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Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2346, 23 July 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

At a sale iu Paris the other day a splendid dish of the rare old Rousn ware fetched .?1,520. It was twenty inches in diameter, and was beautifully painted with Cupids and flowers. There are some very fine specimens of this china in the private apartments at Windsor Castle. Says Puff Have you read (I E. Richardson’s speech at Matanra? Yes isn't it lovely? He said Vogel and Stout are like Muses and Aaron ! Stout goes on the stage and amuses the audience, while Vogel puts fresh slides into the magic lantern nr gives the kaleidoscope a shako ! Ah, I didn’t know Moses and Aaron were in that line ! I’d forgotten that! It’s some timisinoel read about them ! Richardson’s a whale at scripture ! I must look up that bit again ! Du -it won’t hurt you, oven if you don’t find exactly what you expect! There’s some good reading left in the Bible yet ! Is a sketch of reporters “A Provincial Editor in the‘St. James’ Gazette’writes : —Reporters in 'our town, are not, I fear, always considered “respectable,” but they do not repine at this. I have been told the Salvation Army here has hope for all, except reporters. A story is told to this effect. At one of the Salvation Army meetings a Mrs Colonel Something asked a young man present if ho had been converted. He replied laconically, “ I’m a reporter,” and she left him. The anecdote shows not only how desperately bad reporters are supposed to bo, bnt bow they regard themselves. Another story is repeated without any resentment by the gentleman at whoso expense it is told. A criminal was on the scaffold, about to be executed. Ho said good-bye to the minister and prison governor, and shook bands with the executioner. But to the reporter he merely nodded, saying, “ I’ll see you, gentlemen, later on.”

REPORT ON THE AURIFEROUS DEPOSIT FOUND ON THE PROPERTY OF MR ,1. B, SMITH/ WAIHOU, TE AROHA.

The following report by Professor Hutton, of Christchurch, on tlie auriferous deposits on Mr J. B. Smith’s estate at Waitoa has been kindly handed to us for publication, and will doubtless be read with interest. Tlie report, taking it altogether, is a very favourable one, and Mr Smith is very sanguine as to the results. The establishment of a payable goldfield of this character at Waitoa cannot but be of enormous benefit to the whole district, and we trust the high expectations formed in regard to it may be fully realised : Sib,—l have, at your request,.’examined the geology of your property at Waihou, with the following results ; The. only outcrop of solid rock is near shaft No. 1, on the low ridge which runs across the northern end of the property. This rock is rhysolite breccia, as already stated by Mr A. Montgomery, of the Thames School of Mines, and contains fragments of pumice. It shows no quartz veins, but assays made from it have given the following results No. 1 shaft : Trace; authority, A. Montgomery. No. 2 shaft; Gold, lOdwts. 12grs. ; silver: !)oz. 14dwts. 4grs. ; value, £3lSs 4d ; authority, G. Fraser and Son. Of No, 2 sample, S4olbs was tested by direct pan amalgamation, and yielded at tlie rate of 7dwt 20grs gold per ton, or 81 per cent, of assay. A sample of rook crushed and concentrated by panning off was assayed by Mr J. A. Pond, and gave 17oz IfidwtSgrs gold, and 4oz Bdwt 4grs of silver per ton. Three samples of this rock, taken by Mr G. Wilson, mining inspector, yielded gold and silver at the following rates per ton : —No. 1 sample, £lB Is 9d ; No. 2 sample, £6 13s 6d; No. 3, £ll3s.

Portions of a boulder of rhyolite about 4 feet in diameter, at No. 2 shaft, have also been assayed, with the following results: — No. 3 shaft: Gold, traces; silver, 19dwt 4grs ; authority, J. A. Pond. No. 4 shaft : Gold, 2dwt2grs ; silver, 2dwt 3grs ; authority, A Montgomery.

