HISTORY OF GOLDFIELD. PRESERVATION INLET REEFS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20821, 13 March 1931, Page 11

HISTORY OF GOLDFIELD.

PRESERVATION INLET REEFS.

DEVELOPMENT BY AUCKLANDER

RICH RESULTS OBTAINED. The gold-bearing potentialities of the Preservation Inlet district have been much discussed in the press of late, on tho strength of tho observations of a party of geologists who were lately on tour in the vicinity. It is, however, much more to the purpose to have the direct testimony of the man who first began quartzmining in the inlet, and broke out tho first trial crushing of (he goldfield there— Mr. Adam Thomson, formerly of Thames, who has for many years lived at Woodford Road, Mount Eden. Mr. Thomson spent his boyhood at (lie Thames, served his apprenticeship to mining as a whinboy and trucker, qualified as a practical miner and eventually mine manager—of the Lorna Doonc mine, Kennedy's Bay—and finally quitted mining and practised in Auckland as a general contractor for 20 years, retiring from activity in 1920.

When the Thames Miners' Union was formed in 1890—more as a society for the insurance of the diggers against accident and sickness than as an industrial organisation m the modern sense—Mr. Thomson was its first secretary. This office he held until 1895, when he resigned it on receiving an appointment from a Christchurch syndicate to proceed to Preservation Inlet and examine quartz-mining possibilities there. The inlet is the southernmost of tho West Coast sounds, with Puysegur Point, the extreme south western cape of Otago, as the south head of its entrance. Fishing Settlement of Crofters. About 40 years ago the then Govern merit of Netv Zealand formed a project to establish a fishing industry at the Sounds, partly as a means of relieving some of the crofters of Scotland—small tenants of Highlands landlords whose distresses were at that period parallel to those of the inhabitants of Ireland, and were the subject of remedial legislation in the House of Commons at the hands of Mr. Gladstone in the "eighties " For this purpose a party of Highlanders was assisted out to Otago by New Zealand funds. At the inlet the Government laid out the town of Cromarty, naming it after the Scottish shire from which the refugees had come. The fishermen were assisted with grants of land and with subsidies for tho provision of gear. Owing, however, to the remoteness of Cromarty from the largo centres and th» difficulties of transporting the catch to a market, the fishing industry failed to flourish. When Mr. Thomson and his prospecting party arrived at the inlet, Cromarty consisted of a hotel, a store and a boarding house—practically all the Scottish immigrants had drifted elsewhere. Meanwhile it had become known that alluvial gold existed on the beaches and islets of the sounds, and there bad been several of what Mr. Thomson describes as "steamboat rushes" to the fnlet, and to the promontory which separates it. from Dusky Bay. Alluvial, however, was the only form of the precious metal that seems to have been thought of until the Christchurch syndicate conceived the idea of prospecting for the parent lodes, and it was with this object that Mr. Thomson and two mates were sent down.

On arrival they found at Wilson's River, some five miles inland from the inlet, another mining party, working what was known as the Golden Site claim, and headed by Mr. John Wilcox, who had been well known at Thames as manager °f the New North Devon mine, Alburriia Hill. First the "Thomson party exa'mined a proposition on Crayfish Island, which, liowoyer, was soon "duffered." Then they applied themselves to a claim on tjfe mainland, taken up bv the same Canterbury proprietary, called the Morning Star, in which an outcrop of quartz had been unearthed on the summit of a spur. Ore Worth £2B a Ton. The scheme devised by Mr. Thomson for testing the properly was the driving of a tunnel about 60ft. below the outcrop for the intersection of the reef. In this work marked success was met with. The country rock of the district is of uniform slate formation, quite easily worked. Within a few weeks the reef was struck. It proved <o be about 3ft. in width, comprising riibbly quartz with well-defined walls arid gold was well disseminated through.it. The hangingwall portion consisted of a solid rib about 6in. thick and it was here that the richest gold was found. Unlike Thames gold, however, it was not dotted through the stone or running in threads, but at its best was of the appearance and thickness of a broad bean and entirely free from base metals. Under Mr. Thomson's management, enough driving was done upon (he reef to break out a ton of ore, which was taken to Dunedin and treated in a Moody crusher owned by Messrs. A. and T. Burt. It yielded 6oz. 17dwt. of gold, worth £4 4s per ounce. Satisfied as to the value of its find, the company that had by this time been formed decided that no further work should bo done upon the reef until a battery had been provided on the spot. Accordingly, a ten-head battery was purchased and Mr. (5. P. Hilton, who had been manager of the big Moanatairi battery at Thames, carried out its erection.

The company wished Mr. Thomson and his party to drive another level lower down the hillside for the further proving of the lode. Two members of the party, however, were unable to stay in, the district and left /or their homes. Mr. Thomson himself, after 12 months, returned to Auckland and entered upon his career as a contractor. The success of the Morning Star as a matter of course led to the opening of other mines in {lie district, but Mr. Thomson can fairly claim to have heen the "prospector" of tho Inlet in quartz mining, as the term is understood among "miners. Further History of District.

The records of Uio Mines Department show that in the year ended March 31, 1898, tho Morning Star mine was working tho reef at four levels—three adits and another level opened up from a winze sunk from tho lowest adit. In the year it fhished 3654 tons of ore for a return of 53840z. of gold and paid to its shareholders £8421 in dividends. There were at this time five other mines in operation in the district., but the Morning Star was the only gold-producer. The reports of the immediately succeeding years show that by 1900 all the payable ore in sight at the Morning Star had been worked out and both the pioneer mine and (lie district in general faded out of mining history early in the present century. Tho optimistic opinion expressed by the scientists as to the wealth yet undeveloped in the Sounds district is fully endorsed by Mr. Thomson. Professor Keble, of Melbourne, for instance, has said that "in no part of Now Zealand is there such promise of rich results as in the vicinity of Preservation Inlet." The country, however, presents formidable difficulties to the prospector. The surface of tho hills is heavily ' overlaid with decayed vegetable matter, the accumulation of ages, sometimes to the depth of 10ft. and 12ft., so that it is difficult to form the trenches tliat are usually cut across tho known general strike of reefs to discover the whereabouts of (heir outcrops. Mr. Thomson is aware of the extension of the slates of the Inlet along tho coast to tho north of it and away on beyond Dusky Bay and considers that if capital were applied to tho exploitation of the region the eventual results would be greatly U> tho advantage of the Dominion.