7

C—ll

"While the less extensive, but generally richer river diggings afford better prospects of gain to the individual digger, the dry diggings in the conglomerate will afford remunerative returns to associations of individuals who will work with a combination of labour and capital. The intelligent and energetic gold-digger, Mr. Washbourne, was the first person who has proved the value of the dry diggings in the Quartz Ranges, and he has demonstrated the fact that gold exists in remunerative quantities in the conglomerate. I am indebted to Mr. Washbourne for the following interesting details. He writes to me : 'In the drifts into the conglomerate of the Quartz Ranges, the average thickness of dirt washed is about 2ft. from the base rock, and the gold produced from 1 cubic yard of such earth would be, as nearly as I can calculate, worth from £1 ss. to £110s. This includes large boulders, so that a cubic yard of earth, as it goes through the sluice, is, of course, worth more, as the boulders form a large proportion of the whole. When the whole of the earth from the surface to the rock is washed, the value per cubic yard is much less, not more, perhaps, than from 3s. to 6s. per yard, but it would generally pay very well at that.' These are the words of one of the most expert Nelson diggers, who paid his men for working in the Quartz Ranges wages from 10s. to 12s. a day, and still made a considerable profit for himself. With these data, while at Nelson I ventured to make the following calculation in order to encourage the public to a more extensive enterprise in the working of the goldfield: If we reckon the superficial extent of the Aorere goldfield at thirty square miles, the average thickness of the gold-bearing conglomerate at Iyd., and the value of the gold in each cubic yard of conglomerate at 55., the total value of the Aorere goldfield amounts to £22,500,000; or, in other words, each square mile of the goldfield contains gold to the amount of £750,000. Of this, the above-mentioned sum of £150,000 already obtained is, of course, only a very small part." " The Parapara diggings are the northern continuation of the Aorere Goldfield, at the mouth of the Parapara River, four miles east of Collingwood, on the shores of Golden Bay. A striking phenomenon at the Parapara Harbour is the large masses of sandy-brown iron-ore protruding from the white quartz-boulders in the form of rugged rocks of a dark-brown appearance, and giving rise, from their striking resemblance to volcanic scorias, to the erroneous supposition that volcanic forces had been active on the Parapara."* Since 1866, work has been continued on the Aorere Goldfierd, but in alluvial workings no new important localities have been opened up, and the systematic working of poor ground on a large scale has been slow of introduction, mainly owing to cost and difficulty of bringing large supplies of water on to alluvial- or cement-deposits at high levels; but of late years a move has been made in this direction by the Parapara Hydraulic Sluicing and Gold-mining Company, by the extending and bringing in of a race from the Parapara River, opposite the source of Lightband's Creek, to work the deeply-involved gold-bearing drifts of the upper part of Appo's Creek Valley, Appo's Flat, and a continuation of the first line of deep ground along Glengyle Creek to the Parapara, and thence by way of Glenmutchkin Claim across the intervening ridge to -the Parapara Flat. The company commenced with good hopes of speedy success, but various difficulties interposed, and now that the works have been for some time in operation, it would appear that the results are not more satisfactory than was anticipated. Nevertheless it is beyond question that the gravels, &c, which the company have acquired the right to and propose to work, are auriferous, and may yet yield an abundant recompense for the cost and labour that has been expended to develop them. At the present moment, also, others have in hand the development, by means of hydraulic sluicing on a large scale, of different leases held or to be acquired by them, at Appo's Flat, Golden Gully, and on the Quartz Ranges ; and dredging on the Aorere River, though for the time being suspended, will, without question, in the near future, be carried on wherever the bed of the river contains gold sufficient, and offers facilities for this particular form of gold-mining. Mining for gold in quartz has also been carried, on for a considerable number of years, and in some cases for a time with payable results. Yet, on the whole, up to the present quartzmining has not been an unqualified success, and the Johnston's United is the only mine within the Aorere Valley that at the present time is working; while work on the Red Hill property has long since been suspended. At the present there is a mine being opened in the district immediately west of the Aorere Valley, in which, at Golden Ridge, as reported by Mr. Low, the managing director, a large and continuous body of stone has been found, which yields gold at a rate that should pay handsomely. Without doubt there are many reefs within the Aorere watershed that contain gold, and should pay to work. Reefs and large bodies of quartz are very abundant between the Parapara and the Aorere, below the Slate River junction, and it is in this area that are situated the only quartz lodes discovered to be gold-bearing and partly worked. Description ov the District. " Immediately on leaving the Town of Collingwood a large tract of alluvial ground is entered on, which stretches away some eight or nine miles in a south-westerly direction. This plain is bounded on the north-west by the Aorere River, on the north by the sea, and on the east by Te Parapara. Towards the south-west the drift deposit, of which it is composed, ends on the slopes of slate and schistose hills near Bedstead Gully, &c. The most striking feature about this flat land is the succession of terraces by which it rises as it recedes further inland, and also a few islands and rocks which here and there rise above the level of the surrounding drift." t The general character of the southern side of the Aorere Valley, west of Parapara Inlet, is a gentle and regular slope from the base of the southern mountains to the low lands of the valley, or from about 1,500 ft. to 2,000 ft. above the sea to from 300 ft. to near sea-level. Hochstetter says the slopes decline at an angle of B°, but makes no mention of a marked succession

* Hoohstetter's " New Zealand," pp. 99-107. t Davis, " Geological Reports," 1870-71, p. 131.