DISCOVERY OF TIN AT ALFORD FOREST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1690, 26 January 1888, Page 2

DISCOVERY OF TIN AT ALFORD FOREST.

The own correspondent of the Lyttelton Times telegraphing from Methven on Jan. 24 (Tuesday) says: —“The boom in tin at Alford i Forest is now very pronouncedly audible. Several claims have been pegged out, and at the first meeting of the Land Board applications will be made for leases. What has impelled this now decided action on the part of knowing ones is the fact that practical tests, made by gentlemen both in Christchurch and at the Forest, have resulted in the treated stone yielding tin. Several chemical authorities have analysed the stone, and have always said there was no tin it, but the men m the district naturally do not care to sit down under such statements when they know better. Half a dozen tests have been made. The rock was pounded to afinepcwder, and roasted in this state on an old shovel over a hot fire. It was then mixed with carbonate of soda and borax, to act as fluxes, and put into a plumbago crucible, sealed with tempered clay. The crucible was placed in the centre of an old nail tin, doing duty as a furnace, on the bed of a blacksmith’s forge* A fire of brown coal was kept well up for about six hours,in this primitive furnace. At the end of that time the crucible was taken out, its contents emptied into a milk-dish full of water and the usual “pan washing ” of the digger resorted to. In each case small nuggets or little globules of tin were the result. Prom about three ounces of the powdered rock the tin pans oat on an average about as much as the weight of a shilling coin. Of course the treatment is primitive in the extreme, but the results are undeniable, and with betUr appliances the rock will be found to be immensely rich. 1 was in eye-witness to the whole process of one test from the taking of the •ample from the reef to its emptying out'and washing in the milk-dish, but will reserve a fuller description for a special article. Alford Forest has at last struck a big thing.”