sure we can show a * good hand.’ ” “ I hope so, Mr Me——, I do indeed, but your smaller holdings must nob make the mistake that your big brother, the Prospectors, have done.” “ What do you mean, sir?” “By opening your mouth so wide. You Bee, and I speak with some experience, that the class of financiers who invest largely in mining properties are usually amongst the shrewdest men on the different money exchanges of the world. A phenomenal return from any quantity of stone won’t fetch them, but what they will ask you for is a defined lode, or lodes, showing both quantity of ore, and of course as rich as vou like.” “ Another pannikin of tea, sir ?” “ Thank you, no, Charon, I have breakfasted, as I slept last night splendidly, but Mr Me——, here, has had nothing to eat yet.” .“Oh, that is nothing, sir; he does without tucker for a week sometimes, when working out some * ology ’ or the other. Don’t vou, Mac ?” “So” you say, Murphy : pass the^ sugar. What is the programme for to-day ?” “I don’t know. You and N. here.better go* with Mr -, and show? him round. Charon will bring bis horse over to the Prospectors, and G., J., and myself wifi go for a day on the road. Won’t that do ?”

“Right you are.” - “ Don’t let. me upset any arrangements yoh have made, boys, prior to my coming,”

“Oh, not at all, sir. Two or three of us are always on the road and the rest go fossicking. When we sell our present claim to you rich folk, we know where to take up fresh ground. Are you ready, chaps ?” “ Yes, Mac.” “Then good-bye, and good luck, sir. Long N. here is a terrible walker, so keep him behind. You will have a splendid day.” I shake hands with the remainder of my kind hosts, and inform . Charon to keep my horse from breaking his legs. Myself, Mr M. and another of his mates start for the Prospectors via the Upper Wairiki. As we go along up the creek I can plainly see what a vast network of reefs there is through N 0.3 ground. Leaving the Wairiki we climb a spur for about five chains, some four hundred feet high, I should say—we leave the sandstone and come on what is generally termed the volcanic tableland. I found, however, that the so-called lava was not a lava as we Aucklanders understand it, but a sort of trachyte or close-grained bluestone. It is not a deep stratum, and I feel sure that the slide reefs from the Wairiki and Tangiapakura will, before long, be traced right through it and worked to advantage on this tableland, which, if not mined upon, will be the site of the future Silverton of the North. I found that three business sites (one a store, and the two others public houses), had already been pegged out. Mr Charles Cowan, the enterprising proprietor of the store site, has already taken time by tho forelock, and is building a large store, 24 x 12. He has, I am informed, cleared a 6ft track for some eight miles and has exploited the whole road from Whangaruru (a splendid

harbour fit for any vessel), right up to his present store, a distance of ten miles. If Whangaruru is comeatable, as Mr Cowan says it is, and there is a good road into the silver field ; why should it not be the outlet for Puhipuhi, particularly as Dame Rumour saith that silver and gold reefs," exist on Maori ground in more than one place, right up, and past Whangaruru. Quien Sabel If not, why not? The two other sites are held by Messrs Morrison (late of the Commercial, Whangarei,) and Host Rolliston of Hikurangi, and both gentlemen, I hear, intend as soon as possible, to erect hotels on each site.

A short mile brought us to famous No. 1, the Prospectors’ special claim of 60 acres. I am sure this holdinghas been fully described to you before, as it, naturally enough, has been the magnet that attracted everyone to the Puhipuhi. I found the genial manager, Mr E. Smith, only too pleased to show me everything. The country seems a vast network of reefs, or outcrops running and lying in all directions. It is this very irregularity that puzzles me, and, therefore, I forbear to hazard an opinion. No. 3, or the Silver Reef, the winze of which was down about 48 feet, showed good stone, but rather detached 1 thought. There seemed to be, as far as I could judge, a want of finality about the lode; but what was shown me carried splendid silver. Mr Smith is hard at work putting a middle level in to cut this lode sixty feet below the foot of present winze. This will give him an enormous amount of backs, and I told him he would not have room to stack his ore. He hopes he won’t. None of the other many lodes in thisclaim have been touched, scarcely beyond a little surface scratching to show where they are. Mr Smith informs me that his Company are going to build a tramway down the Tangiapakura to their machine site. Situated, as I fancy, on the southern boundary of their holding, it is a sp'endid site indeed, and carries any quantity of water. Indeed, this is one of the special features of Puhipuhi, viz., an abundant supply of water in the driest summer ; and in the winter—well, yes, just a trifle too much. But, then, man i 3 such an unsatisfactory animal to dispense blessings to. There is, generally speaking, too much, too little, or none at all. Mr Smith most kindly undertook to show me the various reefs and lodes in his ground, but what between the blue reef, Wilson’s reef, big Ben, etc., etc., I got quite in a fog. But such a network of quartz lodes I never did see before. That

there is an abundance of quartz goes without saying. If only a third of the assay tests is found to he the average, the property is a big thing. And to prove this, machinery is wanted on the spot. Promising to call on Mr Smith again, who, on ascertaining my mission, kindly undertook to collect a couple of dozen samples from what he calls his best lodes, we went up the track again and out on to No. 2 Prospector’s holding of 30 acres. This is held by 33 shareholders, all in the county of Whangarei. Mr N. , Cleary, well known in the old Thames police force, is manager of this holding, and has another old Thames man, Mr P. Burke, as his assistant. I found both gentlemen pegging away at a big reef, some seven feet wide, and showing silver glance and ruby silver freely in a loose rubbly sorb of adjunct to the lode proper that could scarcely be called a casing. • I had strong suspicions of silver chloride, and Mr Cleary kindly' gave about a pound of it to test. There are two other reefs alongside of No. 1, one of which is likely stone for gold. It was.very pleasant chatting to . Messrs Cleary and Burke of the old times on the Thames, and I found the day well on when we got up, and all of us went to the adjoining holding, Comstock No. 3, also a thirtyacre holding, held by twenty-four shareholders, thirteen of whom, Mr Mclnnerny, the manager, told me, were Aucklanders. :Mr Mclnnerny, also an old Peninsula digger—be hails from Coromandel--is busy at work tracing Nos. 1 and 2 reefs from Cleary’s holding, which run into the Comstock. He is confident he can pick them both up before a week. I don’t know who my Auckland friends may be who hold interests in this property, but. they have a good one, and a good manager in Mr James Mclnnerny. He has another man, aMr Jenkins, from Kamo, along with him. We all climbed the hill again, up to Cleary’s camp, and accepted the invitation to,par-: take of ] his'hospitality for the night. By the way, I found I was on the site of the famous Comstock Hotel, owned and run (so the advertisement says) by genial Jack O’Brin, well-known on every. goldfield. I had. nob the pleasure of Mr O’Brin’s acquaintance, bub, to judge by the amount of push and go that he is alleged to-possess, I should anticipate a big business for the Com. when it opens. Charon had our horses picquetted, and then both were discussing, I was glad to see, a substantial supper each, of oats and chaff. The Comstock Hotel dispenses any amount of solids for both man and beast, bub beyond tea for the one, and water for the other, there is an utter absence of soulinspiring John Barleycorn. lam told that Host O’Brin will not have it on the premises on any account, as, he' says, the risk is not good enough. Perhaps not. There are 1.1 holdings in and around the Prospectors “ to do ” to-morrow, and some tough climbing to do Tam told. So after yarning of days that are gone and voices, many of whom are stilled for ever, we have the inevitable bush supper, a drink of tea and a smoke, turn in under our rugs, and,. I assure you, sleep the sleep of the just.