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was given expression to after the company had closed down, which somewhat lessens its value. It is quite likely that neither the reefs nor the values in the stone ever really showed the promise early reports would lead a reader to think they did, and that no method of mining or treatment would have given more satisfactory results; but in view of all the circumstances some slight doubt is left as to whether the field as a whole received as full a testing as it might have had.
WAIRAU RIVER FIELD.
What may be described as the Wairau River field covers an area drained by Top Valley and Armchair Creeks, which have their source in a range separating the Wairau Valley from the Wakamarina Valley and flow northerly into the former.
A number of auriferous quartz reefs were located in it, upon which much development work was done, but the results were not very satisfactory, the average value of the stone being too low to admit of any profit being made. The first discovery seems to have been made near the head of Top Valley Creek about 1889, when a reef was found outcropping on an elevated terrace. The Jubilee Gold-mining Company was formed to work this, and it erected a ten-head battery of very primitive construction, and put a number of test crushings through from the outcrops, with results that seemed to show payable values in the quartz. A commencement was then made to open the reef up systematically. Only very incomplete plans of the workings are available, but they serve to show that an adit cross-cut was first run in to cut the reef at 125 ft. This was followed by the putting-in of another adit to cut the formation at 160 ft., and up to November, 1900, when operations were suspended for a time, the reef had been driven on in this last level for 60 ft. north and 30 ft. south, and a connection made through to the surface for ventilation. In the following year work was resumed, but was confined to extending No. 2 adit, where values were evidently developed sufficiently encouraging to stimulate the management to materially improve the crushing facilities at the mine, notably by installing water-power in place of steam-power for driving the battery. Operations then continued steadily for several years.
In the meantime several other small mines were opened up in the same locality. One of these was known as the Wellington, owned by the Wellington Syndicate. It may here be remarked that this particular period of New Zealand history was one in which the carrying-on of mining effort had to depend on small-syndicate-financing, very little money coming from outside the colony for the purpose, with the result that many small mines that were prospected were tested but very indifferently. The funds of the syndicates were usually strictly limited, and unless good values were struck almost from the start the available money was soon used up, and operations came to an end. Further, in many cases it was impossible to carry out development necessary to prove the value of a find definitely, so the funds in hand were often spent in futile and unnecessary work. The Wellington Syndicate was evidently similar to scores of others formed at the time.
The Wellington Mine was situated on the Jubilee Range, about a mile and a half up-stream from the Jubilee battery. A strong outcrop was found, on which a winze was sunk to a depth of 35 ft., the reef proving to be from 2 ft. to 3ft. in width. Later on, two adits were driven on the
