THE WAIMANGAROA REEFS.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 680, 5 July 1870, Page 3

THE WAIMANGAROA REEFS.

(from a cobbespondent.) Now that quartz reefs are attracting so much attention among miners generally, and the citizens of "Westport in particular, any remarks on the prospective reefing resources of this district may be found worthy of notice in your columns The quartz reefs of the Buller may never reach the prodigious yields of Victoria or Auckland's famous fields, but this of a truth may be said, that the opening of the Thames did not justify more sanguine anticipations than the present position of the West Coast indicates. A word or two on the "Waimangaroa reefs, the earliest discovered on the West Coast, and from which some excellent stone was obtained last week, specimens of which were brought to town. The stone was of such a character as to give confidence and every encouragement to the enterprising shareholders. There has been prospecting done to this reef by a former company, and much labor has been applied in prospecting it. It is true also that much money has been ill and unrenumeratively expended in pursuit of that object. All the prospecting hitherto done to the reef has been above the water line, though there are many encouraging indications to prospect below it. The bearing of the Waimangaroa reef or reefs, for there are several lodes of quartz with intervening layers of slate, is very erratic, and it is conjectured by many that they will be found to form a conjunction further in the hill. If the body of payable stone, already found, prove as extensive, as the quality of it is found to be satisfactory, the Waimangaroa can hold a position equal to any in New Zealand, for the locality wherein the reef is situated is such, that it affords abundant water-power, the cheapest and the best for drainage or crushing purposes. The party of working men (prospecting shareholders) whose labor is an equivalent for the capital of sleeping shareholders, intend first to sink as far as possible without pumping gear, and prospect the reef; afterwards to sink a shaft outside the tunnel to a considerable depth, and erect thereon effective pumping gear, and then drive from that shaft to the reef. Their modus operandi appears admirable, and may success attend their efforts should be the wish of all, who are interested in and wish the district prosperity.