GOLD IN MURCHISON.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 163, 12 July 1929, Page 9

GOLD IN MURCHISON.

DREDGING PROSPECTS. REPLY TO PROFESSOR BARTRUM. We have received the following from Mr. John A. Spencer:— It's an axiom of life "That an ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory." The writer, having been engaged for the past two years in systematic drilling of, and testing out the alluvials in the Murehison district, is probably in a better position than Professor Bartrum to arrive at the true values and conditions obtaining in those areas. Scores of holes have been drilled to bedrock on behalf of certain British dredging interests. At the present time one of the largest dredging companies of the world is checking tip the writer's work on the Upper Maruia River. The Matakitaki River (a portion of which is now unfortunately devastated) has also been thoroughly and systematically mapped and drilled, this being the only known scientific method of arriving at true gold values. The writer obviously is not in a position to divulge the values obtained on the two areas named, but can state that they are excellent, and on these results a dredge was about to be placed on the Matakitaki River. The results are lodged with the Department of Mines, Wellington.

With reference to the surface values on either the Matakitaki or the Maruia Rivers, Professor Bartrura is entirely in error. Henry Xorris, of Murchison, got £6 worth of gold in four clays of five hours each, under two feet below the surface, in April last. Alfred Rogers, of Ariki, got £12 worth of gold in eiglit days of five hours in the same month. These results were pot 011 the Lower Maruia and the Matakitaki Rivers respectively, and represent a fair average. Rogers carried his wash in a sugar bag, and both men used an ordinary "flycatcher." The local tailor, Percy Mills, spent his summer holidays of 14 days prospecting for gold on the Matakitaki River and came away with £30 worth of gold. These results' can be verified by asking any of the old prospectors now living about Murchison. He would be a lazy man who could not make a wood wage on the Matakitaki or Maruia Rivers. Each flood brings its quota of gold and deposits it on the beaches. The average dredging depth on the Matakitaki River and flats is 17ft 6in, and on the Upper Maruia about 40ft. The values are good and eonssitent throughout, and on the Matakitaki still comprise some 2000 acres of flats. On both rivers a probable 100 years' dredging programme lies ahead. The systematic drilling of alluvials by power drills ofters a true test of the values, and it is proved beyond all doubt that a very close approximation of dredging returns can be arrived at by this means, and so the risk of failure practically eliminated. In the Murchison district there are many thousands of acres taken Tip under dredging prospecting license. The resurrection of the Murchison district will probably depend not on the rehabilitation of the farms, many of which are permanently destroyed, but on the results of the gold dredges which will very soon be in active operation.