THE KAIMANAWA.

Evening Post, Volume V, Issue 288, 17 January 1870, Page 2

THE KAIMANAWA.

Dr. Hector returned by the s.s. Wellington on Saturday, from Napier, after having, in company with Mr. Tiffen. examined the eastern Range, between the Kereru district and the southern entrance of the Ruataniwha Plains. The Hawke's Bay Herald says :— " The chief object of their visit was to ascertain whether the fragments of rock washed down by the Waipawa and other large streams that rise in the mountains, afford any indication as to whether or not their geological formation is different from that of the Ngaruro gorge. ]t was found that the drift in all the rivers, except the Makeretu, consists almost entirely of sandstones and slates. In the gravels of the Makeretn, however, there was a large admixture of well rolled pebbles of more highly metamorphosed rock. There is a probability that these pebbles are derived from an ancient drift deposit, that occupies the dividing terrace between the Makeretu and the Manawatu Rivers ; so that they may not come from the mountains at aIL" The doctor's report to Mr. Ormond is published in e.rteHtn, but there is nothing in it to justify the belief that a payable gold field is certain to be discovered at Kaimanawa. The doctor says :—: — •'* We first followed up the stream, a branch of the Waikato, where the rich specimens examined by me in October last were reported Ito have been found. Bracken was my guide,

but he assured me that he was noir aware of any gold, either alluvial or in quartz, having been found in this valley, and that he knew nothing of the specimens in question till he read about them in the Wanganui papers. ****** { * In concluding these brief notes of my trip, I beg to state that up to the present time, I believe gold has not been discovered in the district I have lately visited under ciccumstances which warrant very sanguine anticipations from the operations of the prospecting parties that have been sent out. " I would strongly recommend that the atteution of prospectors should be more directed i to ascer taming whether there is gold in* the wash drifted down by the streams than to a random search for reefs."