COROMANDEL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 288, 4 December 1895, Page 7

COROMANDEL.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.')

Coromandel, Tuesday

Tiki.—The miners in the Tiki district are mostly hard ab work prospecting. The Pukevvhau looks as well as ever, with fairly good dish prospects etill coming to hand. The Native Chief property is being well prospected, and men are ab work still stripping the big reef on the Pride of Hauraki. lb is now cleared about 20 feet, and noo fully stripped. Mr Kelly is surveying tho old Emily battery site and water race tor Mr Handley, and it is to be hoped a battery will be erected. Summer should see increased activity in the liki. Mr Kitto of Chrietchurch, has? jueb been vmting the districb, and is well pleased with the prospects. His objecb was to view the possibilities for a battery worked by electricity. The Warden's Office. — The present •' ricadnesa " in the mining market in Auckland is causing quite a change ab the Warden's office. Instead of having hardly sufficient time bo receive money and applications, the clerks have to pay out a 2 ood deal of money every day for withdrawals. No doubt the approach of Christmas and the general decline in shares are largely accountable for the chanpe. While the rush was on, money could be got for anything that was offered, and now 1 suppose the very beat property might go a-banging among the smaller fry "ho deal in mines. It is not investment tb.580 people mean bufc gambling. BunWs xIiLL.-Wurk is proceeding steadily. Ifc seem 3to be the Auokland .mail /peculator-, or gamblers, chiefly who have loab their heads. BunLer'a is still there, and if it wasn't, only some five acres or less would be gone out of Coromandei. BUCTAtoandOxhbb CtAiMS. -On M onday I visited the Buffalo ground and adjoining claim?. The track follows the creek up towards to Tokatea main range and goes throught the middle of the Buffalo "settlement.* Formerly a number of sections were granted here to immigrants to induce them to come to New Zealand and become farmers. TheoldßuSalo company dates back over oO years, when a good deal of the ground fust about where the smithy now stands was worked for very fair results. The present company has a section of private.land 10 acres in extent. Next bo ib lies the Good Enough ground, taken up by Meeere

Rosa and Colthurst. There is ab present a dispute about the boundary, the Buffalo Pt°- Pl? ■ havin S . had a survey made which is now awaiting further surveys to see whether it should be foughb in the courts or not. lb was on this disputed piece of ground bhab Ross and Colthursb obtained the 30oz of gold in a reef some time ago that has caused the dispute and excitement aboub the ground. Mr MeKenzie and three men are now working in another drive on the Buffalo, further north of the old workings. Aboub 100 feeb has been driven in the new spob where a leader showed ibself on bhe surface, bub this leader was thrown off in some unexplained way. In the lasb 20 feeb or so a couple of small mullocky leaders showing bits of quartz have been cub with good indications of gold, bub as yeb they are of no value. This drive will be continued farther into the hill, and then a crosscut will probably be opened from it to cub other leaders in the ground. In the old workings one of these drives has been .pieaned oub ; and as ib evidently gave good gold formerly, seeing that it has been atoped oub in places righb bo the surface, ib should justihy the putting in of a drive near the creek level which would open a good block of ground. Another drive on a small leader was entered and a dish of dirb taken from ib which gave a small trace of gold on washing. Good Enough.—This mine lies east of the Buffalo, and Messrs Ross, Colthursfc, and another, are now working on two drives outßide the disputed boundary. These two drives are on different sides of the spur, following reefs of hard-looking atone with a very small stringer running through ib. They are in about 40fb in each drive, and the class of stone is much bhe same in each. The reef farther from, the creek, Mr Ross think to be, from its direction and dip, the big reef of the old Buffalo workings. There is a good deal of mineral in the stone, bub no gold visible. In both drives the body of stone after going along in a solid block for some 30 or more feeb, is crossed by a leader of soft ironstone, and thereafter, there is soft ground with the original leader now appearing in the face only as etreaka of brown stone with clay horses between.

Golden Buffalo.—This claim lies south of the Good Enough, with a piece south of the Standard shaped like a V, with a flat bottom. The area is about 20 acres, and it lies towards the Success mine, with the Karaka No. 1 block on its southern side, and Shrimpton's private property on the west. The ground was never opened up before, but ib is now being prospected by three men, under the leadership of Mr James McGimpsey, a very old prospector, and one of the first, if nob the first, bo discover gold in the Buffalo district. So far, little work has been clone on this Golden Buffalo, but it lies in an excellenb position with regard to the other known goldbeuring grounds, and vigorous prospecting should unearth good loaders.

Standard.—This property lies east of the Good Enough, and on it there is some prospecting work being done. Mr McGimpeey aaya he got gold there over 20 years ago, and believes in the ground. North of these grounds lie the I'll Try and Cornelia claims, und south the Karaka No. 1 block. Coming down the creek again, on the lefb hand we pass a piece of ground purchased by Mr Abbobt at a good figure. I don'b think it has yet been touched. Lower down still there is more untouched private land, one piece of which, Mr Doran's, has, I am told, been leased to a company.