Murphy’s Find.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4375, 18 February 1909, Page 2

Murphy’s Find.

(Contributed —Copy wright.) Tiie whole story is as interesting a romance as one could wish to listen to from the lij s of any prospector about these parts. And in the humble attempt not to spoil it in the telling we give it j here : —Said Mr Murphy, “ I’ve been trying to float a company for the last twenty-eight years, and I’ve never been able to do it until last July.” And the distinctive feature about this find is that it is now floated, as a company with twenty shares of £SO each, eighteen of j which were taken up immediately upon its formation, whilst the other two have been repeatedly applied for without success - for they are being held for the benefit of the syndicate. So that this scheme, whereby Mr Murphy expects to strike the Waihi reef is no wild cat scheme, but a plain straigbtfoward attempt to track home to her lair the mother ireef, which Mr Murphy is convinced was the source of all that wonderful kind of treasure which turned men’s heads in the ‘ Golden Gully ”in byegone pays. Mr Murphy’s own narrative is the best. He says : “ I was prospecting in the Ohinemuri district in 73-4, before the Ohinemuri goldfield was proclaimed. It was not proclaimed until 75. We found a belt of splendid auriferous country coming under Te Aroha mountain. We got loose gold, and loose stone with gold in it, but We could never find the reef After the Ohinemuri field was opened it was not a great success until the cyanide process was introduced. I left Ohinemuri and got employed on the survey of the Te Aroha Block, 65,000 acres the Government had taken over from the natives While employed on the survey, I was prospecting when I could in the belt of country which we had discovered in connection with my Ohinemuri prospecting, and which I still felt would lead to something really worth while. I got such good prospects of gold that I applied to Government for assistance to prospect the district. Sir George Grey applied in the house, in the session of 'IBBO, for i permission for me to have assistance to prospect the Oninemuri district, and it was granted by Parliament. But before the thing was carried through Hone Werahiko, thp native, discovered the gold on the side of the range about three hundred feet ahead from here (where we were conversing at the entrance to the drive). The field was proclaimed on his discovery. And then, when Hone Werahiko discovered gold, and was granted the prospectors claim, I went to work fox wages on Hone’s claim. I wanted to increase my knowledge of the country. One day Mr Corbett brought down from the proprietor’s lead a dish of such rich gold specimens it was almost a dish of gold—that the township went gold mad over it. Tenders were called for a drive to cut Hone’s lead at a lower level. J wanted more light, and tendered very low and got the tender. I put in a tunnel and cut the lead at the lowest depth, and it got into hard country, pinched almost out to two inches or less, hut with no gold in it. The prospectors |st heart, and myself and others who Kid got No 1 South Claim just beyond Hone’s claim, we also lost heart and gave it up. The field had been declared under the 66th Act, and no one was allowed to peg out more than 50ft along the supposed line of reef, and 150 ft at cither side The whole field was pegged out into small claims, so we could not put in a tunnel, such as the one we are now put ring in I had felt that the only thing would be to prospect over a large area. I had intended at some future time to put in a low level tunnel and cut the prospector’s lead at a lower level and reach the main reef. But I had to give up the whole idea. Aud all the time in the Golden Gully or Morning Star side of the spur scores of men were prospecting and finding lots of gold, but they could never get the reef. The next step I took was over twenty years ago. I spoke to Mr Pavitt with regard to the forming of a syndicate to put a tunnel from this side of the mountain. Mr Pavitt worked the thing up so well that he got shares enough sold to give us sufficient capital to put the tunnel in some hundreds of feet. But some of the miners and some of the managers would not agree to take up any shares unless the tunnel were put in from the Morning Star side of the range, but they will not touch it if it us put in from your side of the Spur. And I said, “Mr Pavitt I’ll drop out then (for I would not have anything to do with the tunnel at the other side) but I’ll do all I can in the County Council to get the 5s per foot subsidy for the work. In the County Council Mr Mills and I did all we could 1 1 obtain the subsidy to put the tunnel from the back of the Morning Star, where it was approved of, and we did not sue • ceed. The Couuty Council was empowered by law to grant the subsidy but they wouldn’t grant it. I had some time previously told the Chairman (Mr W. L C. Williams). “Mr Chairman the day will come when the gold mining in Te Ax-oha will be second to none in New Zealand.” That was when I was trying to get some money to make tracks in the Te Aroha side of i the goldfield. Teu years after our attempt to obtain the subsidy from the Cou'.cil I saw Mr Mclndoe with regard to trying to get a syndicate to take up the matter of putting in a tunuel from the side of the range where we are now putting it in, i but without result. About six years later I spoke to Mr Somers about the same 1 thing, then also without affect. Well, last New Year’s Day I met Mr W. L. C. J Williams on the Bowling Green fin the ‘ Domain, and my words that I had spoken came back. He said to me “ I see you have gone into mining again, . how do you think it will turn out ?” j “Well,” I said, “do you remember * what 16aid twenty years ago ?” : “ I do, well,” he said. e “ Well, I said, “ that’s my reply to you ;o day. I repeat it, the day will come J) vhen gold mining in Te Aroha will be “ lecond to none in New Zealand, and our ~ unnel will be the one to discover the j" min.” °

“ I hope it will.” he said. “ I hope it will,” I said.

