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 Gladstone Claim, and a new company, the Sir Charles Russell, was formed in 1890, which took up the new find as well as part of the old Gladstone ground. An adit was driven from the south side of the hill on which Trig. El is situated, which crosscut the country for 50 ft. before intersecting the reef, and then followed the latter for 200 ft. The stone is said to have averaged 2 ft. in width, but to have been very bunchy and irregular. A second adit was driven 170 ft. below No. 1, with its portal on the northern side of the hill. This adit crossed the country for 700 ft. before it reached the reef-channel, along which it was subsequently extended for 1,600 ft., 400 ft. of which was in the adjoining Dillon Claim. A winze was also sunk on the stone for 96 ft. from No. 1 adit, and at this depth an intermediate level was opened out, from which a connection was made to No. 2 adit. The reef is said to have had a north-north-west strike and a steep westerly dip. On the intermediate level, which was evidently the lowest point to which the reef was traced, it is reported that it was 18 in. wide. In 1893 the company purchased a ten-stamp battery formerly used at the Supreme Mine, and re-erected it on the south bank of the Waitahu River, about 35 chains from the mine, connecting it to the latter by means of an aerial tramway. The stone above the intermediate was stoped to surface, but did not amount to more than 881 tons, which yielded 597 oz. gold, valued at £2,368 5s. 7d.

Beyond the extension of the No. 2 adit into the Dillon Claim, nothing more was done on the Sir Charles Russell till 1912, when it was taken up again as the Pride of Reefton; and some further prospecting was done on it, without, however, any more satisfactory result being met with.

Dillon Mine.—This adjoined the Sir Charles Russell on the south, and was on the same ore-channel as the latter mine. The original Dillon Gold-mining Company was registered in October, 1891. An adit was driven into the claim from the opposite side of the gully from the portal of the Sir Charles Russell No. 1 adit. This cut the ore-channel at 75 ft. in, and followed it for some distance, but the lode was found so broken and poor that work was abandoned. The company then sank a winze about 7 ft. from its northern boundary to a depth of 106 ft., the upper 50 ft. of which was on stone said to have shown gold freely. In 1896 the Sir Charles Russell and Dillon Companies merged under the title of the Dillon Extended, and the No. 2 adit of the former was advanced to come under the Dillon winze, with which connection was made by rising. No plans of these workings exist, and for lack of them it is difficult to say what the precise extent or nature of the development work carried out by the reconstructed company amounted to; but it seems fairly certain that, as far as the Dillon Claim is concerned, no other work than that described was done on it, and the only record there is of any crushing from the claim is that of a parcel of 90 tons, treated in 1897, which yielded 52 oz. gold, valued at £201 10s. This quartz was taken from the upper part of the winze sunk near the northern boundary. All the old official reports regarding the claim being very incomplete and somewhat contradictory, it is impossible to determine whether or not any stone was found other than that in the winze; but the Mines Reports of 1898 (C.–3, p. 16) seem to indicate that in extending the No. 2 Sir Charles Russell adit one short shoot, from 2 ft. to 3 ft. in width and 30 ft. long, was struck; but the quartz must have been poor, for no stoping was evidently done on it. The claim has been idle since 1899, and it cannot be said that there was anything in the early work done to justify further prospecting on it.