Prospects in Many Places.

Gold In The Islands.

MUCH interest continues to be sho vn in the possibility of discovering new and payable gold in the vari ous islands of the Pacific.

Investigation of promising gold pros pects is proceeding in the island of Bougainville, in the Northern Solomons.

As described elsewhere, there is a good deal of speculation concerning the pros pect of payable gold in the Central Solomons.

Some hopes were centred on obtain ing payable gold in the Island of Vanua Levu, in Fiji. A number of Sydney men are interested in the proposition.

Our latest advice, which is quite un official, is that the Fijian gold mine is not turning out so well, since the ma chinery was installed.

There is activity in certain directions concerning the possibility of obtaining payable gold in the highly mineralised island of New Caledonia. There is an alluvial goldfield at Galerine, which is five days’ travel from Noumea, on the eastern side of the extreme north of the island, near Oubatche. This field was discovered by deportees (French political prisoners) in 1877, and has never been developed. Those who have seen samples of the alluvial say that it is now worth £4 or £5 per ounce, and is typical sea-shore alluvial, without ironsand, and that it is evidently de rived from a vein formation not far away, as there is no sign of attrition.

About 2,000 worth of gold was taken out of this small field, but the natives in those days were very aggressive and probably caused the cessation of oper ations. Some of the nuggets were as high in weight as one ounce. A writer states that he has seen a certificate, signed by Monsieur Charles Loupias, who was Mayor of Noumea, setting forth that he had made ornaments from gold found on the Galerine gold field.