OUR RESOURCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1777, 12 December 1885, Page 11

OUR RESOURCES.

THE NEW OPHIR. (Specially Written for the Otago Witness.) FOURTH ARTICLE. " If such a promising place were in Victoria it would be rushed directly." Thus Professor Ulrich, in his Report to the Minister of Mines, on the Ida Valley "deep lead." (To avoid misapprehension, I use the current phrase, with the understanding always that I mean deep ground.) The Professor is right ; and, coming nearer home, if it were on the West Coast, it would be a scene of busy mining industry today. Ofcago has fallen back in the race, from causes already specified, and is now far behind any other New Zealand goldfield. In alluvial mining Westland is far away and ahead of us ; and in quartz mining and machinery Auckland is half-a-century in advance ; whilst the people^ of both districts display an amount of energy, enterprise, and skill which put Otago completely in the shade. The ground in Ida Valley has been proved, and is known to contain large quantities of richly auriferous washdirt. There is no speculation whatever about it. The gold is as surely at the bottom as the grass is on the surface. Yet there it has lain untouched and undisturbed for years, for want of a little more individual vigour and healthy assistance. The last straw that broke the camel's back was the refusal of the Government to pay over a paltry subsidy of £200 or £250, for the want of which the shaft went untimbered and fell in. This was about three years ago; and nothing has since been done. Let us hope that a revival is at hand. Better unearth the millions lying under our feet than borrow millions from the Stock Exchange. ■ Ida Valley is not the only place where known rich ground exists at considerable depths. 1 At Cardrona there is an excellent illustration of this. There the gold was traced from shallow creek-beds, at the fool of the Crown Range, Eor some miles down the valley, and operations only ceased when the increasing depth of the ground rendered the assistance of capital necessary for their further prosecntion. The Cardrona " deep lead " remains unworked ; but the few " fossickers " left on the ground — mostly Chinamen — have good and golden reasons for knowing that there are many miles of undeveloped auriferous ground awaiting development. To talk of "prospecting" for gold under such circumstances is to misuse the Queen's English.

I may cite as a third instance the ground in Miller's Flat, along the foot of the range, between Arthur's Point and Arrowtown, which undoubtedly was once the bed of the Shotover River. At the two points named, heavier deposits of gold were found, 1 think, than in any other parts of the two rivers, and the ten or twelve miles between them are probably every bit as rich. I have heard this same' opinion expressed by many experienced and practical miners. Very little gold was- ever found below Arthur's Point Gorge hi the present channel of the Shotover. And there is also scientific evidence to the same effect extant. In Professor Ulrich's Report on the Goldfields of Otago (p. 181), he speaks of " the extensive, socalled Miller's Fat, which to all appearances represents an old channel of the Shotover River, and should, as such, be very rich, judging from the splendid yields obtained from the river- workings higher up." Yet this promising ground has never yet, so far as I know, been prospected.

Now, without going farther at present, here are three extensive "leads" lying dormant, which, if properly opened up, would furnish profitable work for hundreds of miners for many years to come. And when I say " hundreds," I believe I might add another cypher to the calculation without overstating the fact. But I am positively afraid to place on record the actual capacities of our undeveloped mines, lest I should be suspected of exaggeration. It seems incredible that with so much wealth under our feet, and above us in the terraces, no effort should have been made to revive the mining industry. But the solution lies in a nut-shell. With our mining population depleted by the attractions of other fields, with capital standing: aloof from mining enterprise, oy preferring to "plunge" into schemes rendered rosy by the deceptive haziness of distance, with long years of studied and systematic official neglect, what other result cou\d be expected? To develop these " deep leads " some capital is necessary ; aud for tho want of this a dull deadly languor has benumbed the energies of our people. If there is not public spirit enough to take up this matter and go into it heartily, we deserve to suffer depression. I would be one of the last to implore Hercules to help us out of the ditch into which we have rolled ; but I think the Government might wisely afford a little assistance, if only as a stimulus to private exertion, for I am convinced that if once the ball is set rolling it will continue to roll of its own momentum. The first start is tho great difficulty. If the Government, after obtaining satisfactory evidence of known facts, will authorise, or, better still, undertake the sinking of shafts in Ida "Valley, the Cardrona, and Miller's Flat, carrying on the' work under the supervision of skilled inspectors, I believe the end sought will be accomplished. The expense would be recouped to the Govern-* ment by the sale of the shafts and claims after testing the ground, and cciuM then be re-applied to similar exploration elsewhere. There is no reason, indeed, wl\y the local bodies should nottake a share oi! the liability, since theirs will be all the profit, in the shape, of gold-duty and other revenue.

