NAPIER ATHENAEUM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1101, 16 November 1869, Page 3

NAPIER ATHENAEUM.

LBOTUEE ON GOLD. At the Napier Athenaeum, on Friday evening, Mr. Seaiy delivered his promised lecture on Gold. The lecture commenced with a brief outline of the geology of the subject, illustrated by diagrams. Then followed an historical sketch, commencing with the allusion to gold in the second chapter of Genesis. The lecturer then gave an account of his own experiences in gold-digging in Australia in 1852-3, and a descriptive summary of the processes of alluvial mining and quartz mining, quoting these partly from Westgarth's history of the colony of Victoria. . The political influence of gold wa . illustrated in the rapid development of California, Australia, and New Zealand, and the influence which a large population of diggers in the interior of this North Island would exert in the settlement of native difficulties. In reference to Kaimanawa, Mr. Scaly observed that the chain of gold had been traced from north to south of the Middle Island, and had been found again at Coromandel and the Thames in this Island; and, without being over-sanguine, he thought it probable the intermediate links would be picked up : at Kaimanawa. It seemed yet to be a disputed question whether auriferous quartz had really been found in the Kaimanawa ranges ; but assuming that one rich specimen had really been found there, he would venture to say there would be diggings yet worked, for he did not remember a single instance of auriferous quartz having been found in an isolated patch. The lecturer explained at some length the commercial effect of the great increase of gold during the last twenty years, expressing his belief that, although its value as fixed by law was nominally maintained, yet that it had really fallen in value in relation to other commodities. This part of the subject was illustrated by an. imaginary supposition of gold being found in unlimited quantities, say at Kaimanawa, which he believed would be (if not to New Zealand) at least to all the rest of the world a serious calamity, not only by-depriving mankind of a convenient standard of value, but as thoroughly disorganising commercial transactions, and enabling existing liabilities to be paid iv gold thus depreciated to a nominal value, to the ruin of both national aud individual creditors. The next subject touched upon was the mania for gambling in shares, lately so prevalent at the Thames and elsewhere, and an exposure of the practice of getting up companies with a large capital nominally paid up, but really represented by the assumed valued of some claim. Many of these companies .he believed to be designed rather to sell shares than to quany for gold. A short account of the uses of gold in the arts was followed by a few simple chemical illustrations of the means by which this metal can be detected in specimens and extracted. Mr. Scaly observed that the detection of gold "was a simple chemical operation, unattended with any difficulty, but that the analysis of small specimens, to determine the quantity and purity of the gold, required apparatus of considerable delicacy. This concluded the lecture, which was listened to attentively by those present ; but the attendance, either on this or former occasions, was not such as to encourage any repetition of these efforts to cater for the Athenaeum and the public.