THE HISTORY OF COLLINGWOOD.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 6962, 16 January 1888, Page 5

THE HISTORY OF COLLINGWOOD.

[By " The Warrigal."]

Collingwood, Golden Bay, or Massacre Bay. Whichever you like, for it is a matter of indifference whether you give it the one name or the other. "When that old navigator Tasman sailed away in disgust, leaving the murdered bodies of some of his crew behind, he called it Massacre Bay, and to those who prefer its earliest baptism of blood and mystery, let it so remain; but Golden Bay it is now, and with that name began the history of the place; and to most people its more recent baptism is the most interesting. Collingwood is about seventy-five miles from Nelson ; and, as I stated before, it is built on a low green peninsula, bounded to the west by the Aorere estuary, which forms the port of Collingwood.

What this district was like before 185(5 I canuot say. Rumours of gold being found there came to Nelson as far back as 1553. At Moutere, Takaka, Onakaka, the precious metal was certainly discovered ; but it was in 1853 that gold attracted the full attention of the people. Mr John Ellis and Mr John James found gold at the Aorere in the month of October in that year; and in December Mr G. W. Lightband and Mr Hough, accompanied byj some Maoris, visited the same place and discovered more of the precious metal. Then Mr Donald McGregor, an experienced miner, joined them, and they commenced digging, for we see by a letter In the Nelson Examiner of that time that McGregor reports having washed out 3oz of gold in four days, eight miles up the Aorere. In 1857, on 9th February, Messrs Fell Bros, sold the first gold obtained in the Nelson Province, soz from Collingwood, 2oz from Moutere. Thus was the discovery of gold proved a fact, and men went off one after another to the new diggings. Messrs Lightband and Hough settled down steadily to work, and in writing to his father, the former said that only 10s to 15s per day could be made by gold mining. McGregor and two others went prospecting towards the quartz ranges, assisted by a subscription, and tempted by a bonus of —150 if they discovered another goldfleld in that region.

After a short time no bonuses were re. quired to temptmen to search for gold, the whole Collingwood district was proved to be auriferous. Then came the stories of rich finds and the rush commenced. Vessels sailed from Wellington with parties of gold seekers on board. Miners came from Australia and many other places and flocked to Golden Bay in search of golden treasure. Then gullies became famous, and miners left their names on many a landmark. Every week the number of men on the field increased; every week more of the yellow metal was brought to light. Stories came of men making thirty and forty pounds per* day. Ordinary labourers were receiving £1 per diem as wages. Appoos Gully, Bedstead Gully, Slate River, and Lightband's Gully yielded great amounts of treasure. The whole district became peopled with busy miners. Aorere, the valley of the angry wind, became the scene of hazardous labour and rich rewards. The daik rocky gorges of the Parapara echoed with the sounds of eager excited men. Those wonderful iron hills—iron literally as well as figuratively —were scarred with blows from pick and shovel. Then was it that the real Collingwood was born and the scene of our earliest visitor's massacre, lost its mystery, its terror, and became Golden Bay In name and deed. It would be a great labour to write the history of these times, to relate the wonderful stories of rich finds, of sudden wealth, of hardship, danger, indomitable perseverance, reckless extravagance, poverty, riches j and all the strange wild mixture of events only to be found on gold diggings. In the beginning of April, 1837, 140—z reached Nelson, and six hundred men were at work on the field and before the end of the month the number of men had Increased to over a thousand. Four hundred and fifty men were at work in one smal] gully. In June Mr Mackay returned from his explorations in the quartz ranges and reported that more auriferous country existed to the south ; three or four hundred men were getting rich gold from the Slate River. In Appoos Gully men were getting two and three ounces per day. They were picking up gold on the surface of the ground; small parties were coming iv almost daily with bags of gold weighing hundreds of ounces. By-August £10,000 worth of gold had been sold in Nelson, and all through the year of 1857 nothing was heard of but rich finds and new fields. In the winter came terrible storms and floods and Mr Washbourno ! tells mc of dams being swept away, and ! mining tools, cradles, and long touis being carried oil' to-sea, and how the river rose twenty-eight feet through the sudden [ melting of snows, and that his beat, the | only one in the place, was swept away; but another one was built in two ehiys. Ib is impossible for mc to give even half the stories I have heard of those days, I can oulysay they were full of wild life and excitement. The Nelson Examiner estimates that from 1857 to 1853 nearly £70,000 worth of gold had come from these new fields; men picked out nuggets of gold from the crevices in the rocky | river beds. Flour waa selling at

fifty shillings the fifty pound

and so the work went on, and is going on still, though the alluvial workings are now poor and se*attered, and are not anything like those early places. In 18—' the Collintrwood held yielded over —40,400 worth of gold; in 1858 it reached £51,272, and then it gradually dwindled down, yet the totamount for the first seven years was £239,764 worth of the yellow metal, which, no doubt, built many a house in pleasant Nelson, and laid the basis of many a snug fortune. Carrying my thoughts back to those exciting early days has had the effect of making Collingwood appear very dull and deserted now, or perhaps the fierce wind from Aorere has blown away all signs of life. When the wind lulls, and I can go out without being in danger of taking a hurried flight seaward, I will describe what the district is like now, and on this resolution descend- a huge gust of wind which shakes the house, and whistles down the short, emptr atrneh. ,