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old claims, and did a little prospecting on them. Some quartz carrying gold-values was said to have been found on the surface, and a drive was put in on it. One ton of the stone is reported to have been crushed for a yield of 4 oz. 2 dwt. gold. The adit was carried in for 223 ft., but as the reef was driven on it became very poor, and after doing some little further prospecting on the same formation at a few feet greater depth the syndicate became discouraged, and once more the claims were abandoned.
A little later a syndicate of Wanganui mining enthusiasts became interested in these old properties, and set a few men at further prospecting them. The William Tell old No. 2 adit was advanced for some distance to the north-east without meeting anything of value, but in extending the western drive beyond the old rise put up in 1888 by the original company a body of quartz about 8 ft. wide was met in a short distance and found to carry very fair gold, particularly on the hanging-wall side. Encouraged by this discovery, the syndicate, now known as the Mount Greenland Gold-quartz-mining Company, erected a five-stamp battery, taking the necessary parts with much labour and expense up the nine-mile track from Ross. Crushing was commenced in 1917, and was continued in a very small way for about five years, during which time 1,939 tons of quartz were treated for a yield of 2,030 oz. 14 dwt. 5 gr. gold, valued at £8,107 19s. 4d., equal to £4 3s. 7d. per ton, and £500 was paid in dividends. This return, as far as it went, was satisfactory, but it unfortunately happened that the supply of stone was strictly limited. The shoot of quartz only extended about 60 ft. in a north-westerly direction when it was cut clean off by a fault, beyond which it could not be found, and, in stoping upward, the reef was also found to disappear in a short distance. The pay-stone was still going underfoot in the adit, but to enable it to be mined the company was faced with the great expense of either sinking a shaft or putting in a very long tunnel at a lower level. The amount of stone to be won between levels did not promise to be nearly sufficient to warrant shaft-sinking, especially as winding plant, timber, &c., could only be got to the mine with tremendous difficulty, so any thought of doing this was set aside. For some considerable time, however, the company seriously considered the idea of putting in a low-level tunnel at a depth of 400 ft. to 500 ft. below the old workings. There is a strip of reef-bearing country traceable in the vicinity for well over a mile, and the idea of driving an adit for upwards of 2,000 ft. along this at depth in the hope of proving further pay-shoots appealed to the directors. The work would certainly have been a very plucky prospecting effort, but, in view of the fact that the reef-line had been cut by numerous crosscuts for a distance of about 1,500 ft. along the route of the proposed tunnel, and surface-trenched for the whole distance, without finding any pay-stone other than the short 60 ft. shoot in the far north-west end of the old workings, it could not be said that there was any evidence from past operations to justify the large expenditure the carrying-out of the project would entail. The Mines Department was invited to contribute towards the cost, but could not entertain the application; and, as the company was not sufficiently strong financially to undertake the whole enterprise, the proposal was dropped. The plan and section shown in Fig. 2 will serve to give a good idea of the work done in the locality.
