HIKUTAIA AND WHANGAMATA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIX, Issue 4847, 10 March 1873, Page 3

HIKUTAIA AND WHANGAMATA.

To tlio tXttor • Sir, — Jlavmg just returned fiom tho upper country, Hikutaia, &e., my attention has boon called to a communication in your issuo of tho 3rd instant, signed " Pioneer," in which tho writer states that every man in Hikutaia was in a state of high jubiloo about a Jind mado by John Pi nice, a Maori, and that 1 had soon tho stono, which was very rich. What I did stato was as follows, and I repeated tho atatonient to several people whom I met on tliq ro.id :— I s.iw sumo stone thickly impie^natud with £o]rt, which 1 was lnfoiuued camo from tho lease or grouul known as John J 'unco's, or tho "Hikutaia Virgin" If that stono camo from said placo tho cKum wasvciy lich. I remember bomq particularly caieful ms.iying, "Miud, I do not know that the stonccamo fromthatclaunovdistnct, but I was told that it did." " I'loncer'' states that I remarked that Captain Butt had paid L'.)3 for a license. I never said bo. What ' did say was th.it Captain Mutt was a shareholder in tiie new claim, and that the doposit monoy for the hcoused holding, wliidi ' behoved was £{)2, had been lodgod. Tina information L received from ono of the Bhaioholdcts in the now clainj, and from ono who told mo that ho #ot thu Jirat gold. Uia namo, if lequucd, L shuUhavono hesitation to give. — I am, Ac, .1. C'iUti w Pir/(.n:nov, Surveyor nnd Nativo Jntcrprotor.