STICK LOCATES GOLD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19126, 22 September 1936, Page 12

STICK LOCATES GOLD

DIVINER’S SUCCESS WHERE MINERS FAILED MELBOURNE, Aug. 29.. Although miners had been prospecting in the vicinity for 40 years, it was left to a newcomer to walk into a fallow crop paddock at Malclon with a wattle divining stick and find the Union Extended Reef. , , __ Within four weeks of flotation, Union lux tended £2 shares changed hands at L4O this week, representing a share market valuation of £30,000 for the mine. George Hansen, who, with his mate, Fred Perry, found the reef, attributes its discovery mainly to the divining rod. Hansen went to Maldon eight months ago at the invitation of a friend. He had spent nearly eight years prospecting in Queensland, and after seeing a blackfellow divine for water there he tried his hand at it, and was satisfied with his results. Bom in America, of Norwegian parents, lie has travelled the world. His father was a mining engineer. PULL ON STICK Asking why no one had tried prospecting in the fallow paddock, which was lying in a compass line, with the Ea'glehawk and Union reef, Hansen was told that it was Miss Mary Davis’ freehold and that there was no hope of get : ting permission to enter it. He decided to interview Miss, Davis, however, and the result is that the mine is now being developed. Nothing was showing on the surface, but' Hansen found that in three places his forked stick of wattle gave a strong pull. Where the pull was strongest he decided to sink a shaft. Within 6ft. lie struck the top of a tiny leader and a well-defined footwall. Within a few feet the stone was 2ft. wide, but at 15ft. the leader disappeared. Thirty feet down, his mate, Fred Perry, wanted to crosscut. Hansen’s stick of wattle told him not to crosscut, but to sink. Perry crosscut into nothing; Hansen sank, and at 45ft. came on the cap of a reef going 2oz. to the ton. Had the shaft been a few feet to the cast or west the reef might never have been found. The partners received £IOO for a six months’ option, and stand to get £4OOO in cash and £3OOO in shares if the company exercises the option.