September, 25: It would seem that another minor gold rush is pending in the Matakanui district, where payable wash has just been discovered by a syndicate of six. Lately there has been a general scurry for claims and pegging has been carried out far and wide on all sides of the site of old Mount Morgan Sluicing Company's claim, and it is reported that interest in the locality is quickening every day.
The rise of this new field has followed the discovery of rich alluvial wash at Mount Morgan by a syndicate of six who have been working in the vicinity for a long time.
Mr J H Fulton, a member of the syndicate, gave some particulars to the find to a Daily Times reporter yesterday, and explained that the actual spot was the claim which was worked continuously for about 15 years by the Mount Morgan Company early in the present century.
Encouraged by the fact that this company secured an average return of from 1s to 2s per cubic yard from the wash, his syndicate decided to prospect the claim again.
A shaft was sunk in the middle of a large flat which makes up the bulk of the 127 acres controlled by the syndicate, and by the time they had gone down 27 feet they had found two washes, one of which was three feet thick.
He produced a sample of assayed gold from this wash, together with a report on the gold by the School of Mines.
Returns in this particular spot indicate a yield of £8 15s 3d per cubic yard, but Mr Fulton wished to emphasise the fact that there was no suggestion that the field would average anything like that yield.
It would be necessary, he pointed out, to prospect the whole area by boring before a conclusion could be reached on that point, although there was sufficient evidence on the claim at present to encourage a belief that it was one of the richest alluvial deposits in Central Otago.
Asked why the Mount Morgan Company abandoned what would appear to be a very rich field, Mr Fulton said that the company had had to cease operations on account of inadequate water supplies.