PALMERSTOX GOLD PROSPECTING. +

Manawatu Herald, 21 January 1881, Page 2

PALMERSTOX GOLD PROSPECTING. +

INDICATIONS OF ALLUVIAL WORKINGS. The people of Palmerston are excited to a degree over their golden prospects > and well they may be, for if one half the rumours we hear from " the Borough " are true the settleis of this Couuty will before very long witness the opening of a good, payable r)narti%fieldi Thn energy beiug shown by our Palmerston fellow-settlers upon this rcattei 1 is greatly to their credit, as they must be aware that should their efforts to unearth the precious metal succeed, not only their own district, but the entire Coast would be largely benefitted. More power to them, say we, and if our hearty good wishes would ensure success they would have attained it long ago. Our special object in writing jusfc now is to give publicity to a matter which has not hitherto got into the papers, and though perhaps what we are going to say may at first sight appear insignificant, any alluvial miners who read these lines will agree that though only a straw it may show which way the wind blows. A few days ago the writer, in returning from Palmerston, fell iii with Captain John Mowlem, who owns a farm of about .'SOO acres adjoining the Minawatu river, on the Palmerston flat, and who voluuteered the following information. Some few weeks ago, Captain Moivlem w:u engaged sinking au Abyssinian well upon his property, and having sunk the required depth— between •JO and 30 feet— a very powerful Douglas pump was fitted on to the well. At lirst the pump clogged, but afiera little ell'u-t began to draw, and almost immediately commence! to bring up considerable quantities in heavy bhuk sand, mixed with which were a number of " flakes " of S'une bright substance, either gold or brass. The ciptain was the first to notice it. his a f tendon being especially attracted by the fact that the " stuff r '^unk to tlu bottom, and kept together. Several men who were working about the place at the time saw t, and of course declared it to bo gold, bur. as they were not practical miners, and simply hazarded a guess, their opinions carried no weight with Captain Muwlem, who ridiculed the idea of gold being brought up by the pump. His impression then was that the bright substance he saw was nothing but particles of brasr— the pump was fitted with a brass box— knocked off by the sand in its passage through the pump. B-ing so conviuced in his own mind that what he had seen could not be gold, C iptain j Mowlem took no steps to preserve any of it for testing, and the whole of the Mack sand cont lining it w.is thrown iuto a hole which has since b *en filled up. In the evening ova of the workmen on Captain Mowlem's farm went to Palmerston aud mentioned at the Ready Money Store whit had taken place. Next day a person went down to the farm to obtain a sample of the dirb and gold or whatever else it might be, but strange to say wheu the pump was put in motion it brought up nothing but grey sand, not the smallest particle of '• yellow " beiiif» visible. This simultaneous stoppage of the black wind and " brass " has rather staggered Ciptain Mowltm's theory of the particles having come from the brass box, and he now rt-greta that he did n<»t havo somo of it tested. He will sink anothe • well in a short time, when, if the same piiennmenon occurs, he will teat whether the substance is or ia not gold. As explanatory of the above, we may mention that black sand is a common accompaniment of gold in all classes of wasli- • lirt. Upon the West Coast, S.T., beaches, large quantities of gold are every year obtained from black sand, and considerable numbers of men all along the coast obtain their livinj? by working the black sand benches. The sand is washed up most frequently after h«avy westerly weather, and if we remember rightly the theory is that it is in the first place washed down to the sea l»y tho numerous mountain torrents which abound on tho West Coast. The gold is peculiarly fine and light. Tn somo parts it ib fine as flour, with small flakes plentifully intermixed, but more usually it is confined principally to very light flakes 14 like bran," as Captain Mowlem deBcribcd it. Poßsibly a deposit of auriferous black sand bad been mndo by the river, where Captain Mowlem's well was sunk. If the stuff really was cold bearing, we should think it most probable that the Abyssinian well sunk by Captain Mowlem has just touched the deposit of auriferous sand, which might be lying for several fa«t above the end of the pipe. Captain Mowlem intends tosinkother wells, but as the " leads " frequently dip or rise' them would bo no certnin way of reaching the deposit except by sinking a shaft, and thoroughly testing the ground, Th« l*y

aDd appearance of the Palmerston flat greatly resembles the appearance of the $uihara flit between Smdy Stewart's hill and tlieTeremakau river before the " rush " of 1876 broke out. Thw Palmerston people should ask Captain Mowlem's permission to siuk a shaft near his well, and test whether what he saw really was "brass scrapings," or whether it ind.cated prospects of alluvial gold.