COLLINGWOOD GOLDFIELDS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20562, 2 June 1932, Page 15

COLLINGWOOD GOLDFIELDS.

TO THE EDITOK O* THE PIIBSS Sir. —Tn to-day's Press amongst tho mining notes I read a report from the "Nelson Mail" on gold mining in Collingwood. I The report is rather misleading. There was a large hydraulic mining plant working there from early in the 'nineties up to and later than 1905, belonging to the Parapara Mining Conipany. Also in 1901 and 1903 four large gold dredges were built there and. another dredge was building. I was appointed by the Wellington Syndicate to take over the supervision of the building of« these dredges and test the different claims. One of these dredges was in the Parapara river, close to the sea. Another was on the Aorere river about one-quarter of a mile below the bridge close to the Pcvil's Boots. Another was on the Kaituna river over near the hills. The fourth one was building a short distance above the Devil's Boots, and still another dredge was working up at Bainham. This belonged to a Wanganui company, of which the then member for Wanganui, Mr Willis, was chairman. Because there was such a scarcity of gold, with the exception of the dredge above the Devil's Boots I shut them down (and these dredges at that time were among the most powerful in the Dominion), j also advised Mr Willis to- shut down their dredge, and they took my advice. The following may help gold seekers. I shut down the Parapara dredge because there was only from 2oz to 4 or soz per week, and I kept at prospecting most of the time. It was working on a papa bottom, and no gold wilKevcr be found on a papa bottom. 1 snui;

down the big Aorcre dredge after several weeks' trial, because it was also on a papa bottom. I shut down the Kaituna dredge because 4oz to soz per week could never pay and it was spoiling 100 acres of good farm land, worth at that time £lO per acre. The Bainham dredge worked several months. This was one of the largest dredges in the Dominion at 'that time, but the average return was Goz or 6oz per week, so I was told. The Aorerc river bottom from the sea up to just below the Devil's Boots is papa bottom. Then comes the limestone, and above the limestone to a distance above where tlio Slatcy riven joins the Aorcre is a slate bottom, and it was on the slate bottom that the gold was. Ground sluicing was going on between the limestone and above the Slatey river for a great number of years, and this belt of slate run back to what the professors of old times, like Ulrich, Sir James Hector, etc., called the grefit slide. This is an enormous split or division through the rocks for 20 miles or so, and it was presumed that the river had run into it and filled the division up. It was in tins split or river-bed that most of tho gold was found and the Parapara Hydraulic Sluicing Company got their gold. It is part of this same slide that is mentioned in the report as an old creekbed. However, tho most of the gold has come from the slate and schist parts. Dr. Black taught me a good deal about this slide some years before I went to Collingwood. With (reference to water Collingwood has a rainfall < of 108 inches, and the Parapara Company had the socond largest pipes in the Dominion. I may mention that several companies had been formed there before my time. I happened to board with %i one-time company promoter, but he had had had luck and was glad to cut firewood for the dredges. Mr Adams had been there from the earliest days and so knew all that was known about that part of the province.- Another thing I may mention is that it was a difficult place to get to and equally difficult to get out of, and I should.not advise people to go there.—Yours, etc., GEORGE LEE. Templeton, June Ist, 1932.