page 466

Gold.

On page 264, I Have already given a description of the interlaminations and smaller aggregations of quartz, in the Waihao formation, which to a certain extent are auriferous, and of a few reefs found in the same series of beds. Besides the small samples of gold obtained in the Upper Waihao, washed from little patches of alluvium, there is not the least doubt that, from the disintegration of the rocks of the same formation, forming the eastern watershed of the Southern Alps, gold in small quantities has been liberated, as evidenced by the fine scaly gold obtained from some rivers of the Mackenzie Country.

However, the necessary conditions for the formation of a payable goldfield have in all cases been shown to be altogether wanting. The opaline nature of the quartz reefs at McQueen's Pass (Banks' Peninsula) showed at once, according to the experience gained in other countries, that they would not be auriferous, a point to which I directed attention at the time. Since then, this has been confirmed by a number of analyses made at the Colonial Laboratory (5th Annual Report, 1870) showing that the average amount of water in nine specimens from that locality was 2.73 per cent, the average of five other specimens from other reefs known to be auriferous, giving only an average of 54 per cent. The gold said to have been obtained during the gold fever of 1865—70 in the Malvern Hills, near Oxford, or even on the very Canterbury plains and in several other localities, proved to be either iron pyrites, or to put upon it a charitable construction, had been lost by some accident.

Similar errors occurred in many spots amongst the siliceous slates (cherts) belonging to the Mount Torlesse formation, which were mistaken for reefs, and where actually gold was sometimes found in small pores, also as I trust, got there by some fortunate chance, from the pockets of an anxious prospector, wishing to gladden the heart of some unlucky shareholder. Even amongst the white marbles of the Malvern Hills, standing at a very high angle, and mistaken for quartz, notwithstanding that its nature was repeatedly explained to enquiring prospectors, trial shafts were sunk in search of the precious metal. In those days the Provincial Geologist was the most unpopular man in Canterbury, because, instead of pandering to public opinion, he tried to save the pockets of the people, and the useless expenditure of valuable energy, worthy of a better cause. And he has had at least the satisfaction that many of his fellow colonists, who in those days considered him page 467almost an evil omen when he came near their goldfields, have now recognised that at that time he only was doing his duty towards them, and the people at large.