THE MAGIC OF GOLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1939, Page 10

THE MAGIC OF GOLD

A GREAT COLONISING AGENT Gold has been one of the greatest colonising agents in the world. It was gold that lured the Spaniards to the New World, and, though they were not true colonisers, great new republic did arise in South America as an outcome of their efforts. The discovery of gold fiy Edward Hargreaves in New South Wales, during ihe year 1851, is one of the mostimportant events in the history of Australia. Before that time Australia was ruled by squatters, who worked their huge sheep stations with a minimum of labour, a good deal of its convict. This state of affairs suited the squatters, some of whom even dreamt of founding an Australian aristocracy. But it would have been a bad thing for Australia if it had continued. The discovery of gold worked a complete change. It was not so much the wealth that the gold was able to buy, though that was important, for it assisted greatly in the development of the country; but what was more important was that the gold brought thousands of much-needed immigrants flocking into the country, strong resolute men, and not by any means so bad morally as popular imagination has painted them. New Zealand benefited, similarly, from her gold rushes. During the sixties, in spite of the Maori wars which kept the North Island in a ferment and retarded its development, great progress was made in the South Island. It would be a mistake to suppose that this was solely due to the fact that, there was no fighting- in the South Island. Would-be settlers in the Ohl Country were too far away and most of them had too little knowledge of New Zealand to be influenced by the vastly different state of affairs prevailing in the South Island as compared with the North, and as a matter of fact the Maori wars did have the effect of diminishing the stream of regular immigrants to a very marked degree. What saved the situation was the discovery of gold. Gold was found in payable quantities in Otago, in 1861. When it became known that Gabriel Read, after whom Gabriel’s Gully was named, had won £25 worth of alluvial gold for ten hours’ work, there was an immediate rush. The Scots of Dunedin were not greatly over-joyed at the news, at first. Their Presbyterian upbringing made them shudder at the prospect of roaring, licentious mining camps, but their natural canniness at the thought of turning not a few honest pennies overcame their religious scruples, and half Dunedin flocked to the diggings. Diggers, too, came pouring in from Australia at the rate of 1000 a day at one stage, and the population of Otago, which was 12,000 in 1860, had risen to 79,000 by 1863. The year 1865 was marked by an even greater gold rush, that to the West Coast. Up to this time the West Coast was practically unknown to the white man.. Very few had ever visited it. The discovery of gold wrought a mighty change. Thousands of men flocked to the new diggings, and, as a result, more was done for the 'development of the West Coast in a few years than might have been done in a few decades had not gold been found. For example, it led the Canterbury Provincial Government to connect Christchurch and Hokitika by road, by way of the Otira Gorge. Perhaps not many who have driven over this road know that the road through the Gorge was made as far back as 1866. It is true, of course, that the production of gold quickly -declined and that a period of depression followed. But this was a passing phase. The beneficial effect of the gold rushes lay not in the few million pounds worth of gold that was produced, but in the thousands of hardy new settlers that New Zealand gained.