FAMOUS GOLDMINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20098, 8 November 1928, Page 17

FAMOUS GOLDMINE.

HISTORY OF MOANATAIARI.

FORTUNES IN EARLY DAYS. GREAT YIELDS RECALLED. fnY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] THAMES. Wednesday. The Moanataiari goldmine, which was

closed last Wednesday pending a special meeting of shareholders to discuss the financial position of the company, was one of tho most famous gold-producers ill tho early days of tho Thames goldfields. In tho earliest table of gold returns, compded by Mr. James Maekav, the first, warden of the field, the Moanataiari is mentioned as the fourth largest gold producer, with a contribution of 67900z. The richest find in the mine's long his fory was in 1877, when the manager, Mr. R. Coiner, sank a shaft 80ft. lielow the floor level of No. 0 reef, prior to crosscutting for ventilation purposes, and finally intersecting the reef near the seaward dip of the great slide. For some time tho weekly returns from the battery, which still stands on the foreshore, ranged between 5000oz. and 6000oz. In one hectic week there was a yield of 10,9280z. In twelve months the company disbursed £53,9-10 in dividends, besides paying off a bank delit of several thousand pounds incurred in the erection of the battery, and adding a large sum to its reserve account. Gold Taken to Bank in Cab. Those were the days when Grahamstown used to see the Moanataiari Company's accumulation of retorted gold driven through the streets to the Bank of New Zealand in a cab driven by the veteran "Jack" Council. Mr. Frank Trembath, an ex-mayor of Thames, and now a resident of Epsom, who was working in tho mine at the time, recalls tho extraordinary richness of the specimens taken from No. 9 reef. Ho remembers ono block, about the size of a man's bead, which was taken from | the clay where tho reef butted into the I slide. This block was sent to London for exhibition, and eventually yielded just over 7500z. of gold, worth about £3OOO j Of this great patch the Handbook of New Zealand Mines records that "in a fortnight specimens were obtained weighing less than 2\ tons which yielded 14,6000z. of gold The Official Records. The olii :ml record of tho yield of the Moanataiari mine between IS6B and 1883 is given as 141,5690z., valued at £389.193. In this period til? shareholders received £121.635 in dividends. Since ISBB tho mine, with extensions of area, has been in the ownership of the New Moanataiari Company (1888-96), which obtained 38,2380z., valued ;it £103,243; the Moanataiari, Ltd. (Anglo-Continental), from 1896 to 1899, which obtained 61680z., worth £16,356; and another New Moanataiari Company, formed at tho end of 1899, which, up tho time when Mr. Colin Eraser's tables of returns closed, had obtained 83490z., valued at £28,474. Later records show that on March 16, 1920, tho Caledonia, Kuranui, Moanataiari Consolidated C.oldniining Company was registered with a subscribed capital of £35,000, of which £25,416 was paid up. Scrip valued at £2500 was presented to shin eholdcis in consideration of special services, the total shares allotted amounting to 150.000. For the period ending Pecembo. 31, 1927, and since the new registration, the mine has yielded 2050z. of gold, worth £643. It is also interesting to note from the annual report of (lie .Mines Department, submitted to Parliament this year, that, a sum of £28.916 had been expended in the development of the mine between March, 1920, ami December, 1927.