THE TERAWHITI GOLDFIEDLDS

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1482, 13 September 1883, Page 2

THE TERAWHITI GOLDFIEDLDS

The special correspondent of the " Timaru Herald" gives tho following account of these goldfields: - The different claims are upon' the ridge that runs close to the sea northward from Terawhiti (Jape, and which forms the western barrier of the Peninsula, and though only nine or ten miles from the.city in a straight line necessitates a roundabout journey of sixteen or eighteen to reach them, and there is no road whatever. The claims, as I have said, are situated along the western ridge of the Peninsula, and vary in size from a dozen to forty acres. The Golden Grown claim, which has just successfully crushed out some fifty tons of quartz, is : situated right in the centre of the nest, while immediately around it arc the; Success, Wealth of Nations, Duke of.Wellington, Phoenix, and other claims, and at the north and south of this cluster, stretch away the others, 18 or 24 in all. The theory is that the golden reef ruus more or less parallel with the top of the hill, and it is thus hoped that by following its Hue eachclaim contains a portion of the coveted quartz. As however some of the Companies have not yet so much as put a spade into the ground, and others have only scratched it, it is far too early to give any reliable news as to what claims justify the present price of their shares, and which do not. It may however be looked upon as a kind of lottery. Any claim may strike the reef any day, as nothing is really known yet as to its direction, while it is pretty freely, hinted that there is no reef at all, but only isolated blocks of quartz, the fragments of a once existing reef that has been smashed up by the powerful volcanic action to which the particularly rugged face of the country owes its formation. That there is quartz, however, in more places than one is an undoubted fact; that it contains gold in payable quantities has also been proved, the Golden Crown having crushed out more than any of the Reefton claims with the exception of the Welcome mine, the shares of which are now standing at £7 ss, while Golden Crowns are only about 18s. The present price of the shares in other mines is, however simply absurd, being in many cases five hundred per cent preniunv on the amount paid up, and ia entirely the result of speculation for the "jump." Should any mine strike a reef its shares will naturally vise to a purely fancy price, and it is the hope of that that makes them so high now. The price is also somewhat due to the fact of the Civil servants going in very largely as speculators. Civil servants, to judge by their actions in this matter, must have a considerable number of loose five pound : notes and a very large Btock of credibility. Nothing else will account for what must otherwise be considered in roany/ : cases rash specula: tion. And here let me odd a word of what is really wisdom to South Canterbury speculators. Be satisfied with a moderate profit, sell out when you can get that; put your original; outlay back into the Bank, and you have the remainder left to gamble with. Not only is quartz found'on the. western side of the peninsula, but a large and well defined reef has been found abutting -on. the Wellington. Harbor itself, about/three miles northeast from the town, from which great hopes are entertained, and I understand that no expense of money, time, or experience is to bo neglected to have it properly tried. .1 fancy the truth about this Terawhiti goldfield' is that there is a reef or reefs in existence, but that they have not yet been' discovered, and that it will take many, thousands of pounds and much time before Bteady returns are obtained.