The outcrop of solid rock is only eight yards by three yards in extent, and is surrounded by beds of fine sands and pumice clays, which have been derived from the decomposition of the rhyolite, and have been deposited in still water, probably on the shores of a lake. These lacustrine beds form the whole of the ridge, and extend as far south as the Waihekau stream. The flat lands south of the Waihekau are formed by a newer deposit of pumice and rhyalite sand of a different character, but this deposit probably overlies the lacustrine beds. In the lacustrine beds on the ridge, several shafts have been sunk to depths of 25 and 30 feet, without reaching the bottom. The exposed beds are finely laminated pumice clogs alternating with coarser sands often containing pieces of pumice, which is finer iu texture, and contains less quartz than the pumice from the Taupo district. In No. 3 shaft, which is 38 feet deep, a bed of peat 15 feet thick is overlain and underlain by the lacustrine beds, the lowest bed exposed being a fine pitmic grit.

Gold has been obtained from four of these shafts out of five which have been tested. It is too fine to be seen, ami is not on any bottom, but apparently distributed all through the beds. The following assays have been made :

No. 1 shaft: Gold, loz. IDdwts. 4grs. silver, 20oz, lldwts. Hgrs ; value, pe.r ton, £ll 2s 3d; authority, A. W. Uickcrton. No. 2 shaft; Gold, 2oz. Sdwts.; silver, oilwts; value per ton, £i) 13; authority, H. H. Adams. No. 2 shaft; Gold, 2dwts ; silver, lldwts. ; authority, G. Fraser and sons. No. 2 shaft; Gold, Sdwts; silver, lldwts; authority', G. Fraser and Sous. No. 2 shaft, upper: Gold, Sdwts; silver, (idwts ; value per ton, £1 13s; authority, H. Adams. No. 2 shaft, lower: Gold, Sdwts; silver, -Idwts; value per ton, £lßs, do. No. 2 shaft: Gold, 4oz. lldwts. llgr*; silver, 13oz. lldwts. !)grs ; value per ton, £2117s (id; Authority, A. W. Bickerkm. No. 5 shaft: Gold, 3oz odwts; silver, 17dwts; value per ton, £l3 15s Old; authority, H. H. Adams. No. 10 shaft: Gold, Sdwt. ; silver, (idwt ; value per ton, £1 14s lOd ; authority, H. Adams. No. 11 shaft; Gold, nil; silver', nil; Authority, H. H. Adams.

No. 2 shaft is situated 8 chains from No. 1 shaft, and No. 5 shaft is 35 chains from No. 2, all these being nearly on a line running about E.B.E. and W.N.W. No. 10 shaft is about 40 chains to the south of the centre of this hill, so that shafts No. 1 No. 5 and 10 form nearly an equilateral triangle with sides of 45 chains. Tire area therefore actually proved to be auriferous is 88 acres, but iu all probability over at least 350 acres at the north end of the property. The depth of the property is, as I have said, unknown, but is probably very considerable.

No. II shaft lies further away to the south-east, and is only about 6ft. deep. This is not enough to test the deposit fairly on this point, and it may still prove to be auriferous. The gold has undoubtedly come from the rhyolite rock, and I believe that these rocks have formed the margin of an ancient lake along the shore line of which the gold accumulated. How broad the auriferous deposit may be it is impossible to say at present, and as the gold is not visible to the naked eye ; the lead can only be followed by assaying the sands.

The lacustrine deposits will require no crushing, but simply washing in some kind of amalgamating pans, such as berdans. As the gold is very fine care will have to be taken in this process. An abundant supply of water can be obtained from the Wahekau stream, and the sludge can he deposited on the flat land on the western side of the property. It will, I think, be beat to raise the water to the required height by pumping, and take in a race to the locality where it is required. As coal is only 16s a ton this will not be very expensive, and will allow the sludge to flow easily away. A ton of sand from No. 2 shaft was tested in a berdan at the Waiorongomai battery, and produced 12s worth of gold, but the average of all assays gives about £l6 per ton. T. W. Hutton. Waitoa, 6th July, ISS7.