Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/219

Rh anxious to know what the next alarm would be. A second call brought down the loud cry from the top, “Engine and house carried away; engine-driver killed; come up the winze!” Off started Trennery up the muddy ladders, and all hands quickly behind him. When we reached the second level the rain was coming down in torrents. It had come down, we were told, like a waterspout, immediately after we entered the tunnel, and the whole place was flooded. The engine-house was smashed to atoms with a land slip, and poor Williams, the engine-driver, was killed by the engine falling on him. Two minutes more, and we would have been on our way up the shaft. I mention this as an instance, though rather an unusual one, of the dangers which do, at times, attend mining underground.

Mr Jonathan Harrison, F.G.S., writing to the Colliery Guardian, thus refers to his visit to the Reefton mines:—“I was highly interested when standing on the ranges, 1500 ft. above the river, to see such indications of enormous belts of gold-bearing quartz reefs, extending for miles, with a strike north and south; also looking south-east the mind is at once struck in contemplating the future greatness of this vast and inexhaustible gold-mining district. These ranges, whose tops and heights for hundreds of feet have been denuded of their micaceous slate, have parted with their precious metal from the eroded quartz reefs during the drift period. Nature has done a great deal to help the gold-mining in this country, as the rocks which have been ground down must have been something enormous in lifting up these huge ranges, and tearing and rending the rocks of slate into various forms and shapes. The quartz reefs, in the grinding process, have been pulverised so fine that they have parted with their gold, hence the enormous deposits of shingle or drift in the Grey Valley, and, in judging by the past, some of the reefs in the district will be found of great richness in the future.

“The reefs of the West Coast yield, on an average, 1 oz. 4 dwts. to the ton. This vast reefing country extends for two hundred miles, a large portion of which the foot of the white man has never trod. A large amount of slate rock is covered with drifts; the soft gold-bearing reefs have been carried down the creeks, clearly showing this is a fine field for a prospecting syndicate to raise money and go to work with a diamond drill. A prospecting license for three square miles can be taken up for one penny per acre for one year.

“In the Souvenier claim, at Reefton, a magnificent lode of rich antimony has been discovered 6 ft. in width and a great distance in length, this antimony carrying a good percentage of gold, making it of great value. The antimony, when smelted, is worth £70 per ton. The district is unique, and good openings are offered to English capitalists.

“On the proposed route of the East and West Coast railway from here viâ Reefton to Christchurch, and about thirty miles east of Reefton, the granite ranges set in, near which some stream tin, copper, and other minerals have been found.”