THE MILFORD WALK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 71

THE MILFORD WALK.

“FINEST IN THE WORLD.” MINERAL WEALTH OF THE REGION. DISCOVERIES OF A “DIVINER.” Mr John Mosley, who headed a party of five ladies and gentlemen from Stirling and Inchclutha on the famous walk to Milford Sound from Lake Te Auau( returned on Tuesday, and in a chat on Wednesday with our representative said that the trip had proved to be far more enjoyable than even its most enthusiastic supporters had claimed, and it had been well termed “ the finest walk in the world.” . While at Te Anau he had met an Englishman who had travelled the world in search of scenic beauties, and he had stated that only in the Andes of South America could be found scenery comparable with the mountains of the West Coast of Otago surrounding Milford Sound. And while the Andes were at a higher altitude, for scenery Milford was an easy first. “ Many people have tried to describe it,” said Mr Mosley. “ but all have failed to do it justice; so I will not try.” As for the alleged difficulties of the walk, according to Mr Mosley “ there is nothing to prevent anyone with decent feet and legs from undertaking it. Our party in age averaged 61| years, and everyone of them would go back to-morrow if they got the chance. “ It took us exactly seven days from Te Anau to Milford and back to Te Anau, and the cost is a mere nothing—slightly under £ll a head. Anyone with a notion for the grand and the beautiful should not miss this walk. Bird life is still plentiful, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary. We saw wekas, pigeons, kakas, and keas in plenty, also bellbirds, out tuis seemed to be scarce. All the New Zealand small birds seemed plentiful, except the robin.” Mr M >sley, whose fame as a water diviner end discoverer of minerals beneath the earth’s surface has spread throughout the Dominion, was enthusiastic regarding the untold wealth which he claimed to have located in the course of a series of experiments undertaken on tlm trip from Te Anau to Milford. To use his own words: “My part was to see what minerals we were walking over. I did not have much time for the use of th e rod, and did not heed it, as I could feel with my feet all that we were passing over. I tested only the stronger indications. At the’ Sound I found copper near, the Sutherland Falls, also moly] » denite and chromium'.' At Sandfly Bay (which is wrongly named.- by the way, as there are no more sandflies there than at Other places on the rotite) I discovered stream tin, which stretched from the

hut at Milford right to Lake Ada, alonethe old bed of the Arthur River. The lodes I came across were two and a-half miles from the Quentin huts coming this way. About seven miles from the Pampaloona huts, coming towards Glade House, are t.ire e lodes of silver 60ft wide, diminishing to 20ft and 12ft. Still further tins way. and not more than 200yds from the landing at (c Anau, there is a seam of graphite. These are the principal minerals I came across, but I met several others with which I am unacquainted, except zine, and there are zinc lodes at Manapouri. But far before all these are the immense coal measures, which stretch from Lake Manapouri probably down to luatapere, in Southland. There are Hundreds of square miles in this field, comprising all the ccals, from lignite to the best anthracite. “’Here are seams up to 100 ft thick of the finest brown coal. It is indeed a great coalfield, and all hitherto undreamt ot. 1 was never on one so big before.

f made another discovery, more valuable than ail the lest, but —I am not saying what it is at present. “ You can tell the people of New Zeamnd, through the Otago Daily Times, that there is ir>t one ‘smell’ of gold anywhere on the track. Those great masses of granite are not barren of minerals, as I descovered, but there is none of the yellow metal.”

Mr Mosley concluded by saying that he thought a great mistake had been made in naming the wonderful lakes of the south the Cold Lakes. The name, he considered, was likely to frighten Europeans and Americans, who associated the word cold with frozen lakes such as they had in the Northern Hemisphere, and were inclined to keep away. A better and more appropriate flame would be the "Beautiful Lakes of the South.”