THE MOUNT HUXLEY MINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 16

THE MOUNT HUXLEY MINE.

"SALTED FROM END TO END." Mr Montgomery, the Tasmanian Government geologist, was recently sent to make a second examination of the Mount Huxley mine, his first strongly condemnatory report being generally regarded as based on too slender evidence. On the 16th the following telegram (says the Hobart Mercury) was received by the Secretary .of Mines from Messrs Montgomery and Harrison :—": — " Huxley tunnel salted from end to end. Proof beyond doubt. Very little gold in virgin country." The hopes of the syndicate whose headquarters were in SydDey were not altogether | damped, despite this report. The Daily Telegraph published an interview with Mr Bizant, a well-known mining expert, who said that for the life of him he could not understand how Mr Montgomery could possibly have made the 'egregious mistakes he had unless it were on the score of absolute ignorance of the subject he was dealing with. Mr Bizuit states that he was more days on the Mount Huxley mine than Mr Montgomery wan hours, and although he made the most careful examination of it he found nothing to warrant the reports that gentleman had sent in. The statement that the tunnel has been salted Mr Bizant regards as simply absurd, and he states that it can only be attributed to utter ignorance, and to the fact that Mr Montgomery never really entered the tunnel for the purpose of testing it. Mr Bizant asks how can a man possibly form an opinion of a gold mine on such a test, when it consists of a mountain 190 ft on one side and 125 ft above the level of the creek on the other ?• Mr Bizant states that he put through 86 trials, and found no difference in them, but he adds he could take good or bad samples any time he liked.to do so. Mr Samuel, the head of the syndicate, publicly intimated that his faith in the mine and those concerned was unshaken despite Mr Montgomery's report. The action of the Tasmanian Government in arresting Isaac Bertram Burker, who introduced the mine to Mr Samuel, on a charge of conspiracy, caused much surprise in Sydney, and this was intensified when it became known that warrants were out for the arrest #f William Price and Anthony Briscoe, the two men who were last on the mine. Mr Samuel at once telegraphed to the Tasmanian Minister of Justice stating that Mr Bizant, one of the experts sent to examine the property, declared that Mr Montgomery's suspicions were absurd and due to ignorance.

Further particulars of the affair were obtained from Mr Harrison, inspector of mines, who accompanied Mr Montgomery, Mr Harrison stated that he and Mr Montgomery duly took possession of the mine and the workings on Tuesday last, and discharged all the men working for the company. They first repros^ected all places on the surface previously tried by Mr Montgomery, and got nothiDg but odd colours, which were worthless. They then tried the tunnel from one end to the other. Four days were spent in giving most complete exhaustive test 3oi the ground in the tnnnel, and the results proved beyond doubt that "salting" bad been resorted to on a most extensive and systematic scale. Dishes of stuff were tried from about 80 different places. The method adopted was first to scrape down the face with a knife, and these scrapings invariably gave good prospects of water-worn gold. Then the same place would be quite cleaned down and a hole pub into the solid formation right behind the spots which gave such prospects from the scrapings. In every case where tho genuine samples had been got no prospect gave mare than a few colours of five reef gold, even though 30ib weight of stuff wa3 crushed as one sample. There is strong evidence that certain places tried by Mr Montgomery on his first visit must have been prepared tor his second visit. One place where he pulled a pick down the side of the drive for a prospect on his first visit was again tried. The sides of the hollow left by the pick mark were carefully scraped

down with a knife, and the scrapings gave a good prospect of waterworn gold. Then the hollow was cleaned dewn and the solid stuff till round tried, but only odd colours of fine reef gold were obtained. Numberless other instances could be given, but there was no need, as the four days' tests gave similar results every time. The character of the formation is sedimentary rock, traversed by occasional quartz veins and numerous little strings of ironstone. The colours of genuine reef gold are apparently contained in the quartz and ironstone, and not in the rock itself. A meeting of the syndicate shareholders was held at Sydney on the 20bh inst. to receive the report of the three experts who had visited the mine. Tho reports were laid on the table unopened, and disclosure of their contents was awaited with great expectancy. Professor Speaks's report stated that he had come to the conclusion that the mine yielded only from ldwt to £dwt to the ton, and that the property was of very little value, and Messrs Bizant and Fulton's reports were of a similar nature. Referring to Mr Montgomery's report, Mr Bizant said it was very strange that the mine should have be3n " salted " for that gentleman and not for him. If Mr Montgomery had taken the same precautions as he had there would have 'been none of this rubbish and useless talk. He (Mr Bizant) found good prospects in the face of the workings, bat when he bored into the virgin country beyond he found that the gold only existed on the surface, which was not at all strange, as the ground had been eluiced over by old fossickers. The reports came as a complete surprise to Mr Samuel, who, with great emotion, moved a resolution that the syndicate be dissolved. The meeting expressed the utmost sympathy with Mr Samuel, and passed a resolution exonerating him from all blamo. It was also decided to make a small call on shareholders in order to defray his expenses in taking up the claim.