THE WAITOA GOLDFIELD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1648, 18 October 1887, Page 3

THE WAITOA GOLDFIELD.

LETTER FROM PROFESSOR HUTTOS’. The Press has received the following letter from Professor Hutton, under date Christchurch, October 15th . Sir,— The report of Mr J. A. Pond, of Auckland, concerning the alleged find of gold at Waitoa, calls for some comment. The facts of the cass, as reported in today’s Press, appear to be as follows A company called tbo Waitoa Prospecting Association has been formed in Auckland, to ascertain whether the pumice sands and clays in the valley of the Waitoa and Waitoa rivers contain gold. Several of the members went out collecting, and the samples so obtained were submitted to Mr Pond for analysis. These all showed traces of gold and silver, but only one of them contained gold in payable quantity, This sample had been brought In , by aMr Kelly, who said that he had got it from stuff lying on the surface “ near the shaft on Smith’s land.” Which of then umerous shafts is not stated. The gold in this sample contained no silver, and under the microscope the specs were seen to be “ mostly spiral in shape, having a rough graining on the inside and a smooth clean face on the outside.” Evidently they were filings, or more probably borings of gold which did not contain any silver. From the accounts to hand it would seem that the simple received by Mr Pond direct from Mr Smith in January last also contained the same kind of gold; but there must here be some mistake, for I find that the result of the analysis of that sample by Mr Pond gave 17oz 19dwt Bgr of gold and 4oz 8d wt 4gr of silver per ton. That is, the bullion contained about 25 per cent, of silver. I may here remark, in a parenthesis, that this sample was from the rock near No. 1 shaft, which was ■ pounded and then concentrated in them. It is, therefore, not a fair sample of the stuff, but it is quite a fair sample of the quality of the gold. From these facts Mr Pond seemed to infer that Mr J. B. Smith, or someone employed by him, h«d put the gold into the sample. Now, no doubt Mr Smith had an interest ic selling his land, but be must have scattered a good deal of gold shout if a stranger found some of it by accident near a shaft several weeks after the Waihou Company had taken their aamples. Mr Pood has also omitted a great deal of evidence which must bo taken into account befo;re forming any opinion as to how the gold get into Mr Pond’s samples. 1. One of the samples which I collected for Sir James Hector consisted of solid rock from No, 1 shaft, into which no gold could be put e'andestinely without being seen on the surface j and yet this sample gave 2oz sdwt 12gr of bullion to the ton, which bullion contained about 17 per cent, if silver. ■ 2. Specimens of the same rock collected and taken away, a« I was informed, during the absence of Mr Smith by Mr Wilson, the Inspector of Mines at Te Aroha, gave aa an average of five different assays, loz 6dwt 9gr of gold and Bdwt sgr of silver per ton, the bullion here containing 31 per cent, of silver. 3. The sands atre derived from the decomposition of this rock, and consequently might bo expected to contain gold of the same quality, ns in fact they do, except in the ease of the sample given by Mr Kolly to Mr Pond. AH the assays and trials made for Mr Smith and for the Company show a gold alloy varying in value, but containing on an average between 20 and 25 per cent, of silver, not a single sample ■being without silver. Sir James Hector says that' the gold he obtained has the same average composition as that found elsewhere iu the Te Aroha district, which contains from 16 to 23 per cent, of silver. The qualify of the gold obtained by the Company Is, therefore, quite different from ihat lately obtained by Mr Pond, which had no silver in it. 6. Sir lames Hector says that in his samples the gold is leafy, and occurs in twisted angular grains about l-100in in diameter, and has the appearance of being liberated from, a matrix by decomposition, S, Several of the Directors of the Wai-

how Gold Mining Company, as well as ray- • self, have examined with a microscope the gold from a sample of sand obtained from Mr Smith himself from his land, and given to the Directors. We find that it does not answer at all to Mr Pond’e description, for the grains are never spiral, nor even much elongated, and are never smooth nor striated on one aide. They are rough on all sides, in nearly the same state in which they left the matrix, and in some of them the hollows show the red color so ; characteristic of native gold. They are certainly not filings nor borings, and they , . cpnlain too much silver to be alluvial gold ' from the South Island. In fact, Ido not knpw where Mr Smith could have oh- ‘ , fained this kind of gold to put into the sand. Mr Pond’s gold certainly appears to . hive been borings or cuttings, but the •ample has passed through several hands, and it would not bo difficult to suggest reasons for supposing that some other ■ person than Mr Smith bad put them in. But I forbear doing so, as, after al', the ’' whole thing may be a yoke or an ingenious method of advertising. At any rate, it is evident th«t Mr Pond’s gsld is quite different, both in quality and in shape, from the gold on which the Directors of the V WaihonGold Mining Company lmveb»*pd their opinion of the ground, and Mr Pond’s „ report should not diminish the confidence of any shareholder in the value of the property.-! am, etc., „ wTT _ 1 F. W. HufroN. In an interview with he reporter of tho N.Z. Herald on October 12th, Mr Smith ■aid be bad no causa to be suspicions of anyone having pot gold in the stuff te make the samples appear richer, and if there was any silting done it wai not at Waitoa. He did not think it was salted, and if the Canterbury people were to say he c n d have bis land back again he would start at once to put a plant on the ground and take out gold. Samples were now being taken out of the remaining thousand acres of his land, which whs for sale at £l4 an acre. Mr George Wilson, Inspector of Mines at Te Aiohn, was quite satisfied, the samples hs took being from the boulder*. One test went *t the rate p£ £ll to the ton, another £6 14s, and ' t oaa taken from the bag* ready to go to Eraser’* went £1 14*1. If anyone think* the stuff sated he should try it for himself. He (Mr Smith) did not think it passible for anyone to hava done it.