MORE ABOUT WAITOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8072, 13 October 1887, Page 5

MORE ABOUT WAITOA.

FACTS AND STATEMENTS.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. SMITH.

PLAIN QUESTIONS AND STRAIGHT

ANSWERS.

WAS THE STOFE "SALTED?",

WHAT MR. SMITH SAYS.

THE VIEWS OF PROFESSOR THOMAS.

Mr. J. B. Smith paid a visit yesterday to the office of Mr. Withefoid (Mr. Witheford being Secretary to the Waitoa Prospecting Association), and mentioned the terms upon which ho had disposed of p*rt of his land as being: £2000 cash, £12,000 on time payments, with 7000 paid-up shares. Of these shares he wished to state he had only sold 100. Mr. Smith statod that he intended leaving for Melbourne via Sydney on Tuesday, and would arrange for a ton of stuff being tried by the Newbery-Vautin plant, believing it possible that there may bo a process outside this colony which would save a much larger percentage of gold.

IS TUB DSP -SIT PAYABLE ?

Mr. Smith having spent some six months testing the deposit, claims to know something about the probabilities of it proving payable, and thinks that thero are large areas which will produce at least £1 per ton. He said that there was a noticeable improvement in the richness of the eastern strike of tho auriferous zone, compared with the deposits in the westerly direction, which seemed lighter going towards Mr. Larkworthy's property. MR. SMITH'S MOANATAIAM SLIDE.

This was, he said, proved by the fact of some twenty teats having been made on the west side, nineteen of which, from stuff outside of Mr. Smith's fence, yielded notliiug, the only ono giving any result having been taken from a spot, just inside Smith's boundary. This phenomenon is humorously regarded as coincident with tho celebrated Moanatairi slide on tho Thames golutield. We do not attempt to give an opinion on this snbjeot, but it would be very surprising if Mr. Smith's fence proved, like the Moanataiari slide, the line of demarcation between the payablo and unpayable ground, and out; off the golden deposit just on the threshold of his neighbour's estate.

MURE PROSPECTING.

Mr. Smith, howevor, believes Mr, Chadleigh's land, to tho east of his (Smith's) late property, to be most highly with gold. Sample parcels from this land are now being broken out by Mr. Percy Cox and Mr. Durward, of Christchurch. Messrs. Harper and Co. are agents for Mr. Chudleigh, and it is on their behalf that Mr. Cox is acting, they having resolved that the ground shall be thoroughly prospected. The two gentlemen above-named were engaged on Monday with men taking out stuff for treatment, and when Mr. Chudleigh w&3 at Waitoa some weeks ago he took sand from six holes, and found gold in all of them.

WAS THE STUFF SALTED?

Regarding the comparatively rich returns obtained by consecutive trials of sand from Mr. Smith's land, the following conversation took place :— " Have you any idea, Mr. Smith, that the gold may have been put in the sand before being tested ?" "£s'o, the trucks were loaded straight from tho ground. It there was any ' salting' of the deposit it has been done at the other end—not at Waitot."

" Had Professor flutfcon any shares given him

" Yes, five hundred; but he bought others.

"Do you think it was possible for anyone about your place to have put gold m the stuff to make the samples go richer?" "1 Lave no reason so bo suspicious of anyone. The last two tons, taken out during my absence by Willis, went about 30s and £2 per ton respectively." " You do not think the stuff was salted, then?' 1

"No, and if the Canterbury people were to say ' You can have the land back again,' I would start work at once, put a plant on the ground, and take out gold."

A SECOND COM "■ BEISO FORM

Mr. Smith continued: "Samples are now being taken out of the remaining thousand acres of my land, which is now under offer at £11 per acre, with time to test it. If the trial is satisfactory, the land will be purchased at that figure. 1 vtirod down to some friends in Christchurch to put in their applications for shares in the second company, and am sure that they will be worth £1 at once." "You do not think that there has been any tampering with the stuff to make it yield better ?'

"If there has been, it was at this end. None of my neighbours are so deeply interested in the concern as to do anything. Mr. George Wilson, Inspeccor of Mines as Te Aroha, was quite satisfied, the samples he took being frtjtn the boulders. One test went at the rate of £18 to the ton, another £6 14s, and one taken from the bags ready to go to Fraser'a went £1 14s. If anyone thinks the stuff salted, ho should try it for himself. I do not think it possible for anyone to have done it."

PROFESSOR THOMAS' VIEWS.

