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has named it after George Walshe, who was Shiel’s mate, and is credited with being the actual discoverer of the Ajax shoot, the first to be located.
Ajax Mine.—The finding of the outcrop of the Ajax shoot was made in November, 1870, at an elevation of something over 2,000 ft. above sea-level, in very rugged country which, in those days when Inangahua County was practically roadless, presented tremendous difficulties to the miners in bringing in equipment. A steam-driven fifteen-stamp battery was placed on the claim in the following year. It is said that the boiler and other heavy parts had all to be brought in barges up the Buller and Inangahua Rivers to the Landing, whence they were drawn by horses up the bed of the latter river to Black’s Point. From there they were taken up the steep hillside to the mine by means of blocks and tackle; and none save those who are familiar with the locality can realize what immense toil, hardship, and expense all this entailed. The company started crushing in 1872, in which year 2,603 tons of quartz were treated for 3,444 oz. gold, equal to nearly 26½ dwt. per ton. The claim was vigorously prospected by means of adits, and by sinking a vertical shaft from which several levels were projected, but the best of the stone was soon found to make, on its pitch, into the adjoining Golden Fleece Company’s ground, and this led, in 1876, to the two companies merging under the title of the Golden Fleece Extended. Prior to this amalgamation the Ajax Company had treated 6,890 tons of quartz from its mine for a yield of 6,441 oz. gold, valued at £24,958 17s. 6d., out of which it paid for all its plant and distributed £2,504 in dividends. It is said of the company that it was the only one in the Reefton district that made no call whatever on its shareholders, the money for the early working of the mine and for its equipment having been borrowed, and paid back out of profits.
Golden Fleece Mine.—The Golden Fleece shoot was found by Patrick Hunt very shortly after the discovery of the Ajax shoot. Up to the time of the amalgamation with the Ajax Company in 1876, the company that had been formed to work it did not do much good, although it raised a fair tonnage of quartz, but after the merger the Golden Fleece Extended Company operated with great success for a number of years. Between 1876 and 1884 it crushed 24,877 tons of stone for a yield of 31,871 oz. gold, valued at £121,542 12s. 9d., out of which £55,000 was paid in dividends. In the latter year a re-formation of the company seems to have taken place, the name being altered to the Golden Fleece United; but after this the company did no good. By this time the Ajax shaft, from which all work was carried on, had been sunk to a depth of 742ft., and six levels were opened from it. Of the two shoots of stone then known to occur in the joint claims, the southern, or Ajax, shoot was mined down to the bottom level, but the northern or Golden Fleece shoot, which was the richer and larger, cut out between Nos. 4 and 5 levels, and was not subsequently found. For four years following 1886 the mine was practically abandoned. In that year, or early in 1887, a large slip came down which did great damage to the winding plant, nearly all the working-parts of the machinery being broken. By the end of the latter year the plant had been largely renewed or repaired, but evidently no resumption of underground operations took place till about 1891, when a few men were put on to pick up the old No. 5 level. In 1892 some parties of tributers retimbered No. 1 level, and generally reconditioned the shaft, and stoped out some quartz left by the old company in the upper levels. By this time the Golden Fleece United Company had evidently ceased to exist, the claims having passed into the
