GOLD AT ALBURY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12481, 19 September 1904, Page 3

GOLD AT ALBURY.

, CONTRADICTORY rASSAYS. Mr H. Nicholson, a Chamberlain settler, has forwarded to this office some further conespondeuce he has recently received respecting what he believes to be auriferous rock, which is exposed in his section and in the neighbourhood. He has also forwarded, by way of a reminder of what went before, some earlier communications on the subject. About the end of 1903 Mr Nichojson sent samples of some rock which 3s exposed in a creek bed near his jhouse, to the Ota'go School of Mines, and to the Mines Department, Wellington for assay, as he believed the rock to be auriferous. In due course reports on the assays were received, and they differed very widely The report of earliest date is from the New Zealand Mines Department Laboratory, dated 7th December 1903. This gives the results of the assay of three samples of stone:—No. 1, quartz, gold, sdwt :Igr, silver. Jidwt -12gr; value £1 0s 2d," ; per;ton. with quartz, traces of both gold and silver; value nil. No. 3—Dyke rock, traces of gold, silver sdwt lgr per ton; value " practically nil." This is signed by 0. Gore Adams, director.

The second report is from the Otago School of Mines, dated February Ist, 1904, and this reads as follows :—"I have at last been able to assay your sample, and I beg to report as follows : —The sample contained little (if any) free gold. Most of the gold is contained in the sulphide which has formed in the cracks. Two assays wci'e made, and the following is the result : —No. I—Gold per ton, 2oz ldwt 18.8gr; silver per ton, loz 6dwt 3.2gr. No. 2—Gold per ton, 2oz sdwt 17.6gr; silver per ton, loz 7dwt 7.2gr." This is signed by H. Hamilton. . A second letter from Mr Hamilton, dated March 24th, in answer to a query, says: " On 29th of February. 1904, a" parcel of "re (3/04) was forwarded by Mr Nicholson. Albury, and the correct result obtained bv that assay was—No. 1, gold, 2oz ldwt lBgr: No. 2, gold, 2oz sdwt 17gr. As to Mr saying that I said the ore was salted; what I said was that the ore did not look too good (before the assay was made), but the result showed that it was. Whether the ore was salted or not isgpot for me to judge, but what is important: The report received by Mr Nicholson was quite correct." An officer of the Mines Department visited the locality and inspected the stone in situ, and he said, or at all events Mr Nicholson understood him to say, that the Dunedin assay meant that there was so much gold " per ton of sulphide," not tier ton'of stone. Mr Nicholson therefore wrote on the Ist inst, to the Dunedin School of Mines to have that point cleared up. and he received a reply dated September, signed D. B. Waters, Assayer to the School of Mines, as follows:—"Regarding your assay, I may say the results sent you were per ton of stone. That, of course, is always understood, and I cannot imagine what else it could be considered as per ton of." A copy of assay results was appended, these being 'lie same as in the first report, except that the fraction of a grain of gold in No. 1 is omitted, and the number of the sample is given as " No. 53/03 instead of 3/04." A footnote is added : " Stone means ore as sent in here."

The correspondence concludes with a letter from the Under-Secretary to the Mines Department, dated September 2nd, which -ays:—"l am directed by the Hon. Minister of Mines to inform ,you that from (he report of the Inspector of Mines (Mr Green), who visited the locality on the 24th August last, and the notes upon the report by the Government geologist, the indications of gold to-a payable auriferous extent do not warrant the lands in the vicinity of the Chamberlain settlement. . . .

being "included in a mining district, and made subject to the operations of the Mining Acts." The report of the Inspector and the notes of the Government geologist appear to have supported the results of the Wellington assay j and all three are contradicted by the Duriedin assays. Mr J. S. Rutherford and other residents in the locality have determined to help Mr Nicholson to e'ear up the mystery involved in the contradiction by obtaining a fresh assav "r. assays, and the results of these will be looked for with interest.