ENCOURAGING REPORTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3013, 26 September 1888, Page 2

ENCOURAGING REPORTS.

A DIGGER INTERVIEWED,

During the past week or two tensational reports have been circulated as to the rich discovery of gold at the Mahakipawa, but owing to the contradictory nature of the various newspaper. reports mid of several disappointed amateur diggers who returned from the ground, the bulk of tho people have been slow to believe.the good news, We ourselves were not -altogether incredulous nut at the same lime e thought it wise for the benefit of the working classes in our own district, not to publish too much on this matter until wo could get our information

: FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE. This has been kindly furnished to our ouisido reporter by Mr D, Ross, who is well and favorably known in this district._he being for many years in the employ of Messrs Hood and Walker of Upper Tauern. We will endeavor to give, as nearly as possible, Mr Ross' verbal account of what came undor his own observation, and leave tho public to judge for thomselyeg i$ to the prospects' of the lidd, ' ' ..

JIB BOSS' AOPOt/NT.

I have paid two visits to the field, ly jjrßt trip' being aho.ut a month ago, but owing to tlje difficulty experienced in procuring provisions nod Mcoiflqdatjoi], I thqiight it prudent to return und waitawhilo. % trip in the steamer Kennedy on that occasion coat ine te.l shillings from Wellington id !' le Grove. The run over took about six hours to j"|; o|ll [)lish. Prom there to the field,'a distance ol four.' njijep, )vas : just a comfortable wala, th.Q track being a king to wlmt diggers ; h^tp ginteiid. ; with in: : tlieriislics of earlier days, Reatbing the ground I found between three and four hundred persons, the majority of them without money. I visited the alaiins already pugged out, aiid ascertained that only three of them were paying. Old miners attributed t!)js to the fact that the majority' of' those" who then held claims wore iaexperiehced antf expected to.find the gold without' working for it f I tiiwi left the field, after having a look I'ouud,' fully- determined to retiim again. I then damo through to.Mijsterton and proceeded to Wanganpi wljere I had private business to transaot. Settling- this I left fof the fields. Tbi3 time in company with Messrs 6. and % Cootes, of Wnngantti, On the second visit, we found 800 diggers on the scene, iucluding a large number of old hands from Greymouth, Flokatikei, and the rhiini's. This was the class of men to put them on their metal,-and from every ' cja'iiii visited,, in which they were interested, gold was J>ein» brought to the surface, .plenty. of BtorpS 4yjerp now obtainable on die .field-at jJ oiit our miner's right,'f ye'ni.ade straight iortlio main stream of the Mahakipawa. Hero we "met three men, whose icquaintance I had formed on my previous trip. In answer to •mjr enijuii'ics as to whether the finds wei\e Improving;' .they said.: speaking; of biu eould not say ho the others, on , the field- syere jirogres'sirig.'fl; Captain' McUregoiyi who::is jygtJ - Jcpown- in : Wellington to one of tbs patty,

Leading the .captain and Jus mutes, we l follo\vpd up.the stieara to 1 ktbin a short distance of its source This we wereiCoaSfmlled to do ( on account of the creek below this being all takou "p.: i Claims are pegged, off for lully tbice miles up the main strtiitm alone. My two mutes, and I laid : out thrco claims adjoining ono another.. Tliis.was.dono..to;prevent <nny...disugreemeiit over tlie finds'. We; then sot -to work, and nfterr four days, ! rwashwf (mt-with a rcsulb of ono'and a liulf oiincHs, wlnclrwe had' no"diffi J I cuity m selling,on. ihe:field for.f 315s per ounoo ITo get ihif> wo had silnk tinea holes, between five and six feet square, and aljblit; seven feet deep: Aftei this, whilst I was lookinground 'for; soniethiugjibetteiv two 4 >strangers came and bought my interest out ata" very satisfactory figurgo.. My principal reasons for. selling out- was not through being, disheal'toriod, but it was due to some urgent private business requiring myattention at Wfliigaiiui, ~, , . -.yv.

