THE OREPUKI RUSH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 19, 22 July 1909, Page 3

THE OREPUKI RUSH.

AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. [BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Mr. B. E. Smith, who has been a guide to the Tourist Department for many years, gave an interesting interview to a reporter yesterday, on the subject of the gold rush at Orepuki, in Southland. He says that mineral-bear-ing sand can be found on any sand beach on the south-west coast of the South Island, and he has a sample of washing from black sand taken from Blifjh's Sound, in which tin and small rubies can be seen. The whole country down there is rich in minerals — gold, coal, and tin — said Mr. Smith. The National Park had gold everywhere, and coal, so that the working of it is simplified to a large extent. The Livingstone Mountains are full of ore, v/hich finds its way down the Eglinton River and into Lake Te Anau, which, however, is so deep that to attempt to dredge it would be a doubtful project. A considerable portion of the gold finds its way into the Waiau River, and ior Some years now gold has been found there, between Martin's Bay ancl Milford Sound. There is a long stretch of beach, and quantities of black sand, but of course the transport would not be easy. Round about Manapouri and. Te Anau ancl Lake M'Kerrow there i% plenty of gold, and the goldfields have an advantage over the Australian fields in that there is no shortage of food nor of water. If the boom in Orepuki was sustained, he added, a railway would probably be constructed from Nightcaps to Te Anau, via Manapouri, and this- was what the Tourist Department had been wanting for some time. The Livingstone Mountains were only fifty miles in a straight line from Orepuki, and the handling of the ore would be simplified by the extension of the railway, which would also open up a large tract of good agricultural and pastoral land.