AUCKLAND'S HOPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8065, 5 October 1887, Page 5

AUCKLAND'S HOPE.

THE AI TO A GOLD DEPOSITS.

EXPERTS AT WORK.

MR. SMITH INTERVIEWED-

THE CHRISTCHURCH COMPANY.

THE QUESTION OF LAND TENURE,

VIEWS OF MINISTERS.

EXTENT OF THE DEPOSIT.

[by telegraph.—own correspondent.]

Te Aroha,' Tuesday. TOUR OF INSPECTION.

Mr. John Brown, a great mining authority, Mr. Pond, Provincial Analyst, and Messrs. Whilaker and J. H. Witheford arrived by train to-day, on a tour of inspection of the district. WHAT MR. SMITH SAYS. Mr. Smith arrived yesterday from Christchurch, and with a view to elicit information regarding land tenure and the probable operations of the Christchurch company, I took horse and visited him, receiving the following interesting particulars : — It is six months since he first discovered gold. Ho went direct to Christchurch, told his friends, asking their advice as to how to proceed, and also to see how ho stood with regard to the ownership of minerals on laud. He took a report from Mr. George Wilson Adams and others, and, after explaining the extraordinary nature of the discovery, his friends simply gazed on him with surprise, and would not accept the description as correct unless Professor Hutton certified to the correctness of the assays. Professor Hutton came, and examined the geological formation of the country, particu - larly of Smith's laud, took samples from three different shafts, getting them assayed at Firth and Clark's battery, the result boiug £15 per ton, thirty-four shillings, and nothing respectively. At the same time ho took out three average samples for Dr. Hector, whose assays gave £40, £16, and £12.

8 TILL SCEPTICAL.

The Canterbury people were. still too sceptical of these surprisingly confirmatory reports, and the next difficulty raised was, could machinery save the gold ? So Messrs. Hall, Maude, and Barnes came up to make a test, and the result was that over 4oza of rich quality of gold was obtained from 5 tons of dirt taken from five different shafts.

SATISFIED. All being now satisfied with the results, the goldfioid was pronounced right, and a general demand set in for shares in the company. All this was done quietly ;no circular was distributed, and the enterprise was simply supported on its merits. A company was successfully floated in Ghristohuroh and immediately the shares were allotted, for there were buyers at £1, and within three days buyers at over £2, the mine consequently standing at over £70,000 in the Christchuroh market, and Mr. Smith's opinion is that there is any amount of capital now available in Christchurch to develop the auriferous deposit if owners will allow their land to be prospected and the results prove as satisfactory as his trials were. PREPARING TO BEGIN' OPERATIONS. Messrs George Fraser and Sons will have the first offer to put up a plant like their own experimental plant, which has just rendered such signal service iu extracting almost invisible gold out of Waitoa sand. The cost of the new plant will be £6,000, to treat not less than 400 tons per week, everything to be complete in four months. If the stuff pays to treat with this plant, more will be erected at once by the company. A township is now being surveyed, and workmen's cottages will probably be in course of erection on the new goldtield simultaneously with the building of the reduction works. : THE TENURE QUESTION. Respecting the freehold of the properties Mr. Smith was pleased to give me the results of important interviews with the Minister of Mines and the Colonial Treasurer on the subject, as affording a guide to others interested. On the difficulty of the title becoming raised Mr. Smith's solicitors and the company's agent interviewed Mr. Larnach, previous to the articles of association being signed, explaining to the Minister of Mines the fact of a company having been formed with a capital of £35,000 for the purpose of erecting expensive machinery, and extracting gold from the hitherto neglected auriferous sand on the Waitoa Plains. Mr. Larnach asked to have particulars submitted in writing. Subsequently, in giving his decision, he said it was never the intention of the Government to deal arbitrarily, to the letter of the law, excepting in a case where greedy people endeavoured to hold land for purely speculative purposes, neither working the ground nor erecting machinery, but deliberately preventing others from doing so. Mr. Larnach accordingly gave a written acknowledgment of the legal rights of the company to. the land. SIR JULIUS VOGEL SURPRISED. Sir Julius Vogel expressed surprise at the Government having a power to dispossess people of laud iu so arbitrary a manner as Indicated, aud said such was never intended, Ho quite concurred in Mr. .Larnach securing to those who held the ground the right of ownership, as they were assisting the great work of developing the resources of the country. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE LAND. Grave doubts were for some time felt in Christohurch lest the Government should step in, and as the company only had Mr. Smith's right the Government might limit the area to only 100 acres, and burst up the company. This uneasiness led the agent of the company to interview Mr. Larnach iu Dnuedin. Sir J. Vogel was also seen at Warner's Hotel, Christchurch, and characterised the proposal to interfere with the operations of such a company as scandalous. OFFER OF LAND. Mr. Charles Gould, ono of Waitoa's largest land proprietors, adjoining Mr. Smith's goldfield, hearing that Mr. Witheford, of Auckland, had received a cablegram asking the price of Waitoa laud and terms, placed in Mr. Witheford's hands sections of 100 to 500 acres at £10 an acre, with the privilege to prospect previous to purchasing, thus showing a commendable spirit of liberality not hitherto evinced by landowners. ALL ALONG TUB LINE. Hamilton, Tuesday. There is a block of 2000 acres between the Waihou and Te Aroha, on which the soil iB exactly similar in appearance to Mr. J. B. Smith's. Messrs. Dibby and Collins have taken up fifty auras of this land a3 a prospecting claim. PROPERTY OWNERS WAKING UP. Morrinsville, Tuesday. Mr. Gould is having extensive experiments rfiade with washing stuff taken from some half dozen shafts sunk upon his property. Tho stuff ie being taken out under the superintendence of a gentleman representing an Auckland syndicato, and the purchase of a considerable area for working will depend upon the result. In two other cases property owners in the district are reported to be making arrangements with syndicates of capitalists. Every day proves tho extent of the auriferous field. Mr. F. D. Rich, of Patetere, claims to have a run of the soil of the same appearance as the Waitoa field on Smith's property, and to have obtained gold from it. This is fully thirty-five miles distant, and there is no doubt that more or less through the whole Thames Valley this description of country (a3 gold miners would term it) will be found. That it can be worked as a poor man's goldfield in small claims is however not considered likely. A costly and systematic plan of getting rid of the immense quantity of tailings will have to be resorted to, and small claims could never contend with the water in winter or supply themselves with the necessary water which is not obtainable in summer, The same auriferous deposit wili, it is expected, bo found within two miles of the town of Hamilton, and running across tho Tamahere estate in a belt towards Alexandra.

GOLD AND DIAMONDS,

_ ? Rotorua, Tuesday. Tho Waitoa gold find is extending in this direction, and both the Oxford and Lichfield country is now found to possess similar extensive deposits of the auriferous drift within a few feet of the surface. The country in this immediate vicinity is likely to be pros

pected this summer far similar deposits. There are also- good indications of diamonds in this neighbourhood, and experienced miners assert that the country in many directions shows exactly the formation and surroundings of the richest of the African diamond fields, PROSPECTING THE ORDER OF THE DAY. Cambridge, Tuesday. Specimens of quartz are being brought into Cambridge from nearly all the surrounding ranges, some Btono from Manngakatoa being very likely looking. Prospecting is now the order of the day, and I quite anticipate something good turning up at an early date —lit any rate the country will be thoroughly searched. Some of the old Australian diggers who have settled down here have caught the fever again, and have shouldered the pick and shovel, and are fossicking around.