A TRIP TO KARANGAHAKE

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 265, 14 November 1885, Page 2

A TRIP TO KARANGAHAKE

For some time past I have intended to go to see the Karuugahake Gold and Silver Fields that oro exciting so much interest, but allowed the intention to remain unfulfilled till meeting an old friend from the South, who said he should like to see them, 1 at once chimed in, and with another friend made up a party of three. This last knew the ropes well, and to him we committed ourselves for guidance. Leaving Auckland by the Eotomahana at 4.H0, with a number of passengers, we steamed down the Gulf. There was a blind fiddler on board, and this Paganini scraped out a libel on various operatic melodies and effectually destroyed any feeling of seriousness. We landed at the long wharf at Grahamstown, and at once secured the last beds. Our leader had telegraphed for a buggy to take us to the diggings, so it would not do to stay up long. However, wo made the acquaintance of MiLane, the gentleman who has had charge of erecting La Monte's Furnace at Grahamstown, and he arranged to go up with us, and a very great acquisition he was. There was no political talk in the commercial room ; they have a far more interesting subject in lodes and so many ounces to the ton. The buggy was ordered at four, and my heart sank; getting up at four is not a thing to be lightly spoken of, and involves feelings too deep for utterance. True to his naturally ferocious disposition our leader woke us at four sharp. \Ve got up reluctantly, each with the politeness natural to people under the circumstances, giving the other pas in the matter of turnout first. Tho leader was radiant as tho sun which had not yet risen, his victims spiritless and depressed. As his energy wanted an outlet, we let him knock up the owner of the buggy. We dressed slowly and descended sleepily," each begrudging the other the least advantage in tho way of delay. When we got down we found the owner of tho buggy kept the article at Shortland a distance of 2 miles, and we should^have to wait till he went for it. I expected this from tho first, but had not the manliness to lio in bed and face it out, but I registered a vow, deep, but silent, that never, no never, would I turn out for an early start until the buggy was at the door. There was nothing for it but to walk about Grahamstown till six. It is an interesting city, and on an empty stomach, between four and six on a giey morning, its very stones preach sermons. No very exact description has been left us of Sodom and Gomorrah aftor Lot and his. wife removed, but I think a stranger after visiting cither of thoso cities after the fire will experience sensations similar to those I and the other victims felt. It used to be a thriving place in the days of the Caledonian, Moanatairi, and Long Drive, but lchabod, which I take to bo Hebrew for '' to let " or "for salo," is written on its walls. I should think mortgagees have had a rough time of it in Grahamstown. I meekly refused to look at La Monto's furnace at that hour of tho day ; if I had done so I would have found defects in it that would have effectually put a stop to silver mining in that locality for the next half century. All things have an end, and the buggy drove up at 6 a.m. We mounted, Mr Lane taking the ribbons, and rattled through the still deserted streets towards Shortland. Whether Shortland is an independent city, with a mayor and a borough council, I know not. Twin cities, like Buda Pesth, Hamburgh and Altona, have existed which glide imperceptibly into one another, and so it is with Shortland and Grahamstown; but although the gradations by which the one city dies away into the plher are not discernible, the main characteristics are very different. Grahamstown is close to a mountain pierced with drives. Tho soot of furnaces and the noise of the ceaseless pumping, driving, and rushing of waterraces, mark the one, while the other blooms on a gentle slope, and the air is fragrant with the scent of flowers and hedgerows ; all ablow the guelder rose hangs its heavy head and the Banksia festoons the cottages. I think the landed gentry and the aristocracy live at Shortland and the inferior classes who work at the Thames. The former are mostly Maoris, who draw their rents from the serfs at Grahamstown. But at this rate we shall never get on. We leave pretty Shortland and pass along the foot of the hills on a fair road with occasional ruts that would knock your teeth out to Kirikiri, whore there ,is a public house kept by a Maori. It is true it is unlawful to supply a countryman except for medicinal purposes, but the race is dying out, and they want a lot of medicinal comfort. Then past l'uriri to Hikutaia, where we have breakfast. Tell it not in Gath, but 24 eggs and I should say about a couple of pigs in rashers of bacon wero placed before those weary travellers. I was aghast! What riotous waste, what certain ruin to people who would place such a breakfast before four; but when we loft that breakfast table there was not enough left for a decent meal for a canary. Everybody in these parts has a reef, and our host at once arranged for a smelting. He was to send down about 25 tons to Granamstown, and tho money would be sent back with the report of the contents by the assayer without going through tho trifling preliminary of extracting it — that they would do afterwards at their leisure. How is that for high 1 Tho close relationship that exists between tho stomach and the mental organism has often been discussed by philosophers. The effects of that bacon and those eggs would have given such an one much.food for reflection. Your depression and the malevolent devils that haunt tho chambers of tho human heart fled and left thorn swept and garnished. Nature smiled tho bitter hatred which we felt towards our leader as the process of digestion went on, softened, faded, and fled away. Thomas Carlylo calls tho eating of food tho ultimate act of communion ; hero, if on no other grounds, all mortals meet on one platform. After a full meal,' such aa 24 eggs and 2 pigs among four, you doubt the Darwinian hypothesis that we are all wolves seeking one another's blood, and man recognises no longer his enemy but his brother in his fellow man. So brothers we were. We wero boys from school and had all known one another all our lives. Reserve fled, we made the worst of jokes, we argued, at least tho others did, about things they did not understand, we wrangled, we fought, and smashed one another in wordy warfare, and timo flow until we got to Paeroa, a little toynship on tho banks of tho Ohinemuri, a river that runs into the Thames Gulf.

