DEATH OF A FAMOUS PBOSPECTOR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9955, 3 April 1895, Page 4

DEATH OF A FAMOUS PBOSPECTOR.

Recent Tasmanian papers contain the news of the death and butial at New Norfolk of Gabriel Bead, the discoverer of one of the moat faruonn gold fields in these colonies, Gabriel's Golly. There are many among us now who took an active part ia the mad rash to the new field, the first payable diggings which had been fonnd in Otago, and almost) the first ia New Z-'nlaud ; bat on the other hand there are doubtless many to whom Gabriel's Gaily is bat a name, and who on have do Idea la these dall times of the excitement which ensued on the news of the discovery becoming known. It may therefore be of interest it we eive some details of the event which did "so much to brine the wealth of Otago into prominence. Eirly in 1861 Read, who was a native of Tasmania, bat who had wandered to Otago, set oab on a solitary prospecting expedition with a ecauty equipment and a week's provisions. Accoidlng to the letter which he wrote oa bla return to Major Kirthardson, Superintendent of the Province, he travelled inland about 35 miles and examined the ravines and tributaries of 'he Waitabana and Tuapeka rivers. "I examined," he wrote, "a large area of country, and washed pana of earth in different localities. I found at many places prospects which would hold ont a certainty that men with the proper tools would be munificently remunerated —and in one place for ten hours' work with pan and butcher's knife I was enabled to collect about 7oz of gold." Ia face of the fact that prospectors had for years been searching for gold, and that all the numerous discoveries which had been made hitherto bad proved to be " duffers," it was no wonder that Bead's news seemed too good to be trne. It waa known, however, that he had had Australian and Callforntan experience, and wneo, later on, he took a Mr Hardy, a member of the Provincial Council, with him to confirm bla report, that gentleman narrated his experience in the Council Chamber to a hushed and attentive House, "Ia company with Read he had, be said, prospected a block of country about 31 miles long by five miles broad, and in every hole they had sunk they found gold." Then set in the famous rash which was to make Gabriel's Gully a familiar name throughout the colonies and in half the miolng camps of the world. Read remained a prospector, and made farther successful discoveries, receiving as rewards two separate sums of £500 from the Government. His life was, however, says a contemporary, in the main a sad one, "A fall In the hunting field at an early age Inflicted on him injuries from which he never recovered, and made him subject to fits of violence and eccentricity which were a great soarce of trouble to himself and his friends. Of late years bis wanderings ceased, and he had the benefit of unremitting care and attention, and passed away quietly at a green old age. Many a comrade of bis In the o'd days and many a fortanite digger will join with bis Tosmanlan friends in saying,- ' Peace to his ashes.' "