Exhibition of Gold Quartz from Te Aroha and Terawhiti; Coal from Wairarapa; Galena and Zinc Blende from Tararua Mountains, and Description of Locality in which the Terawhiti Specimen was found.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 13, 1880, Page 437

Dr. Hector exhibited several new additions to the Museum, among others rich gold quartz specimens from Te Aroha, coal found at Eketahuna (which he stated to be of good quality, and probably extending through the Wairarapa district), galena and zinc blende found in the Tararua mountains, and auriferous quartz specimens from Terawhiti. With referenceto the latter, Dr. Hector said a new reef had been found in a fresh locality by some bush burners under quite different conditions from the former so-called reefs. The formation was different from that at the old workings, and the new reef was better defined and of a more promising kind of quartz. The specimens showed gold freely, and contained about three ounces to the ton in a very finely-divided form. This was a most encouraging circumstance. The reef was about 1,100ft. above sea-level, and it ran about N.W. Specimens had been brought to him a day or two before, and he could see at once it was wholly a different class of stone from anything previously from Terawhiti. It was exactly similar to the reefs at Golden Point and Cape Jackson, across the Straits. He had gone out to the ground himself and seen the reef, which, however, had not yet been sunk upon sufficiently to reveal its trend and dip. He thought now there was a much better prospect than ever before of testing definitely whether there was payable gold at Terawhiti.