GOLD DISCOVERY IN COROMANDEL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25091, 24 January 1947, Page 6

GOLD DISCOVERY IN COROMANDEL

Location Still Kept Secret REEF SAID TO BE FOUR FEET WIDE The Mifles Department*has no information about the gold strike reported to have been made in the Whitianga district, Coromandel, but when the exact location is known an officer will make an inspection. In the meantime the suspected reef’s location is the secret of Mr James McLean, the Maori bulldozer driver who found it One theory in the Whitianga district is that the reef Is on the Whauwha property, a few miles from the coast at Mercury Bay, where Mr McLean has been working. Another is that the find was made near the old Kapai Vermont claim at Kuaopunua, eight miles from the Whitianga township. The second theory is discounted by a man who lives on part of the old Kapai Vermont claim: but he admitted that the specimen appeared a little too rich to have come from other reputed sources. One of the stories circulating in Whitianga is that the reef is at least four feet wide, and that the quartz is so rich that it recalls the gold rushes of last century. The first account of the discovery was that Mr McLean uncovered the reef with his bulldozer. Now there is an inclination in Whitianga to believe that he found his specimen while prospecting in a bush creek, and then found the reef itself a little further upstream. Although Mr McLean has kept the location of the reef secret, he showed his specimen to a few of Whitlanga’s 350 residents. The news spread quicK?”SLi n a short time th e Whitianga Post Office was bare of forms for miners rights, which was why Mr McLean had to travel as far as Thames to take out his own miner's right. He is believed to have made the discovers! a week ago. He is a former heavyweight boJDnB ehampion of Hawke’s

Mr McLean has declined to give any information to the newspapers, and t'akerf efUSed have his Photograph New Zealand, gold-seekine rights may be obtained StaM.’lZl land . in . u w hich the mineral r ®hts belong to the Crown, whoever may be the owner. This is generally the case m minlne districts, but there are a few old freehold titles which Se 6 1»n!? ri ?hts to the owner of ... , A m iner’s right entitles a man to stake out a small claim, one ?Sf S ? ar 5 s ot , the suspected reef, on any land, unless it is one of art beta K ase .l where th e mineral rights d to h»vt oW ? er ’ K a Prospects wisnes to have n larger area he maV nJSjLJ? .‘‘V,® Warden’s Court for a hcence. which would entitle him to work over 100 acres for a 2„S f i tw ° y ? ars ' U a still larger ~Sm a, IS„ I S’t. er is desired anpli£t"K te de cl&? e WaTden ' S