GOLD AND COPPER

Southland Times, Issue 19510, 9 May 1922, Page 5

GOLD AND COPPER

REPORTED FIND AT PUKEMAORI. From Pukemaori, two and a-half miles from Tuatapere as the crow flies, comes news of a gold rush that, while so far more or less local, is creating a good deal of excitement in the district. It appears that some weeks ago a prospector made a find which promised so well that he obtained the services of an expert metallurgist who reported that the deposit contained both gold and copper, the latter alone in quantities that could be reckoned as payable. The news soon spread and old miners were early on the spot and it is considered by them to vary in width from 10 chains to 40 feet. It is situated on the property of a farmer named Watts, and that part of his place is rapidly assuming the appearance of a proper mining centre, many claims having been pegged off on Sunday by workers in Tuatapere who, not observing the Bible in regard to rest on the Seventh Day, evidently hopefully took to themselves the other Biblical instruction, “Seek and ye shall find.” The district is on the qui vive and every spare moment is being taken up by a number of men in work at their claims. The situation has its humorous side, for the district possesses a diviner who, while others are at work with the pick and shovel, is content to pin his faith to a twig.