Whilst writing on these old loads, I am reminded of tho Island Block. There is very little doubt that the bed of the great Clutha river was formerly on the west side of " the Island," but its course was blocked probably by suceysssve land-slips from the ranges above M'Cium's Flat, and its waters gradually diverted into their present course. Surface indications point to ground at the foot of tho Island as having beez> the greatest depression. At the southerly end of the block there aye two ancient outlets. This locality is known as the Horseshoe Bend, and I am told that from the river beach inwards a run of line shotty gold is forme! making into tho Block. Of course this is now private- proporty; but I cannot help thinking that it would! handsomely remunerate the owner to allow it to be opened up for mining, for only a very small portion of Ahe property would be disturbed. There is another direction in which gold may be looked for almost bile certainty of success. The old lako beds represented by the Upper Clutha Plains, Dunsran Flat, and Maniototo Plain, may reasonably be presumed to contain very extensive deposits of auriferous drift It may almost be regarded as ah established! fact that before the Clutha river settled downinto its present bed, above Cromwell, the. mairi> currents traversed several shifting channels, andl each of these iv its turn has probably beec

choKed with gold-bearing drift. Gold was certainly found under the township. The north bank of the Kawarau was at one time lined with tunnels to such an extent that some alarmists pretended to fear that the place would cave in. The subsidence, however, has been gradual. When the bridge was in course of erection some miners called on me to complain that they were ordered to cease their operations, which were supposed to be, in some incomprehensible way, a source of danger to a pier built on solid rock in the river bed. They showed me a nice sample of gold, amongst Tvhich were some rather large pieces, and the ■description they gave me of the bottom was that it was flat, water-worn rock, with occasional hollows, in which most of the gold occurred. Cromwell Flat and the country above it would be well worth prospecting. At the Dunstan the river seems rather to have formed a number of ana-branches through the flat between Clyde and Alexaudra, entering and again emerging by way of the broken bars which arc noticeable at the old ferry-road and elsewhere. on the east bank. Some well-meaning attempts to prospect this flat many years ago failed, because at a depth of about 60ft the miners broke through the bottom, finding a heavy body of water underneath. Below the township of Clyde there is a bed of stiff, yellow clay, upon which much gold was obtained both in the river bed and in the east bank. Some tunnels were driven in a considerable distance through this clay, and the levels showed a rapid incline towards the centre of the Flat. It is about time that a little interest was taken in the subject of further exploration in this direction. And I may point out also that a shaft sunk through the clay bottom, and tunnelled, may disclose the existence of a second bottom in the Clutha River itself, as occurred in the San Joaquin River in California, where very rich drift was found under a similar clay-bed.

The Maniototo Plain is so wide that it would be impossible to indicate any particular part' as being more than possibly auriferous. But lam strongly of opinion that whatever gold there is will eventually be discovered on the Mount Ida side of the plain. If the old run of the Taieri River, round the foot of the Raggedy Range, towards Hill's Creek, could be traced, its value as a lead might be tested. But there are other runs intersecting the plain, and I should suppose at great depths. It may be worth while to remember that the workings at Naseby and Hamiltons, at two ends of the Maniototo Plain, are situated at equal or corresponding altitudes. These workings are on ancient lake terraces, which at certain points sheer suddenly downwards, and so the "lead" is lost. Dr Hector, when at Hamiltons, once explained to me that where the run of gold ceased the miners could find no bottom, because it meant an almost precipitous drop from the edge of the terrace into the bed of the old lake. But lam glad to see that the Naseby people are contemplating a trial of the deeper ground. We want all the light that can be got on the too long neglected question of the deposition of gold under an amazing variety of circumstances, of which I verily believe we have only a faint and flickering glimmer of knowledge at present.

Vincent Pyke.