When Karangahake supports a population of 100,000 people, the banks, the warehouses, Customs and Post-officos, and Insurance Companies will be at Paeroa. From this place there is water carriage to the Thames. This will bo-enough for the leading citizens of Paeroa to form themselves into a Harbour Board with a rating power, and if they cannot get the colonial guarantee to a half-million loan for deepening the channel, they are a disgrace to their adopted country, and deserve to rot in the obscurity from whence they sprung. Seriously ono can be conveyed from here which is within 5 miles of the field to a shipping port for 20s a ton, and it will be done for half the money as soon as the trade increases. A mile or two further on takes us toMcKay's house, which consists of, well, I cannot call it a hotel, as it has not the accommodation a Licensing Committee so often insist upon a pub, is a more appropriate name ; there is a barrel of beer and about 20 bottles, other refuge there is none. I should imagine, the host from the colour of his garments, assists his income as a publican by an occasional job at blacksmith's work, but I made no inquiry on this point. However, there is good paddocking, and we turned out the horses. Tho rest of tho journey is pedibus. From McKaytown to Karangahake is about a mile along the banks of the Ohinemuri by a bush track. It is just cut through the forest and almost unpolluted by traffic. The sapphire vault mirrored ta the stream which chafed, now white, against the rocks in its mountaingorgd tho drapery

of ferns, the taneWi „ /^^^lcrucible and its casing is ffi b*^*n tie Tim is the water jacket. %^ .*£ in this or an air blast whief'"!• h°l» intense heat necessary for 2= *•* the There » a funnel V^ Wfe fumes, and the thing "I *»n£ Anything move simple could I*. bears about the Rain*i «i .?' •* It crucible that a Woofflnft^" child's toy cannon. At the iZ does "•» » crucible is a bath_Yeeod, H?" « tt* forit-of molten lead 6 T h l kt aC lighter floats on the molten ffi "«? gold and silver descend £ fr*Jj«* bathis emptied fromtimeto ti m b. le*1 ladle, and the gold and in. tlmß-.*i ~\ from it by the assayer Tf r my opinion I would sa'v thut . "? "**- more difficult to make /oup i* & *** copper than in a saucepan » & *$** to smelt precious metal from quart^ *? Lamonre furnace as in the 2S&?-*' cible. I have no doubt; none ■ *"■ This .being settled, W9 w« n f mountains to have a look at the 3- tkt The sedentary life of d£», adipose tissue, but Mr Lane hX PMSto Straight up a perpendicukf tLT^i abate not a jot of this B tatem en t *& ITrV;:S ed:withenb^tc t.^nsSeSttht^ 0' the Woodstock the Crown thf T Teirf the Sir Walter' Scott, Z' ftM from Ivanhoe to the Antbto £*' everywhere, and all with n.^B^* There v not a mi ne that I M St some more and some less, but aSfi !' and many on half-a-dozen places i?^ mining is done in (he bowels of &S aud what goes on is only known A sharebrokersand those depositories^^ most awful secrete-the riunifc^S^ Herethey drive a hole into theiM^ the quartzoutsido; no deceptioh, R Sf there are 50 tons of it in a pile b'SS as big as road metal, and to D mSt' mistakes such a« melting quartz Cl not pay they have just 4ffi3g sorter. Mistake not, deaV reader i£ not an American patent, but & unto us, who picks over the quatteXw you pick over a cargo of oranges l 3 and throw out the vottenonesi tkS ore goes to the furnace, the bad is Cast as rubbish to tho BpiL • Verily I thought mining was a praa,!™,, ocoupation-in fact, IWe so foundT but now, if I want security, somethiim ™ can sleep sound on o'nighta, I shafiS out of bank stock, realise oh the far M class mortgages I have left, and pat"mi money into silver mining at Karangjfiia. But our inexorable leader ins&tljii we should look over the mines. To'ttea initiated one mine is very much likejnotk but to experts there is a marked differm» which they describe in a languageof S own. I have peen this language qiftliii mining reports in newspapers, mi I nu not going to appear ignorant; Weloohd into a hole as black as the botiontei pit, and I was asked what'l thoßelt of it. "Pretty country,"l said, andttis appeared to give universal satisfiditu Further on, after walking about 100iyift up a drive with candles in our hands,« camo to a place where they were Wealing down quartz. I told them if f% Btow up the intermediate level with the footfi and put a shot into the hanging viim, ;jk. would be all right. I don't tSink-jfe miners in this mine had been long at t!» trade, as my remark did not.appeat to le fully understood. We took aa many specimons as tre lifced from tho best of quarts outside tiie iniias, and went away thoroughly satMedijt Karangahake. Two things are mi&V There are mountains at Karangabske, td these are full of quartz, literally fullinkl directions. Some veins are poor, itim good, and it will take many yeara: to exhaust the supply. Further, thefunuce will extract the metal. The good qnarti will pay at once, and the poorer, as me&odi of transit and cost of melting arerednoei Here at Karangahake is hope,'lt k well-nigh died out of theihddstriesolflii great loan land, but nowhere, no, not Ij Israel, have I met such faith in their.district, as now exists in Karangahake, • - The return journey was marked by m special incident. We had excellent Slipper and beds at Paeroa, and started eariynatt morning in high spirits. :My Boutta friend who sat with me_at the .back-of thi buggy, when opportunity occurred wM< tuted lumps of road mofcal, in tie' tiil pockets of our unsuspecting leader, who tit on the front seat, for the speoimemhew taking back with him. : : Such is the result of mountain sir oa« naturally saturnine disposition. He is« eminent financier, and has written a took on logarithms; such conduct waß therefore the more unbecoming on his part, Hoi' ever all is now forgiven We all meted toe best of luck to the field and ;tt the pkch pioneers of the now industry of gold om silver melting, the La Monte syndicate, W R. K. Davis.