AUSTRALIA'S GOLD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9478, 16 December 1918, Page 2

AUSTRALIA'S GOLD.

A PIONEER'S ROMANCE

One evening, away back in ( 1.845, the. coach came down George Street, Sydney, and pulled up at the MarketStreet corner. A passenger alighted— a man getting on in. years. There was only a little boy to meet him, but tha^b was all he expected. The boy was about six years old, but he can still remember the incident.

''Here you are, Mo," the man said "Carry this bag into your father."

It was a small canvas bag, uot as big as an oatmeal bag. Its contents may have weighed 71b." But that bag contained the first gold discovered in Australia.

But let the little boy, now a man over 80, tell the story. ... His name is Moses Cohen, of Itawson Road, Haberfield, and his father in those days had a watchmaker's and 'jeweller's' shop ,in George Street, where Bateman's Hotel now stands.

" The man I met was ' Shepherd' McGregor," he says. ,"He was .a shepherd.on a run away out near Wellington.' He canie , down : to Sydney .now and again, with watches and. jewl plle'ry for :.my. father to mend. _ . ':. ''This evening I ,took the bag into the; shop, -bid McGregor, following close ■behind;, JMy'fathor, I -th'jnk'j' /was expecting it, for.ho had'received a letter from McGregor a couple of days before. I. laid it oil the counter, but my father took it into the parlour at the back..

.. " There he spread out its contents on the table.

"It seemed like a heap of fine, black sand, but here and there a gleam of yellow showed out. The black sand was emery, I learned afterwards. My father got a.large magnet out of the shop, and drew it across the heap. The little black grains rushed towards it. In about an hour and a-half there was a small heap of yellow left—all gold. It must have weighed 30 or 40 ounces. "My father paid the shepherd for the gold afterwards. I don't know how much, but I remember the thick roll of notes that he got. 'Here, 'Mol' McGregor said to me. ' Here's a shilling for you. Get off and spend it, and you'll be able to say one of these days you were the•, first white Austra-lian-born to carry Australia's first gold, and to spend the first shilling out of it.' „ ■ •

'.. " I spent; the shilling-on lollies in old. Sam's shop down the street. "As soon as McGregor was gone, my father put the heap of gold in the shop window. He wrote a. ticket out, and put it with the gold in the window. " This gold has been got from the ground in: Australia, . 300 miles away," it said.

"Thousands of people came to see the gold in the window. Governor Fitzroy.'himself came, and Sir Thomas Mitchell, Daniel Cooper and old John

Dawsou, the solicitor—all the notables, iit fact. .-.'..

"The most interested of them was Hargreaves, who had a store then on the road to Gosford. He used to come to my father's place often. "My .father, knew the locality where the old shepherd was getting the gold. Summer Hill was the land mark to locate it. Everybody wanted him to divulge the place, but he never let on to a soul, save my mother. Hargreaves was the most persistent. He would even come and stay to tea in tho hopes of getting it • out of my mother.

"This went on for perhapsl three years. All ' this- time McGregor was bringing gold down to my father's shop. He must have got thousands of pounds. ;

" Hcirgreaves went to California in '47 ov '48, to llio\gold rush that had, broken, out there. Some time afterwards my father, wrote to him and told him to pick up all lie could about gold-digging. Ho said that two of the Toms family wore always following McGregor about, ■. hoping to discover his secret. McGregor 'used to ■ leave his sheep in charge of a black boy,'aiid go on his expeditions alone. ' " Hargreaves. came- /back in . 1849. But.;my- father had died some time before. My mother had married again to a- man nanied Brockstayn, a German. She still bad-the secret close. Hargreaves pressed her to' divulge, ■but,, she'-.- said that' ,.;Brockstayn 1 -wouldhave , to 'accompany h'iin, ' and show him. Brockstayn, being a German, was no bnshmaii at all. At last Hargreaves got wild, and saw' Sir E. D. Thomson, the Attorney-General. He ordered my' mother to disclose the secret, vbut she still insisted on Brockstayn going, too. "At last Hargreaves agreed, and they, left together. That must have been in '49 or. '50. Old McGregor was still getting his gold, but Hargreaves came across the two Toms, who had heard the old shepherd boasting of his find in a hotel in Wellington. The Toms never' struck the shepherd's place. When joined by Hargreaves they were pottering about some of Old Mac's fossicking boles, near- Little Okey and Big "~ Okey" Creeks. The places were known as " The Dirt Holes' aivd ' Taniberura,' and -afterwards known as the Hargreaves District. All Mac's • gold was coming from Lewis Ponds. '

"Brockstayn and Hargreaves shortly afterwards had a row. Hargreaves was a- splendid busliman, and Brockstayn knew nothing about Australia, but he wanted to.teach Hargreaves how to go to work. Hargreaves just packed him off to Sydney. . ' .

"I was 11 years old at.this time, but I packed up and went off to try ami find old ' Shepherd' McGregor. I travelled mt'es, hut could neither find him nor any. news of him. He. had completely disappeared. The squatter he worked for could not tell what-had become of him, nor have 1 ever heard.

"Hargi'euves all this time was working right across country-with the two Toms to Louisa. Greek.. When the Tiiron field was, struck' he applied for and ;received thu Government's reward for ■ £20,000 for the. first gold discovery.. ■ ■-.■■ ■ .■'■■■'■

" The-. Governmbnt advertised to find tin; Cohens—my family—as the Attor r uoy-G'(;neral hold that- we were eiir titled to part of the reward. My mother was dead by this time," and my brothers scattered over the coum try. I was still searching for McGregor. None ot" us heard of the advertisemont till years aterwards. I put iii a" claim,' but it was too late." :