EARLY DAYS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 3 October 1936, Page 5

EARLY DAYS

WAIRAU DIGGINGS AND VALLEY No. 2 (By H. P. Washbourn) At length we arrived at the shanty —a small cob erection with the surrounding country in its natural state; but I generally tall on my feet, and 1 did this time. On talking to the proprieior we discovered that he was an cld Motueka boy, and he was delighted to meet some one who knew old Motueka. He gave me a small room away from the bar, and did everything he could to make one comfortable’. A BULLOCK DRAY The next morning the old chap and 1 crossed the river in a bullock dray, that being the only way, and then we parted company. There were several diggers living and working some distance up the creek, and the old chap went on up there while I went more slowly to take a look at the country. On the way before 1 got there I passed a new empty whare, and made up my mind to pass the night there. After I had inspected the supposed reef, I went lo the main camp; but as that goodnatured old fool had taken them no some bottles of square gin. 'hey were all dead drunk. The most sober one o’, them insisted on seeing me down to the whare, in case I lost myself, but as he ieii down three times before w< had gone a chain, 1 went by myself. 3 had no blankets or bedding, but I pul in the night alright. NO QUARTZ AND NO GOLD After a further investigation of the mine, I reported that it was neither a reef nor a leader, but only a segregation, and did not advise any further expenditure on it. At a later date a company put up a battery to work this supposed reel, but got one small segregation of a few ounces of gold, and then could never find either quartz or gold in any direction. During the war I was on this ground again with two friends, and found that the valley up there had greatly improved. Instead of the cob shanty there was a large two-storied hotel, and the surrounding country wtis in grass or cultivation, with huge plantations of trees. Towards the lower end of the top valley some company had put a dredge on to dredge for gold, and had worked out a iarge hole. When the bottom is of hard ur even rock with heavy gold in the hollow of it, the dredge can only take oh the gravel and leave the gold—no matter how rich the ground may be, --as it would be left at the bottom of a deep hole of water. If instead of a dredge they had brought in a good head of water —of which there was plenty in the stream —and put in an elevator, it would probably have been a good speculation, as they could have removed the gravel more cheaply, and have obtained the gold from the rockbottom.

SEGREGATIONS OF GOLD From Mahakipawa to the Howard there appears to be a line of rock country carrying segregations of gold, and where the streams have cut deeply and have washed away millions of tons of rock concentrating the gold Into the creek bed, they have had payable gold in them. From the depression of the country previously mentioned, only the tops or heads of the creeks have been worked, and all the main body, and gold is below and covered with material brought down since. It seems to me that while o he glacier was forming Spooner’s range and the Moutere hills on the western side, that there was another on the eastern side going eastwards, and forming what is now the southern side of the Wairau valley. At that period what is now the valley would then be a drowned one and covered by the sea.

LET THE PAST HELP THE FUTURE

It is by the errors that we have made or seen in the past, that we know what to avoid in the future, and that is my object in giving past instances. '

It must be remembered that these took place 50 year and over ago, that few of the present know anything about gold mining ancl therefore a warning may be useful. With the renewed interest in gold mining it is to be hoped that the public will take a sounder business view of gold mining speculation, and see that the ground is proved by being properly prospected, so that there is a reasonable prospect of it being a success before going to the expense of erecting machinery to work it, with its value or not, quite- unknown.