Last July I met Mr James Brown whom I met 40 years ago on the Thames, and speaking concerning the prospects of gold in this district I told him that I knew where there were some good payable reefs, and that it would take 200 ft to get to the first reef. After telling him other things that I knew about it ho said * “ Come and we’ll have a look at it.” We started on the following day and I showed him everything I could find. As I had not been on the ground for 27 j years I got done up and we had to return home. I told him of other places where we could get gold,but I was too tired to gp. He said from what he had seen,

it »was the best mining spec he had ever come across, with what it would cost to prove it; Ave’d trv to float it.

We went to Mr McTndoe, Mr Somers, Captain Montgomery and other i, end in a few days a syndicate was formed. It

r -■ __ — —: * was put into 20 shares of £SO each. Eighteen shares were taken up at once, - and 'he other two have been repeatedly applied for, but the Committee will not part with them, but are keeping them for the benefit of the syndicate, knowing how much they will ultimately be worth. I believe that our mine wiil be the best in ■the Dominion because of its position, said Mr Murphy. Being on the side of v - ■ hill does away with all shaft sinking.' When we decided to float this we came up here and pegged out a claim of 100 acres knowu as Murphy’s Find and applied to the Warden for a prospecting lease, and he granted it. Mr Jas. Brown pegged out another claim of 100 acres north east of this, known as Murphy’s Find Extended. The Warden granted a prospecting lease for that claim. In Mr Brown’s portion of the claim we have backs of 1,500 to 2,000 ft. The lowest backs that we have, and what we believe to be the Waihi Reef, are not less than 500 ft above the tunnel, and then they rise gradually to 2,000 ft as beforementioned. Beside these backs the floor of the tunnel is 550 ft above the fist a which gives us fully 500 ft of backs W (allowing for hoppers and trams below ■ that) for any future levels with a length ' of 84 chains in the line of reefs. The Government is giving us a subsidy of os per foot for driving 400 ft. We are about to form a good track to the mine,*,—, and are applying to the Government for a ~ subsidy for that also, and believe we’ll get it. We started to make the * track to the mine on the 2nd February last and we are now on with £he tunnel about 175 ft the tunnel is seven feet high, five feet wide at the bottom and four feet at the top. Since starting,we have landed two tons of iron tram rails at the tunnel. When opening up for starting the tunnel we cut a six feet reef of splendid looking quartz, in a rubbly leader about nine inches wide. On the hanging wall of this reef we got nice colours of gold. But we are not stopping to do anything with this reef but just travelling straight ahead to reach the prospectors lead, and beyond that the mother reef. We will work this afterwards when we have found them. I think we’ll strike the prospectors lead in about 300 feet from the mouth of the tunnel, that is Hone Werahiko’s lead. About 200 feet further on we expect to strike the Waihi Reef. I believe all the gold in “ Golden Gully ” was shed from that reef. We are tunnelling Eby 3 degrees S, that is at right angles to the direction our great reefs take. There are tunnels in the hill which run more or less paralel to the direction of those great reefs, and that is to ensure failure. In a tunnel rutmjng parallel with the direction of the lather reefs a man might go on prospecting till domesday and find nothing.” We looked ahead of where we stood, far, far into the depths of the tunnel of Murphy’s Find. Like a glow worm one could see the light at the extreme end, and bringing one’s eye in a line with the weighted piece of string at the mouth of the tuunel I saw that the drive had kept a wonderfully straight course. We took up one of the heap of candles which lay at our feet, aud lighting it walked by its glimmer in to the far recess where the miners could be dimly discerned in a little cloud of mist. It seemed like invading the realm of spirits, so eerie they looked, But a closer view revealed three men, one turning a drill and the other two striking in turn, to bore a hole for the charge. There would be two such charges applied at once in this part, for the rock was less obdurate than in some other parts. Then the men would come out and have their lunch whila the blast went off. The smoke would be cleared away by the time teey want in again.