QENFnUi INFORMATION. f .I- wouldjnot -advise anyone to -go ovi-r unless thoy had £lO in . their, pockpls,. The provisions aro plentiful but the accommodation is of the- poor* est description, and it is desirable to tako a tont. There is plenty of gold' but it .will require a little capital and and'plenty of elbow greaso to get it; ■[(Everything goes oh : us s!itisfaotorily. he they have been during the past, three week's' there will' bo fully 1500 miners on the afield within [a month. Those persons who have spread Unreport [that tbei'o is no gold,- Could never have been "on" the' field but merely relied on what-they had been told by .others to put them olf the scent. Fully a third of, thb'so, experienced miners who are .now engaged on the ground are getting .payable sold. There 'are,rtujiibers?a\;.the Mahakipawa who have not the faintest idea how to go about'prospecting and are' throwing gold away; in the wash dirt, Pribr ; to-'ooming away I, went and interviewed the prospectors who aro engaged up the rightihiind braiich of the muin'-streanij where ' tlio 260z nugget was unearthed. This portion of-the field : was - : thoiiijht' but little of and at first tJieie jy.PM 'only,ab'oiit 60 men working; (but rush bas set' in and everyone seemed perfectly sanguine of'iturning out t some good finds. The miuers at work here are i all experienced hands and are confident of striking rich reefs. The greatest sinking in any one chiiin in this branch is ab'oiit 15feet. . Tlie gold ; here is very rough and about the size of a pin's head,- The deepest sinking in the main bed of the Mahakipawa is thirty feet; and from' this they are getting the best gold. The Mahakipawa is about half the size of tlie Waipoua. The formation of tho hills are almost similar to that of our own Tararuas, although not quite so high; Tliey aie much steeper and tlio country generally is very rough. Looking across the straits-froui.the Mahakipawa, the Tararuas lie in ut direct line and are plainly -visible:'l ' feel, convinced from the general formation and situation of tljese mountains tkat the Tararuas urea continuation of the same range as that on which .the-present -valuable 'held is

located, lam not alone in this conviotion as several experienced Thames miners wbo are on the. field expressed themselves, as': firmly in'favor.of tbe theory that the Mahakipawa was only a portion of the Tararuas which was also a'connecting link of the same mountain range that ran through to to the famous gold field. This-may, or may not be the case, but it'is tbe positivo. opinion of experienced men'.' In tact, so struck wero several of theiu 'with this theory that they determined to gi\ e the western side of the Tararuas a good prpspectitig during the ensuing summer,. .

The greatest quantity of gold Mi; Ross saw in any one person's possession whilst, at tho diggings was two pounds weight, and

this came out. of a surface claim

There is an entire absence of drunkenness on the field,.the diggers being opposed to granting of public bouse licenses, Several disappointed ones have left the fields, but their places are speedily filled up with new coiners--4 considerable number of people, visit the fields every day merely out of curiosity, and the -excitement :is intense, The idea that the gold' would be merely confined to the beds of tlie cr eks has exploded, and.they are now finding gold in both large and small quantities on the terraces and sides of tbe hills. This proves the whole of the country to be more or less thickly impregnated with this precious metal, Mr Moss is of opinion

from what ho has seen, and if tlio deep sinkings only turn out half as good as already represented, the Maha-

kipawa [Mahakipawa] will prove itself capable of carrying fully 5,000 minors. By this he does not infer it is going to turn out what is termed a poor man's diggings, but that capital will have to be introduced tofiud and

work out the various reefs from whence this gold' must undoubtedly have sprang,' color is found almost everywhere''in the neighborhood, The muin crock traverses its coiii'so betyypen two steep ranges, the width of its bpd varying frqm gqe to ten chains. At the bottom, it emoties out on to a flat of between five and six hundred acres, This flat has noi yet beeu prospected, but it is sur- '

| raised to be a likely-looking spot-. The Iqnaru, f l ' on ' w hich tho gold'had been [taken is of a greyisii-wliu? co ' or < conclusion, Mr Ross said there was no necessity for those desiious of going to hurras tljere plenty of land lo work upon, and fy waiting's lj|,tlo longer tbere ( 'woiild be water to contend with", Several 1 claims -were' ut present almost idle through having too much water to battle against.