A panorama of Alexandra in 1912, showing the Molyneux River
and Dunstan Flat on the left and the Manuherikia River on
the right. - Otago Witness, 20.11.1912.
The Alexandra Herald has published, an interesting
account of the operations of the Teviot-Molyneux Gold Mining
Company, which has been at work for years past patiently
investigating the value and extent of the auriferous deposits
of the extensive flats beginning about two miles below Roxburgh
and continuing for some seven miles down the river to Ettrick.
This part of the river has always been poor, though for miles
above and below the river had been rich, and there existed a
suspicion from the earliest times that the present bed is not
the one the river occupied in the ages when it was running
its golden sands to the sea.
The promoters of this company, by boring, have, at a cost of
2000, traced the course of the old beds through the flats
referred to, with the result that an approximate value for
two sections of the old bed - one a mile in length and the
other one mile and a-quarter - has been arrived at 7d for the
first and 5d for the second. No rich deposits have been
struck in the bores, though it is believed that such exist in
the claims.
The gold is in seams which occur from within a few feet of
the surface at intervals to the bottom, from 80ft to 100ft
below, the best seams being below the surface level of the
present river, and never before touched.
The bottom of the old river is 60ft below the surface level
of the present river and has never been reached by any
dredge, though many on its course, which in some places must
follow the present river, must have dredged on top of it.
The company's estimate of the quantity of deposits tested and
proved payable in its holdings is 22 millions of cubic yards.
Its estimated turnover is 830,000 cubic yards per annum, at
which rate the ground tested will last for 27 years.
• The Christchurch Press states that complaints have been
made by some of the owners of small grazing runs on the
Canterbury foothills, of mysterious losses of sheep, in some
cases amounting to as many as 200 off a single block. A very
careful examination of the ground failed to reveal anything
like the number of carcasses that should have been present if
the deficit had been caused by deaths, and the conclusion
arrived at is that the sheep must have been purloined, as the
fences are all in good condition and were sheep proof.
• A letter received from New South Wales indicates (says our
Auckland correspondent) that in the country districts the
trials of the Australian summer are worse this year than
usual.
In addition to heat and dust, the summer has brought with it
a great plague of flies, and in the Riverina and the western
districts they are so bad that it is impossible to venture
abroad without fly-veils.
- ODT, 30.11.1912.
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