SOUTHLAND GOLDFIELD

Taranaki Daily News, 7 July 1931, Page 9

SOUTHLAND GOLDFIELD

SUGGESTED REVIVAL.

PROSPECTS OF WAIKAIA AREA.

Although numerous companies and countless individuals have prospected parts of Southland for gold, with more or less success, the opinion is held by Mr. Thomas Taylor, Cashmere, Christchurch, who had experience of the district as a gold buyer for many years, that there is a large area in the Waikaia district still worth prospecting. There would be, he says, work for from 2000 to 3000 miners and many more men could be employed in nearby parts. Mr. Taylor, who is 80 years of age, went to the Southland goldfields in 1879. as a gold buyer for a banking institution, and later was -manager of the National Bank at Waikaia. He retired from business in 1918.

The Waikaia goldfield, Mr. Taylor said, wae 40 miles from Gore, and from this district -large quantities of gold had been won. In the. early days he became intimately acquainted . with .Professor McKay, Government geologist, who held the view that the ground from Shotover, through Remarkable Gap and into Vaikaia, should be explored. The original river ran to the west and now Winding Crek ran to the east, and the re-wash 5 of the old river presented 50 or 60 miles of ground to the present day prospector. Speaking of his own experiences, Mr. Taylor said that he had gone up the Old Man range, above Waikaia, in 1877. One claim, covering less than an acre, yielded £40,000. It was in the lowest part of the Waikaia River, and the ground from there on to Waikaka had never been worked. A few years ago some Auckland business men asked him for information. They pegged off the King Solomon claim and were now getting good results. In 1877 a man named John Robinson called on him with a lump of quartz 2ft. square. It had been washed down from the Old Man range during a flood in the Waikaia River. At one time the river was covered by the slipping of a terrace. He sank a shaft, but as he did not have the means to go further, he had, with great reluctance, to abandon the project. On one occasion, a musterer, who sometimes turned his attention to minning, discovered a phenomenally large piece of gold at Waikaia. He covered it with a piece of slate and went to Mr. Taylor for his opinion, and for an advance wherewith to stake his claim. On his return to the spot he could not distinguish the slate under which lay his find. Every year, for about 2G‘ years, he visited the place in an endeavour to discover, his lost property, and died without being successful.