Notes from Wakatipu.

Otago Witness, Issue 2394, 18 January 1900, Page 54

Notes from Wakatipu.

{FnoM Oue. Own Correspondent.) ARROWTOWN, January 13.— Reverting to last- week's notes, and more especially to the interrupted remarks on QUARTZ MINING, it may be recalled to memory that experience in this part of Otago pioves that not only is quartz going down, and living in depth, but also that it improves in value, while at the same time the country improves, offering increased facilities for prospecting and exploiting the lodes, without increasing — at least, not in any very appreciable degree — the cost of such works. This circvimstance should surely act as an impetus to much more prospecting works, and on a larger scale, than have hitherto been undertaken. The only two mines in the district, the lodes of which have been followed below the water level of the creek upon the banks of which tha lodes cropped put, are the Achilles wine at. Bui-

lenclale and that of the Wescralia and New Zealand Gold Explorers, M^cetcwn. In the former mine the depth below tho water level approaches j s(.oft; in the latter it is only about 90ft. In , the Achilles mine the lode was veiy much, j bioken up and chucked about above the water , level; the country was equally di&tnrbed, and j therefore difficult and expensive to work. A ; decided improvement set in when the lode was ] sunk upon, country and lode getting less and j less disturbed as increasing depths were l-eached. The sain? experience was made at Mact-town. All this, goes to show that success ] in quartz mining must be sought at greater depths than have yet been reached. At Micetown, where four or five main lodes, fiom which "considerable amounts ol gold have been taken, are situated in a well defined belt of country, favourable to the existence of aimferous quartz, a great inducement is held out to the prospector. The work that has been done in past years, although it amounts only to surface scratching, has pretty well defined the character of the occurrence of quartz, and limited it to narrow bounds, outside which it would be useless to ■waste money and time in looking for payable quartz, so that half the work of prospecting may be said to have been done. The different lines of reefs, besides that upon •which the Glenrock is at present engaged, are the 'Homewaicl Bound, the Victor Emanuel, the All Nations, and the Tipperary. The latter is at present in abeyance! and the other three , TABIIEIiL CONSOLIDATED MA.GETOWN MINES. Every year prospecting work is done upon these lines, and in several instances highly encouraging prospects have been met with, but as it is .' the intention of the proprietor to work these j wines, upon a large scale, and place upon, them a '< competent plant and machinery with the latest improvements, no opening work has been donen in the mines, but prospecting is continued in' | ordei to fully prove the value of the lodes and their extent, to make sure that the mines are able bo yield stone in quantities and of a qua- , lity necessary to success, and that the machi- J nery shall be adequate to the work it is required j to perform. There can be no doubt but that these mines have a great future before them, and perhaps j •when the money now accumulating, and about j to accumulate, from the dredges is looking for > investment, the Macetown and other quartz lodes of Otago will be taken in hand, to continue,, the prosperity initiated by the dredging enterprise. DBEDGIWCr. Like the rest of Otago, dredging is working out its salvation slowly in this district. As a great many of the entarjrises started are of the r-ature of prospecting- works, opening either entirely new country, or tacking localities where i the conditions necessary to dredging success !- are unknown quantities, a little caution is a •wholesome adjunct. The fields which hold out ■the best promises of results, both as regards the value of the returns and the permanence of the ground, are the Cardrona Valley, properly so called, the Dart, the Rees, and ihat portion af the Kawarau from <he Arrow Junction io Victoria Bridge. In other portions of this district successes will no doubt be scored, but it ' •will be in isolated instances, as_the sites chosen for the work are either unsuitable, cr other circumstances render satisfactory results doubtful," to say the- least of it. - j -*,-- ' - * ~ -BAGK. COTJNTBY. 'Partly owing -to the great extent of the Waka-< tipu. goldfield, and partly to the difficult ac--cessibility and' procuration^ of supplies; the . "haclr country" form. stilLitn 1 asset in-its mineral wealtlz. Of course, there- is no reason- to Jiope for new rushes of any extent. The time for such surprises has gone by. There i" not; a- gully, creek, or watercourse between. Lake Wanaka, and where the Southern Alps of New Zealand drive into the Pacific Ocean, but has been prospected and sufficiently well tried for gold to place tho chance of a rush on any large scale beyond the bounds of possibility. But j there are vast tracts of made country, composed of drifts, which have up to the present received practically no attention from the prospector. This is chiefly owing to the difficulties referred to, and to the labour required in prospecting them. Dredging in Southland, and other narts of Otago, has revealed the fact that these drifts are uniformly auriferous in a- degree hitherto undreamt of. As a rule these deposits are favourably situated for sluicing: operations, both water in quantity., and fall being provided by Nature to work them. j Another field f oi the prospector is to be found at high levels, upon the hillsides, as well a3 I upon' the hilltops. The lesson conveyed by Mount Criffel and Criffel Face, Cardrona, has not led to anything like the prospecting, the ' value of these^ finds would lead one to expect. In this"district no level should be considered as too high for gold. Wherever there is likely wash gold might be expected to live, and it can hardly be accepted that Mount Crif- \ fel should be the only spot in proof of this state- I ment. {