DISCOVERY OF QUARTZ REEFS IN CANTERBURY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2604, 10 May 1869, Page 1 (Supplement)

DISCOVERY OF QUARTZ REEFS IN CANTERBURY.

The following account of the discovery of extensive gold-bearing quartz-reefs at the Opuha Gorge has been furnished by a correspondent :

Two men started from the Orari Gorge station about six weeks since, and were away about five weeks seeking for gold up the Opuha Gorge, behind Fox’s Peak, and they were driven back by the snow, or they would have remained throughout the winter. They say they have seen enough to encourage them to return there again in September next, when the snow will have melted ; until then it will be very unwise for people to go prospecting. One of the men is an old Victorian gold-digger; he was there in 1852 ; the other man has worked on the Orari station for the last four years; both are trustworthy men. The country behind Fox’s Peak, at the back of a run occupied by Messrs Rayne Brothers, is said to be composed entirely of slate, with very large veins of quartz from three feet thick and upwards. They say they found gold almost everywhere they tried. At the mouth of the Opuha Gorge it was very fine, but it became coarser and coarser as they went up the stream. The largest sized nugget found was about three grains, but the colour was to be seen almost everywhere. There is wood in abundance up the stream. The prospect for quartzreefing is said to be far better than on any diggings yet discovered in Otago, and almost equal to any seen in Victoria. The “ Victorian ” says the quartz-reefs in Auckland are not to be compared to these reefs for size. The quartz reefs were not tried as the men had no tools with them for the purpose, but he says wherever there are these quartz-reefs there is sure to be a good goldfield. Fox’s reef, in Otago, is not to be compared for size, to these reefs, and that is said to be the best reef in Otago. Gold-diggers will be glad to hear that pigs and ducks are plentiful about the gorge of the Opuha. People wishing to prospect will find a good dray road from Timaru to Burke’s Pass, and from thence they can pack their goods, and as the country is all occupied by sheep farmers they will find mutton to be easily procured at a cheap rate on the spot, but no one should think of going until September next, as by this time, the men state, there are from three to four feet of snow on the ground. They also say that, if they had gone earlier, they should have built themselves a hut and remained the winter, as the prospects were so good; without a good hut it must be a summer diggings. The Victorian says his idea of the field is, that it will support a population of’at least four or five thousand people. The men borrowed a mule from the station, which they describe as the only animal that could climb and live where they went, as the herbage high up is very scanty—nothing but mountain fir and snowgrass. The names of the two men are Thomas Thurgood and Robert Thew.