MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 17 February 1888, Page 11

MISCELLANEOUS.

A settler on the Peninsula has discovered a quartz lode on his farm which promises, so far as quantity of stone is concerned, to equal that of the Harbour Cone Company's mine, while the stone itself is said to be of better quality. Between the Peninsula and Saddle Hill Dunedin may yet become the centre of a mining district. News of a satisfactory character reaches us (Mount Ida Chronicle) in regard to tho operations of tho Golden Gully G. M. Company at Serpentine. Wu learn on tho best authority that recently one of the directors, while fossicking about a lode in the company's claim known as "Cogan's Reef," picked out a large piece of ferruginous quartz from the heap of stone uaur the shaft and brought it into Naseby with tho object of testing its value. Several ounces of the stone, in which not a colour of the precious metal could be perceived, were then pounded up in a mortar and subsequently panned of, with results tLat somewhat startled the experimenter. After running away the mullock, there remained in the bottom of the dish a splendid prospect of gold, equal to an average return of from l£oz to 2oz per ton of stone. Tho gold was coarse, heavy, and bright — in fact, the best prospect we have seen extracted from a piece of quartz for many a long day. There are hundreds of tons of this stone in eight, the reef being about 3ft wide, so arrangements have been made to have a crushing of five tons or so from it sent to Dunedin for testing. If ib turns out satisfactorily, in all probability a battery will bo erected on the claim and milling operations commenced at an early date. The lode, it must be understood, is, so far as is yet known, distinct from the lino iof reef known as '• Turnbull's." The prospects derived from the tunnel aro also very satisfactory. Recently a Dunedin shareholder washed a dish of the rubble alongside the lode, and obtained what he termed a " slashing prospect." He brought in a piece of the solid reef with him to Naseby, and this on being crushed and washed returned a prospect calculated at about 15dwt per ton. Mining in this district (writes the Upper Waikfua correspondent of Mataura Ensign) looks better than it has done for years. All the. mining claims in tbe river are in full swing — • even on the Whitecombe mining looks healthier than ib has for the last 12 months. At Campbell's there has bt en a famall rush lately, but all 1 , the ground supposed to contain the gold is taken up by .two parties, so there is little chance foroutsiders. I hoar tbafc these claims have turned out payable gold. Things are looking up at. Frazer's, almost all the miners there being on paying gold. The same may he said of Nicholson's reef. We had a surveyor up at Nicholson'?, and as the reef U to be worked next summer it will give employment to a large number of men. ft There are about 300 Chinese on tbe Round Hill goldfield. In noticing the fact the Southland News correspondent says they are all apparently doiDg well, and continues : — " A'o proof of this I may mention that they have washe'* j np about 2000oz. This is in anticipation < j{ their New Year festivities, whioh begin on Sr jj. day next, when Round Hill will be for a t' me deserted in favour of Kivorton, where "fe:i>ts for the d«ad," which menu a jolly , oor j time for tbe living, will be carried out. ' £\xare mv no»v Jess than a score of Europeans jri a field, but they aro said to bo on md; fferent ground. Some of them, however, make «p f or. this through their incomes from water r /irTits About 16 years ago (says the Sydney EveahiK News), on a small hill about three n jj^. j ror £ the place where Ironbarks iailway s' a tion now stands,^ some tremendous finds of _ o { ( j ere made. On one occasion a. bucket Q * etutl returned £5000. This took everybc • <j v by Worm and a company was formed to worJ & * £ lously rich ground. They worked f oF atime,ann

at last could not make it pay, bo gave up. Had they worked on for another sft, ifc is said that they would have hit on one of the richest and most wonderful patches of gold ever found in these colonies. They did not do this, however, and "mining experts " have laughed at tho idea of payable gold in the Ironbarks district until about six months ago, when one of the old miners, John Charlton, was put in charge of about 20 acres of the land, now know as the Golden Gully, by some gentlemen who had reason to think it worth while to watch the place, and who had accordingly taken ife up. He looked at the place and formed an idea to get into the monkey shaft at the 80ft level of the old " Prince Billy," intending to get on to the clay vein. The shaft drive was cleaned out, and within two or three weeks of this being done several rich reefs of quartz, limestone, mispickel, and, last of all, a lode of decomposed ironstone were discovered ; and the latter is said to have gone at the enormous rate of 44440z to the ton. A number of specimens have been taken, and a company formed. The specimens are peculiarly rich, and as a tangible proof of the yield from the ironstone, a pretty cake of gold is shown weighing 4oz 14dwt 6gr, which was obtained by Mr S. S. Vale, a Sydney assayer, from a "washing" (not by assay) of 21b 6oz of etone. The quartz specimens are smothered iv gold, and the mispickel is in some cases almost hanging together with the " shining metal." The incredible part of it all is that so many reefs of such marvellous richness should j have been discovered within 20ft of each other. The specimens are simply unique, and the find, if it continues, will do for mining in New South i Wales what Charters Towers and Mount I Morgan have done for Queensland ; and mining experts state that the main reef has not yet been struck. An Auckland telegram states that at a meeting of shareholders of the Maritoto mine it was decided to sell the mine at the sum originally offered — viz , £10,000 in cash and shares, — and the meeting adjourned for a fortnight to communicate with H. S. Meyers, the representative of a Sydney syndicate, as to his willingness to take the property on these conditions. A Hokitika telegram states that the reef in the William Tell winze, Cedar creek, has now widened to 4ft solid quartz, still showing good gold. The mine manager of White's Reef Gold Mining Company, Old Man Range, reports a yield of 17ioz retorted gold from 170 tons stone. The following telegram has been received in Christchurcb. about the Welman gold dredger, which is working on the Auckland Beach, near Hokitika :— " Machinery worked satisfactorily for a 4in pipe. Mr Park estimates putting through 25 tons per hour, working low pressure. Apparently all fine gold saved, as none can bo got in the tailings. He estimates the present result as loz for eight hours' work, but still in poor ground, and not yet iv full working order." The mining fever has reached Half-Moon Bay, Stewart Island. A resident there (says the Southland News) is sanguine that he has found tin, silver, gold, and scheelite lodes, all of which he has forwarded samples to Dunedin for inspection and report. A telegram from Nelson states that news from the Owen gives the following returns :— The Enterprise in five and a-half days crushed 95 tons stone, from which 80oz 13dwt amalgam were obtained from the plates only. At the Wakatu, in five days two hours, 85 tons of stone were put through, and 640z 12dwt amalgam obtained from the plates only. An Auckland telegram states that 460 bags of crushed quartz were brought from tbe Adeline mine, Karangahape, and 45 bags from the Maritoto claim, to be despatched to Germany to be treated by a gold-extractiug process. A Blenheim telegram states that the Wakamarina Gorge Mining Company's shares have been most favourably received by the public, applications far in excess of the number allotted having already come to hand. Tho company is not looked upon asa bubble got up for speculative purposes, aud this probably accounts for the ready acceptance of shares at this early stage. Notwithstanding that the share list does not closo uutil the 29th inst., BpO applications in excess of the total number have already been applied for. Reports of the gold obtained from tho Maori Gorge continue to be of tho most encouraging character. Mine manager of the White's Reef Gold Mining Company (Limited) reports for week ending February 5, 18S8: — The lower stopo west of new shaft has been filled in. Have opened out again above this stope, and there is a good lode in face of drive. I have put two men extending main tunnel in order to facilitate the extraction of stone overhead. The stopes east and west of No. 1 rise are looking well ; the lode is from 18in to 2ft thick. Plates wore scraped on Saturday, and yielded 48oz Bdwt of amalgam from 40 tons of stone.