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estimated to be £2 14s. 6d. per ton. It is possible, and likely, that in parts the reef carried fair values, but when visiting the mine in the early part of 1924 the present writer took a few samples from various portions of the workings, none of which on being assayed gave more than the barest traces of gold.
Mount Patriarch Reef.—About 1907 a party of working-miners opened up a reef in the vicinity of Mount Patriarch, about twelve miles higher up the Wairau River than Top Valley Creek, and forty-five miles by road from Blenheim. A shaft was sunk on the outcrop for 40 ft. on reef said to have averaged from 3 ft. to 4 ft. wide. A crosscut adit was also driven, at about the level of the bottom of the shaft, which intersected the reef at 127 ft., from which point the stone was driven on for 57 ft. In this working the reef was 3 ft. in width, and is described as being of a crumbly nature, very easily broken. Owing to the party’s funds becoming exhausted, operations were suspended at this juncture, and, despite the fact that a number of samples taken from various parts of the reef by Inspector of Mines A. W. Richards were said to have shown values in gold equal to from £6 to £8 per ton, no more work was done on the mine for several years.
In 1909, as a result of an interview between members of the party and the then Minister of Mines, a subsidy was granted to assist in the putting-in of another adit, 60 ft. below No. 1, to test the reef to that depth, but the party did not avail itself of this grant. Instead, it erected a small three-stamp battery, which was of little use for anything but purely testing purposes, and having once more exhausted its finances in the purchase and installation of this primitive plant it again ceased operations, and nothing has since been done on the reef. If the values as revealed by the assays of the samples taken by Inspector Richards are to be relied on, it would look as if this prospect might deserve some further examination.
WAKAMARINA RIVER FIELD.
The name of the Wakamarina Diggings is well known as that of one of the rich alluvial fields of the early days of New Zealand mining. Gold was found there first about 1860, and a large population was quickly drawn to the locality. Owing to the gold being mainly confined to the narrow river-bed, the field did not last long, being practically worked out by 1865. During the intervening years, however, it is known that approximately 33,000 oz. of gold, valued at £130,000, were exported, and this only represented part of the actual recoveries, for many miners are said to have taken their winnings away with them. Much of the gold is reported to have been of specimen character—that is to say, it had more or less quartz adhering to it; but the miners of those days do not seem to have been interested in looking for quartz reefs, and apparently searched but little for them. Consequently it was not till about 1874 that the existence of auriferous quartz reefs was noted, a lode being found in that year in the valley of Deep Creek, which enters the Wakamarina River about six miles up from its junction with the Pelorus River. This find was soon followed by that of further quartz lodes about two miles southward, but on none of these does any work appear to have been done till some years later. In 1881 a quartz vein about 10ft. in width was discovered between Dead Horse Creek and Deep Creek, and the Golden Bar Gold-mining Company was formed to develop it. A good deal of stone was broken out, but evidently the prospects were not such as to warrant putting up crushing plant, and the company abandoned its ground
