MR M'KAY'S REPORT ON THE PEGASUS TIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1951, 11 April 1889, Page 12

MR M'KAY'S REPORT ON THE PEGASUS TIN.

The Southland News condemns in no measured terms the unsatisfactory report of Mr M'Kay, who was seat specially from Wellington to throw some light on the value of the Stewart Island tin discoveries* Our contemporary ® "Prdvofcingfy meagre and unsatisfactory" will be— after reading the report of Mr A. M'Kay, Government Assistant Geologist— the unanimous verdict of all interest^ in the Stewart Island tin •di&overj'es. When that gentleman was & fald, oft " by. the, nead of his department (Hon. G. P. Richardson) , to visit Pegasuß^lnlet and apprise, sftentefigalty the value of the findS made ov Prof elfiof. Black and otheir.ptospe t £to)rfl\. tfcfc very, Reasonable expectation was that tie would be able to, set at rest the doubts prevailing, and afford such information as would be of .guidance to^he numerpqs pl&im and share holders. To say thai he has done nothing of the kind is c ,Vp state 6 simple fact. From $rst t^laot tneeb is an uncertainty of tone irresistibly suggestive of timidity, or excess of caution, or a lack of intimate acquaintance with the he was commissioned to investigate. When one meets with such expressions as "Mr M'Kay was told that a dishful of wash " from a particular claim " only yielded Job of tin " ; that " on the Tasmanian claim the wash is said to be full 6ft thick* yielding good pfcdsp'ects'oS tin's" that "in B(ime, .toa'rte of 'the 'flat the wash is atieged..t6 be ,13ft thick 1 , but this is not yet proved," the impression conveyed is that no new light has tteeii thrown on the subject by the researches of the official expert, ♦' Stream tin is widely distributed on. the low ground and table lands - Hear PegAt>Us and South creeks} bub Mr M'Kay feats the Wash is too thin to pay for wQrfeirtg. lie admits that the general belief Is otherwise, but he bases his viewrf t>n bhe relative values of tin and gold*'' Is not this an admission bf a "state of dubiety bdrderitig upon faUlity? . . . What the piiblfe wanted V 6 know was something p"dsi'bi^-fcow touch stream tiu could be washed But in a day frbra ah ordinary claim, and how much would it be worth p'eir. tin aa an article of expert ? Or, respiting the lode tiu, they Wanted Ho fcridw \k percentage of pure Metal, On these points they have not been enlightened, nor, so far as has yet transpired, has Professor Black's visit to the Tasmanian tin mines enabled him to clear up existing doubts. He now speaks of 1J or 2 per cent, of pure tin being remunerative, while both he and Mr James Ashcroft not ldng ago talked confidently of a yield b£ lYom 50 to 70 per cent, as obtainable — the difference between untold wealth and bare wages. Surely there must be somebody to be found capable of putting an end to the uncertainty that is wearing out the patience and the means of claimownersat Pegasus. Had it been a gold, instead of tin, field, the requisite steps would have been at once to determine its. richness, (there would have been official reports " published for general information," giving full particulars as to yield, &c. Why should tin, especially that found in alluvial workings, and won in precisely the same manner as, and associated, as we are told, with gold, be an exception ? It says little for the spirit of the Government as a whole .that so little has been done to verify or authoritatively condemn what is either one of the richest discoveries of the day or a mere delusion. Competent mining skill and experience was available in Tasmania, where for years the valuable whibe metal has been a source of wealth. Hundreds — it might be even more correct to say thousands— of pounds have been spent to date of public and private money with no further result, as it now appears, than that the existence of tin at Stewart Island — which was indisputable — has been " officially" admitted. It is enough to make the most patient of mortals question the wisdom of maintaining a department of mines and geology. The Hon. Mr Richardson and Sir James Hector, the permanent head of a costly j institution, are justly to blame for remissness in this matter. They should have both, erenow, made it their business to personally inspect and advise upon the best means of # utilising the mineral resources of the South Island of New Zealand. Money is not so scarce as to have precluded the Minister of _ Mines from authorising any reasonable expenditure for the purpose of determining, once for all, the extent to which* the public might be justified in investing in shares of the several companies that have been, or are, in course of being floated, for the exploitation of the tin mines. Certainly our Victorian neighbours would not have, so long neglected the opening for a legitimate " boom,"

one that has in it the possibility of converting a hitherto unpriced portion of the colony into' Sn estate of incalculable value; ' ' '