GOLD ON WEST COAST

Taranaki Daily News, 25 February 1931, Page 11

GOLD ON WEST COAST

STATEMENT BY SCIENTIST. NO CLOSE (INVESTIGATION MADE. The facts upon which it was recently reported that gold-bearing reefs had been found at Preservation Inlet are stated in a communication which Mr. Robert A. Keble has published in Dunedin. Mr. Keble is palaeontologist to the National Museum of Melbourne, and as such was a member of the party that visited Preservation Inlet. The purpose of the expedition was to investigate the age of tho slates.

“Slates of the same ago as those that contained the gold-bearing reefs at Bendigo were found,” said Mr. Keble, “but apart from the importance of this discovery, it by no means foltCws that similar rich reefs to those at Bendigo exist at Preservation Inlet in beds of the same age. Many factors other than age are involved, and no investigation of the lodes, such as would be necessary to reach conclusions as to their economic value, was made by the party.” Dr. W. N. Benson, professor of geology and mineralogy at Otago University, was'another member of the party, and he said Mr. Keble’s statement embodied all the facts necessary to clear up any misapprehension.

Gold was found at Preservation In>t 40 or 50 years ago, but not in such quantity as to pay the prospectors.