GOLDFIELD OF OHINEMURI.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1948, 2 April 1875, Page 3

GOLDFIELD OF OHINEMURI.

in tlitTXdUy Southern Cross on lsi& ".Experience on the Queensland diggings " concludes his article with the following, reference rto the goldfield recently opened at Ohinemuri: — .Looking over the late issues of the Auckland and Thames, journals I see that Ohinemuri has been, made a subject of controversy as to its capabilities as a jroldfield, in comparison with the Grahamstown country. It must be in the recollection of the miners who worked on the Waiotahi, Moanataiari, and Kuranui, that it was not until: soxno time after the field was opened that the Shotover was discovered by Hunt and party, and then a belt of country was dereloped, not 1o be equalled- by any other place in Australia or California. The land lying between -Tauranga, Kati Xati, and the Aroha, is auriferous in a similar degree to that of the Lower Thames, and shows indications which will induce any of the old hands to prosecute a search for the reef. That the quartz formation which has been proved to exist at the Thames passes through Ohinemuri, and extends, beyond the Pokeno ranges, is" undoubted by those who know the country; and wherever loose gold is found, as it was on the Karaka Creek, the matrix cannot be far off. Mr William Hunt has a sample of this description of gold now in his possession, which was got where his party are working, and I dare say that it can be traced by a careful arid judicious search, and any day the reef may be topped. The outcrop of quartz towards thesouth is riot so apparent as it is in the north of the peninsula, consequently the miner has more „work to do; but, though there may not be a Cale* donian, or first cousin to a Golden Crown (as an old pioneer facetiously expressed it), there may be a better defined lode carrying less gold to the ton, but jielding very profitable results. However, a reef country is not to be developed in the same time that it would take to

arrive at the bottom •where alluvial gold is got, and it is hardly fair for new arrivals to condemn the place, as I have heard it in Auckland, until some more work has been done. Since i 869 Mr Mackay has been negotiating .with the natives for this district, knowing that there was every reason ;to believe that a payable goldfield existed there, and now that he has succeeded in his efforts, it remains for the miners to prove that he has been right in his judgment. The correspondent of the New Zealand Herald says that he is perfectly aware that some of the representatives of the Press are to blame in a great measure for penning reports that have excited the hopes of the misers. Who are the miners to look to for a truthful statement unless through the medium of. the press? Whatever ' bunkum may have been written, I hardly think anyone of the fraternity would misguide his pen to persuade a working-man to give his labour and lose the time which might be profitably used in another direc- " tion.