DUNSTAN GOLDFIELD

Grey River Argus, 22 November 1912, Page 8

DUNSTAN GOLDFIELD

I HOW IT WAS DISCOVERED. J REMINISCENCES OF THE HON. : • W.F"RASER. ) DUNEDIN, Nov. 18. t It is singularly fitting that the Mm- ' ister of Mines, the Hon. W. Fraser, , should be the 'representative of the ■ Government of the day' at the Dunstan diggers' s jubilee, in that it was he I who in the early sixties provided means " of subsistence to the discoverers of the [. goldfield. . r Mr Fraser first visited the district [" in January, ISO 2, when he went up to ? -Mr A. C. Strode's Earn&cleaugh run, ' and two months later he joined part- • ncrship with Mr Strode, in- the rrut.n t . • Towards the ned of April or eary in : May he first came, across Messrs Hartley and Riley, who informed him. that s they purposed prospecting the river f and asked- for permission to place 3 their horses on his flat. Their idea 1 was to work the opposite side of the 1 river (Mr Watscn Sherman's Moutere t run), pirovided they could get their - 'weekly supplies of mutton, tea and 2 sugar from Earnscleugh, The necesf sary consent was given and the prospectors used to cross over the river t every .Saturday in Mr Eraser's boat, - and get their provisions. .The whole ; of that winter Mr Fraser lived in a \ tent. • ■ \ . . ' : " »/ Towards the end of April, or early in • Messrs Hartley and Riley informed Mr :. Fraser that tliey did not intend stay- [ ing any longer, but would go some--1 where else to> search for gold. They r oppressed the opinion that thore was ;' bound to be good gold found in the . gullies all round about, or apparently i it was auriferous country, and after • catching their horses they ..rode off. '. Mr. Fraser "happened to leave- for : Dunedin a few days afterwards, and on ■ his arrival he heard that some Solb ' weight of gold had been lodged in the : bank, the report being that it had been found at the back of Mount Watkins, • near Waikouadti. The discoverers forwarded to the^ Provincial Government of the day a claim, and after some negotiations the- Provincial Executive agreed to give a reward of 2s 6d per ounce on the -first . 16,000. ounces brought into town, provided that the amount of gold was "sent down within three months. Thereupon Messrs Hartley , and Riley. disclosed that the. field of their operations had been the Dunstan. A rush at once set in and the discoverers receive-d. £2000 three months later, for in place of the stipulated 16,000 ' ounces being, lodged in Dunedin the ] escort brought down 30,000 ounces'. ' In mentioning the above facts the Minister lidded that. the route to Dune..stan in tin* early sixties was by cutter to Waik.ouaiti, where "Johnny . Jones." had a store on the Spit, and thence by waggon. A shorter xoute was. civcr the. Rock^ and Pillar, but no road Uud been formed.. Before the ."rush" days settlement was practically confined to . the runnolders, whose . stations were ten or twenty miles apart. Within a week or so there were 8000 or 10,000 people on the banks of the river. ■