FROM LONELY ISLE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 77, 24 December 1930, Page 10

FROM LONELY ISLE

Gold-seeker’s Return DISCOVERY OF LODE Dominion Special Service. Auckland, December 23. After an absence from New Zealand of 42'years, the last 20 of which he has spent on a lonely island off the coast of Papua, Mr. Robert Boyd, gold prospector and planter, arrived by the Maunganui to-day on a visit to relatives in Auckland. . , . * So remote is the island from civilisation on the mainland and the track of steamers that Mrs. Boyd, who has stayed behind to manage the property during her husband’s absence, did not see another white woman for three years. When Mr. Boyd went to tile island of Misima, sometimes called St. Aignan in 1903, the only white men who had visited it had been seekers for gold. With some diligence Mr.' Boyd set about prospecting, and eventually discovered a large and valuable lode, which has since produced gold in very payable quantities. “It was the biggest lode I ever saw. said Mr. Boyd, “and I have been goldmining for the greater part of my life. Although it contained chiefly low-grade ore, there was a great deal that was worked above the pay line, and the Broken Hill syndicate which purchased my leases spent nearly £400,000 on it before it was obliged to close down on account of the difficulty of getting timber into the country in 1927.” Mr. Boyd became interested in the Mount Sisa goldmines discovery, which caused a sensation among Sydney speculators. The find was made in the line of the lode discovered by him 20 years previously, and the ore taken out produced 35 ounces of gold to the ton.