THE MALVERN HILLS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 346, 23 June 1869, Page 2

THE MALVERN HILLS.

We are afraid it will turn out that the Press of this morning has raised hopes which will not be realised. It will be remembered that the Provincial Council, during the recent session, agreed to offer a reward of £200 for the discovery of a payable goldfield. Naturally, if such a discovery as the Press speaks of had been made, the discoverers would at once have gone to the Government and claimed the reward. No such claim has been made. Besides, we are informed by a gentleman who posseses several of the specimens alluded to by the Press, that the matter is altogether too doubtful to warrant anything approaching to a positive statement. Prospectors have been at work for some time, it is true, but it will probably turn out that the latest information from them goes no fur th er than to establish the fact that they have discovered the stone in which, if it exists at all in payable quantities, the gold ought to be. The statement as to thirty " diggers" having left Christchurch yesterday morning for the Malvern Hills rests on somewhat doubtful grounds. We believe that a number of men — whether diggers or not is yet to be ascertained — were seen going in the direction of the Malvern Hills by a gentleman whose thoughts hare lately been much occupied with the discovery of gold there. It may- be that imagination added considerably to the number of the men, that it had a good deal to do with their description as " diggers," and that it suggested the Malvern Hills as their destination. We do not, of course, assert that this is the case. Whether one hundred men were likely to be on the ground by last night, as the Press states, we are unable to say. We believe, however, that the man with whom the statement originated, merely gave it as his own opinion. The police, generally very wide-awake, have heard nothing authentic about this migration of people to the westward. Altogether, we advise the public to receive any statement about gold discoveries in the Malvern Hills with great caution. We believe it has been conclusively proved, in one instance, that a specimen sample of tr colour" wash-dirt brought from the Malvern Hills. must'Tiave been "salted." We should most heartily rejoice to learn that an undoubted goldfield had been discovered in the Malvern Hills, or anywhere else in the province ; but we don't think it advisable to publish statements which, when carefully sifted, prove to be delusive.