WELLINGTON.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 1615, 11 January 1868, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

THE~ MA.EABA tJOLDFIELIfe. A; Special Correspondent of the Evening Star gives 'the following account of the place where gold is reported to have been discovered : — v Yesterday being a dies non in the calendar, your " Special," in company with three comrades, started from town on horseback, to pay a visit to the party of prospectors now at work in the Makara districts." The road, as most of your readers are, aware, is excellent aa ,far as the Makara church, where we to the left and proceeded as far as" Mr. Shotter's farm. Here we dismounted, and leaving our horses,, started with the. courteous proprietor, who was good enough jto pilot us, to the spot; wherp it is to be hoped a good gold field will 'soon be developed. The distance ; from the main road, through the ranges, to,> where Grove's party are at work, is five miles, over, a tolerably ,passable track for men on foot, but quite beyond the power of horses. On arriving at the ground we met Mr. Grove, who welcomed us very: cordially,, and|. after we had rested - and indulged iv r the luxury of a smoke, accompanied iis round the grouiid;and; pointed out the» amount pf,W;Ork his party had done. Considering the comparatively shqrtr time they have been in the neighbourhood, it Burprigedua}to see fco'e extenbf of their labors. A tail race, upwards of 60 yard* long. Varying- iv depth from ift to 6ft, had ,b,een cut into the ground they are abdut working: J ' Thi» r j alone, as you may was no easy task, but- beyond that. there \£ a •head dam to convey* the water, froim the creekclearof thegroundthey intend prospecting. Mr. Grove, who really appeared glad?■ to see us, and desiroiis of giving mc every information, told methat he had bottomed one portion of the ground he had opened, but;, finding the.rock dipping it was hie intention to open out the creek '.to.: a width of about thirty feet, so that he might: reach : the deep ground. The amount of labor necessary to do this is very great, and it will be at, Jeast a. fortnight before anything decisive can be known. The sample of gold which I saw is of a superior quality, and coarse-—-entirly different from the fine and scaly specimens hitherto procured. There are several parties*;. scattered about the, district, but none are working in' the same systematical -manner' as Mr. Grove> whose long experience in mining matters,gives him consider-; able advantages. lam convinced th>t if,there; is gold in payable quantities— and that is .not yet known—it will be discovered by him. The creek now being' Worked"!*: similar: to many I have eeen oft the , West' Coast, the wash being very •.heavy* much water-worn, and with; every, appearance of gold bearing. The. country all round, ;in r fact from, the Makara stream, looks likely, and, in my opinion, as good as the spot where thevtjmmediate works are being carried on. 1 mentioned my" opinion to Mr: <irove, and: he, agreed, with it, but appeared so loth tct give any false or to lead tlie public pn a wild goose chase,, that the Jeas said the better till. he. brings in his next rejjort to the Superintendent. There is, however, no doubt in my mind that should payable gold be struck where the party is , now wer&ing the field will extend over a large arda of country. The words '* payable gold" are so often misconstrued that I think it .necessary to mention for the information of, the unenlightened portion of your readers that in digger* parlance it is applied to districts out of whict 10s a day, at least, can be worked; The prospects obtained by the party at Makara would in places pay from 6a to 7s a day, but that, of course, would not induce people to set in. At 5 o'clock we returned to Shottep's mounted our horses, and, back to town, thoroughly tired out but much pleased at what we had seen and hopeful of a cry of " Bush Oh" sooner or later.

The Independent publishes the following notes on tin? Sam» locality furnished Uy a gentl-'vnnn w! tl » m jj. describes as of considerable experience in gnhl-iniuing in the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, which take a much less promising \iovt of the case : — Having read one or two of 3\T r Grove's moat elaborate-lookin&reports respecting his efforts to discover payable gold in the neighbourhood of Makara, and having an afternoon at my disposal, I started, in company with- -a couple of companions whom I was fortunate enough to entice into accompanying mc. With but a dim idea as to the exact route that led to this problematical Ophir, we managed to get as far as South Makara, we mot a son of Mr. Monhagan's, who it turned out, had but a few minutes before returned from the place. Ho informed uajthat he had, been, one of Grove's party • ain.ee it had ' been organised, and had shared the labour of prospecting the various gullies figuring so pompously in the reports !to the Superintendent; that they could get no more than a poor'colour whenever they had tried ; that so far i his , share . of, the proceeds had bpeti an infinitesimal one; and that aa Grove was about to transfer his efforts to a remoter part of the coast he had come to the conclusion to givo it up; which account by the way contrasts sotnewhat unfavourably with, Mr. Grove's Reports. The young man very kiqdly volunteered to guide us <"'to the foot of the spur,, and instructed us an to the rest of the sray but" expressed his 1 doubts of our faein** able to reach there that night, mft waa then about; dark ; which surmise eventually proved • correct. ' Wβ ascended the hill and followed~the track as well as the-fast waning light would permit; but, not having the powers of fhe Bed l&an.in that respect we had to confess ourselves beaten, and seek a camp/for the night. Wβ .accordingly tumbled down the first gully—for no other word ! so fyell describes the process—until we came to water, and there on a rugged projection of the hill we made ourselves comfortable ..for the night, still thinking that we were somewhere on the same creek as Mr; Grove's party In the mornigg we ran the ;creek down to the sea,,.when it proved that we had dropped Jnto::tbe Waireka locality, I believe, which gave the first indications '0f... gold in the Province. On-the whole 1 cannot say that 1 1 was favourably impressed with the auriferous appearance of tho country. Although in some respects bearing a sort.of. general resemblance to the bed rookjol Gabriel's Gully—a sort .of metemorphite shale—-yet, when examined.clp#e,ly,. itJipes riot; confirm the, first impression. It is leas siHcioiis, less impregnated with the minute veins of. q^ar^^ v j^d l !iappears to have been th& extremity of some plutonic action; for although indie&tiona; ofi tjxe are.;tp be observed in several places on this sida of harfaqur of jj^llingtpn ? \-hfff is none whatsoever, qn ihe Wairiuiomata side. The all avium, too, did not bear that .regularity of assimilation that generally characterises .aneiettt drifts, but" looked, what is coin tri only called in miner's parlance, "hungry" J fche detritus throughout the gully being.a confused jumble of the different rocks jof whicbi one the idea of recent <depoai£, -th«ee— and —other—reasons,lj[ -jual of opinion that any gold that may have Cape Terawiti is moite'vlikply , io)be many, ifatbojtns.i deep in Cook's Strait than anywhere else. And although . wishing...etery jujece.Bs_tp of Mr. Grove, I am not. co sanguine of the result, as by all reports he seems to be himself. ! < r u<7^