LOCAL GOSSIP.
(By Ajor.)
…gully in the mountains surrounding Day’s Bay, in search of geological specimens, I chanced upon a likely looking slatey formation, between the cleavage of which cropped up here and there nice looking quartz leaders, and upon the surface lay about several pieces of quartz. Gathering a couple of these, I treated one by the wet process, and found to my delight a trace of gold. Another was rich in iron pyrites, a sure indication of the presence of the precious metal.
As I have had some considerable experience in both the discovery and development of quartz reefs in New Zealand, I intend to do a little quiet prospecting amongst the creeks and gulches of the mountains surrounding Day’s Bay and the vicinity; and as gold has been found elsewhere in every description of quartz, from the most tough and flinty varieties to the most brittle crystalline; even in slate rock, sandstone, and red jasper, I have small doubt but that it will be found in payable quantities in what, I feel certain, may be correctly styled the auriferous slates, of the mountains overlooking Port Nicholson from the north.
In one little creek bed I found the slates holding cleanly a soft friable quartz leader, which had the dip and course of the great auriferous quartz measures of New Zealand. But I will let your readers know later on all about my prospecting trip, and its results. Meanwhile, I would point out that we invariably get our gold on the sunny side of the mountains.
If I did find a gold field over there, one can readily imagine the Wellington being full of pars, something like the following:—
“The possession of gold has been the aim of all races, in all ages, and of all classes of society. The quest for gold has led men to the ends of the earth, and has been the primary inducement in colonising hitherto unknown districts. Without the great gold discoveries of the last forty years, our commerce could not have attained its present vast proportions. The importance of the metal, especially to all English-speaking peoples, cannot be exaggerated, and every year adds to it’s importance.
The enormous, easily-worked alluvial deposits of New Zealand have been exhausted over large areas, though many similar deposits must yet remain undiscovered. In the more difficult operations of extracting gold from mineral veins and complex ores, reliable evidence from all parts of the world shows that most of the processes at present in use entail the loss of quite one-quarter of the gold in the material operated upon.
These facts point unmistakeably to the necessity for studying the conditions under which gold occurs, so that new fields may be opened up. Present geological explorations have shown that gold is abundantly present in formations and in localities which it was authoritatively stated could never prove to be auriferous, and in the light of our present knowledge over the Bay, it would not be safe to exclude any geological series from the possibility of being gold bearing.
Gold reveals itself in the earth’s crust far less readily than other useful minerals, and many a goldfield has been passed over by generations of men before its riches were discovered. Hence the necessity for intelligent search.”
