CATRAN'S DISCOVERY—FULL PARTICULARS.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3733, 11 December 1880, Page 2

CATRAN'S DISCOVERY—FULL PARTICULARS.

A BUMOB CONTBADICXBD, We were last evening placed in possession of full particulars regarding the hitherto mysterious discovery made by Catran • Bros., and of whioh, up to the present, the little that had been generally known really amounted to nothing. It appears from the Catrans' statement that twelve months ago—about the time of the Ngatihako trouble—the brothers were working a tribute at the Owharoa, Ohinemuri, when they were informed I 'by old Nichol, the father of W. Nichol, I native interpreter, and who has been in this, part of the county for nearly forty years, of the existence of a gold bearing lode north of Te Aroha. Nichol invited them up, but the unsettled state of the native mind and other reasons compelled them to decline the invitation. They, however, kept what they had heard in their memories, and on the opening of the field were shown the spot by Nichol. -They found that the place was on a branch of the Omahu creek, about 15 minutes walk from the Maori track, and two miles north west af the township There was the outcrop of a lode about three feet thich of a character very different to those hitherto met with on this field, and showing colours |of*gold pretty freely when broken.' The stone from the outcrop *is of a composite character, containing crystallised quartz, sandstone and other hard mineral sub* stances, besides excellent shows of goldindicating mineral. ■ i

The reason they have kept it so dark for such a length of time is because their mates were scattered all over the county, some being at the Thames and /Auckland and others at Tauranga. As soon as they could be mustered yesterday, a claim of 15 men's ground was pegged out and notice of pegging out lodged at the Warden's Court in the afternoon. — Miner.