IN ONE LUMP

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 40, 26 November 1938, Page 5

IN ONE LUMP

£IOOO WORTH OF GOLD.

HANDLED BY ASHBURTON FARMERS.

AN EXPERIENCE IN ALEXANDRA

(From Our Own Reporter.) CROMWELL, November 23

To handle a piece of gold, worth £IOOO and run their 'fingers through a heap of small nuggets was the experience of some members of the Ashburton farmers’ party at Alexandra this morning.

By chance it was discovered that the manager of one of the banks was Mr Frank Whitelock, who some years ago was on the staff of the Bank of New Zealand in Methven. Hearing that the party was interested in the gold-mining that was going on all around them, Mr Whitelock permitted a number of them to enter the bank at an early hour, and there he placed before them a piece of gold that took an effort to lift with one hand.

Though they smiled as they took up the precious metal, there was something of a feeling of awe among the farmers as they tried to realise the great worth of the metal, which looked as if it had been poured, molten, into a breakfast cup. Its size was about the dimensions of the inside of a cup: In a tray alongside • there ■ were thousands of flakes of gold, looking, except for the colour, like so many small bread pellets that had been tramped on. All tlie banks in Central Otago have a sign paintecf. on the windows, reading “Gold Office,” and there, the, prospectors and mining companies may turn in their gold for cash. Purchases of gold are made by the banks from all who can produce a licence, arid a prospector’s licence, issued by the Borough Council, costs five shillings.- .., r _.

An Electric Dredge. On the banks of the river which flows right against the end of the principal street in Alexandra there is at work a dredge operated by» electricity. It is hauled close to the bank and is slowly eating its way along, a yard or two a day, taking up everything that is worth -taking, and making a great deal of money for its owners.

When gold was first discovered in the river, thousands of diggers rushed to the locality, and so abundant was the gold that a mere scratching of the surface produced wealth, really big money. So. prosperous were the miners and so easily was the precious metal won, that the men went along the banks contenting themselves with these surface pickings. That came to an end, so they started over the territory again, this time using picks and shovels, with which (they removed a- comparatively deep section of the river hank. Again they made fortunes, and again this came to an end. Then dredges were put in to go deeper still, and fabulous sums were taken out of the ground (the best year the goldfields of Otago had was £7,000,000, and California’s best year was £10,000,000. A third time the ground was gone ever, with larger dredges, and the operations paid handsome dividends. Now the electric dredge is going over it for the fourth time. To the layman this might appear to be a useless procedure, but far from it. This dredge will, on production for the first two days of the present week, bring in no fewer than 200 ounces, and gold is selling at well above £7 an ounce over the bank counters.

The power bill for the dredge is £lO a day, and the total expenses do not exceed the return from 50 ounces a week.

During the afternoon the party passed through a piece of country bordering on the Molyneux River. It is little more than a shingle dump, some of the tailings turned over and east to one side by the dredges after they have extracted the gold, and there is not a house anywhere near it. - ■ '■

Old-time Butcher’s Shop. Years ago, however, this was the rendezvour of thousands of miners who came from many miles up and down the river to purchase meat. A man set up a butcher’s, shop there, ferrying the sheep across the river,., but no one at this date, at least no one with whom the farmers’ party came in 7 contact, could tell where tfic sheep came from in the-first case., ; •' TULA 7

It was the only meat shop on the river, and the locality soon took on the name of Mutton Town, which it retains to this day, though there is not a stick or stone to show there ever had been a village there. This place is just outside Clyde.

Smothered in Thyme. At this point the party walked to the high bank of the river to obtain a closer view of the tailings, which make the region look so desolate. The bank was smothered in thyme, the odour from which was almost overpowering, especially to those who, feeling the pangs of hunger (it was close to lunch time) were reminded of stuffed goose!

Tt was explained by one of the local people accompanying the party that the gold was found in shingle known as “wash shingle,” which generally was located 30 or 40 feet, or even more, below the surface. It was in the search to these depths that the dredges threw up so much shingle as they moved relentlessly along the river. Not one yard of ground was left untouched. Mention has already been made ol the deserted and tumble-down miners’ shacks that have been seen in scores by the tourists, and to-day they saw many more. At one place where a large dam has been built to supply water to Alexandra Borough and foi the irrigation of a number of orchards they noticed a road running straight into the lake packed up behind the dam, and poplar trees were growing up out of the water. It wp.s stated

that the road, once the main road, led downward to anjhotel, which ,is now buried deeply beneath the waters of the dam. It was a noted rest-housG for the old-time miners but, like many of its habitues, it has been sunk into oblivion for ever.

The end of the day’s tour brought further sights that took the mind back to the mining days. This was when the party skirted the Molyneux River, from Clyde to Cromwell. The road was tar-sealed all the way, the surface tending to give a pleasant ride that has not been experienced since the ’buses left Palmerston on Monday afternoon. On the bank opposite to that on which the road runs, there were countless scorings where miners had hacked into the hillsides in search of gold. The ruins of houses stood forlornly above the workings, and at brief intervals there were small tunnels where the men had gone deeply into the mountain hoping to strike a good vein. Many of the shacks wore built of mud, and others of the huge flakes of stone which litter the area and which wore held .together with mud. Very little now remains of each house. One of the latter type, now only a tumbled heap of stones, was where the famous Champagne Bill lived. He used to walk into Clyde very often and, having struck it rich right from the start, insisted i'u drinking* nothing but champagne, with which he was accustomed to treat all who cared to join him.