Professor Thomas, during a snort interview yesterday with Mr. Witheford, showed under the microscope samples of Te Aroha gold, which did not approach in value to trio standard quality of that obtained on Mr. arnith'd ground. Professor Thomas, speaking only from the descriptions given of the deposit, thought that ao far as present evidence goes, the deposit of gold ou the Waitoa Plains naturally had reference to the auriferous ruofs known to exist on, the ranges close at hand.

GOLD IN VOLCANIC SANDS, " It is going out of our way," he said, " to seek an origin for the gold in volcanic Bauds brought down by the old Waikato river from the Taupo district, and if the former be the correct theory we should expect that the gold found in these deposits would be of the same assay value, and would contain the same proportion of gold and silver as the reefs from which we suppose it to bo derived. Outiide Mr. Smith's property such has been the case, but Mr. Smith is apparently luckier than his neighbours."

A CASE IN* POINT. There must of necessity be gold oh the flat by the wearing down of the auriferous ranges, probably by tho action of water. That incalculably fine gold may be in the Waitoa deposit without being easily detected was proved by the experiments made on New Find quartz, which on being reduced to sand showed not only free gol d but minute specks still encased in tiny grains of quartz. On pounding the sand to powder, the parHclea of which were not perceptible to the eye, the powerful microscope brought to viow fine specks still imbedded in quartz, which would by our ordinary battery process pass away untouched by mercury and undiscovorsbis iu a dish. The wearing away of roefs may in thm way account for the distribution of comparatively invisible gold through so large an araa as the Thames Valley, if the theory is correct that there has been a gradual disintegration of the auriferous reefs on the Te Aroha ranges. The minuteness of tho specks or gold referred to is shown by the fact that it takes ten millions of such grains to be worth a penny.

TUB PREVAILING WIND THEORY. "This may accouat for the failure in almost every case to find gold by panning off. The exceptions have been of a peculiar nature, inasmuch as the stuff from whicii free gold was washed out came only from Mr. Smith's ground, numerous samples of which were tried from the parcel brought down by Mr. K«lly, and they invariably produced rich colours of gold, of a character which has made exports regard with surprise the inferior looking bullion which comes from surrounding property. A facetious proposition was made by a digger,-that there must have been a volcanic eruption, and at the time the richer gold came up out of the bowels of the earth the prevailing wind blew all the richest speck] to the place whero Mr. Smith's paddocks and shafts now exist."

Tk Aroha, Wednesday. GOVERNMENT ASSAYER.

At a public meeting last night a discussion took place regarding the need created by the Waitoa gold discoveries for a competent assayer in the district, and it was resolved to request the Government to send Mr. Montgomery or some other qualified person to occupy the position for a time.

Paeroa, Wednesday.

A THAMES INSPECTION PARTY.

Mr. Murray, of the Bank of New Zealand, Mr. Dunlop, of the Golden Crown mine, and Mr. Montgomery, of the Thames School

of Mines, passed through Paeroa from the Waitoa goldfield to-day. Mr. Montgomery informed me that he went over Messrs. Larkworthy and Smith's estates, and took a number of samples of tho presumed washdirt for aualysis. He was unable to obtain a colour by the dish test. He declined to offer any decided opinion as to the field.

SITE FOR THE MACHINERY. Messrs. Price and Watson passod through to tho field to-day to examine the proposed site for the machinery to bo erected. Thames, Wednesday. "PUCKS OF GOLD. Mr. Hogg informs me that on Thursday last ho carried away samples of the stuff excavated from the first hole sunk on Smith's farm at Waitoa. From 4ozs there were about a dozen specks of coarse gold, and Boz gave a good prospect. Other excellent prospects were washed, and both Messrs. Hogg and Rhodes tested the gold, so that there might bo no mistake about the metal. UNSUCCKSSVUL. Po.r contra, other persons of great experience have jnst returned from the district, having tried numerous prospects on Smith's and Lirkworthy's properties, but did not succeed in raising the colonr.

THE WAITOA machinery'.

Messrs. A. and G. Price have secured the contract for the Waitoa machinery, thß price being somewhat ovor £4000. Wellington, Wednesday. '■"£

APPLICATION TO THE GOVERNMENT.

An application has been made to the Hon. Mr. Mitchelson, Minister of Public Works, to grant railway concessions for five tons of stuff to ba sent to Auckland for testing, which has widened into 20 tons. The request will probably bo acccded to, but Mr. Mitchelson doos not intend to let this sort of thing degenerate into a practice.