WEST COAST PIONEERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 180, 4 September 1914, Page 5

WEST COAST PIONEERS.

DISCOVERERS OF GOLD. GOVERNMENT RECOGNITION RECOMMENDED. fProm oar own Parliamentary Reporter.], WELLINGTON, September 3. In the House this evening the chairman of the and Mines Committee (Mr R. Scott) that the Committee had considered the petition of Mr James Kelly, of Nelson, who prayed for compensation as the erer of gold at Reefton, and recommended the petition to "the immediate and favourable consideration of the Government.

Several members heartily commended the case of Mr Kelly to the consideration of the Government. They said it was undoubtedly the fact that he had been the discoverer of payable gold on what has since become a very valuable goldfield. Mr Kelly is now 82 years of age, and this is the fourth time that his petition has been favourably reported on, but the Government has never done anything for him. The Minister of Mines (Hon. W. Fraser), expressed the opinion that the case -was one in which the Government could grant relief. (Hear, hear.). The Mines Committee brought down a similar recommendation with regard to the application for relief made by P. C. Gabriel, who was the first man to discover gold on the West Coast about half a century ago. Mr Gabriel and another man, who left the Dominion a few years ago, and had been lost sight of, walked from Dunedin to the Coast, blazing a way through dense forest. The journey took them about a fortnight. Mr Gabriel is also now a very old man.