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be driven to meet the reef had been underestimated by some hundreds of feet, and as the company was not prepared to find the money to do the extra work operations were suspended.
Regarding the many other claims that were pegged out in the vicinity, it may be said little more than the most superficial prospecting was done on any of them. Outcrops of quartz were found on some, but they were of so hungry an appearance as to give little encouragement for closer investigation, and no doubt there was, as there always is in such cases, a disposition on the part of the holders to sit back and await the outcome of development on the principal claims.
It is rather strange that, although Dr. Henderson’s well-considered opinion as a mining geologist was expressed as far back as 1913, no attempt has been made to investigate the locality in the direction along which he thought satisfactory results might be got. The only work of any importance done on the field in the interval was the extension by G. Pettigrew and party of a low-level adit driven westward from Kirwan’s Creek—that is, towards the western boundary of the Lord Brassey Claim, where Alexander McKay considered the lost lode should be found. This adit was in about 1,400 ft. at the time of Dr. Henderson’s visit, and he describes it as being for the whole distance in very wet and broken country. The working was subsequently extended to 2,600 ft., passing through the Mutual Claim, formerly held by the Boatman’s Exploration Syndicate, and reaching the centre of the Lord Brassey Claim immediately under the old open-cut workings. Beyond the 1,400 ft. mark the ground passed through is said to have been more solid, but nothing of value was met with. Some small quartz veins were intersected, but only one of them, at about 800 ft. from the portal, carried any gold, and this was only about 2½ dwt. per ton. At the time of his visit Dr. Henderson, pointed out, with regard to this work, that if his conclusions concerning the locality were correct, the party would not achieve its object by going on with it, and his opinion seemed to be justified by the results.
ALEXANDER RIVER REEFS.
With the reefs of Kirwan’s Hill, those of the Alexander River are the only two lode-series so far discovered on the eastern side of the Reefton (Inangahua) auriferous belt, the latter series being about five miles due east from the Blackwater line. The first discovery of gold-bearing stone in the locality was made by James Hurley and Loftus McVicar, working with the aid of Government subsidy, who found shoad stone in the Alexander River in 1920. It took about a year for the prospectors to trace this stone to its source, but eventually, by following the shoad up the spurs, they located a mass of solid quartz early in 1921 at an elevation of about 1,500 ft. above the river. This find was named the Bull reef, and in places it showed gold freely. Although it was traced on the surface only, by trenching for a length of 2 chains the massive nature of the reef—it was up to 6 ft. wide—led at first to the belief that it was in settled country and would live both in length and depth. Shortly after the discovery was made public an option was granted over the claims taken up by the prospecting-party to a syndicate of Auckland and Reefton mining speculators, which immediately started to put in an adit 80 ft. below the outcrop, which was expected to cut the reef at 140 ft. in. The adit was carried in, however, for 170 ft. without meeting any quartz. At a point 25 ft. from the end of the adit a branch drive was then put out at a right angle to the strike of the reef, and was extended for 115 ft.,
