THE MAKARA GOLD-FIELD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1299, 14 January 1868, Page 4

THE MAKARA GOLD-FIELD.

(From the Wellington Independent, January 7.) The following news relative to the Makara locality havo been furnished us by a gentleman of considerable experience in gold-mining in the Australian colonies and New Zealand :—Having read one or two of Mr. Grove's most elaborate-looking reports respecting his efforts to discover payable gold in the neighborhood of Makara, and having an afternoon at my disposal, I started in company with a couple of companions whom I was fortunate enough to entice into accompanying me. With but a dim idea as to the exact route that led to this problematical Ophir, we managed to get as far as South Makara, where we met a son of Mr. Monaijhan's, who, it turned out, had but a !ew moments before returned from tho place. He informed us that he had been one of Grove's party since it had been organised, and had shared the labor of prospecting tho various gullie3 figuring so pompously in the reports to tho Superintendent ; that they could get no more than a poor color wherever they had tried; that so far hi 3 sharo of the proceeds had been an infinitesimal one ; and that aB Grove was about to transfer his efforts to a remoter part of the coast, he had come to the conclusion to give it up; which account by the way contrasts somewhat unfavourably with Mr. Grove's reports. The young man very kindly voluntoered to guide us to the foot of the spur, and instructed us as to the rest of the way, but cxpres>ed hiß doubts of our being able to reach there that night, as it was then about dark, which surmise eventually proved ! correct. We ascended tho hill and followed tho track e.s well as the fast waning light would permit; "but not having the powers of the .Rod Man in that respect, we had to confers ourselves beaten, and seek a camp for the night. We aecordingly tumbled down the first gully—for no other word so well describes tho process-—until we came to water, and thero on a rugeed projection of tho hill we made ouraolves comfortable for the night, still thinking that we were somewhere on the same creek as Mr. Grove's party. In the morning we ran the creek down to the sea, when it proved that we had dropped into the Waireko—the locality, I believe, which gave the first indications of gold in tho province. On the whole, I cannot say that I was favourably impressed with tho auriferous appearance of the "country. Although in somo respects bearing a sort of general resemblance to the bed rock of Gabriel's Gully—a sort of metamorpbic shale—yet, when ex amined closely, it does not confirm the first imp.-es. sion. It is less eiliuious, less impregnated with the minute veinß of quartz, and appears to have been tho extremity of some plutonic action ; for although indications of the same rock are to be observed in several places on this side of the harbour of Wellington, there is none whatever on the Wainuiomata side. Tho alluviam, too, did not bear that regularity of assimilation that generally characterises ancient drifts, but looked what is commonty called in miners' parlance, " hungry," the detritus throughout the gully being a confused jumble of the different rocks of which the hills are composed, giving one the idea of recent deposit. From these and |othur reasons, I am of opinion that any gold that may have been disintegrated from the hills about Cape Terawiti is more likely to be many fathoms deep in Cook's Strait than anywhere else. And although wishing evory success to the efforts of Mr. Grove, I am not so sanguine of the results, as by a" reports he seems to he himself."