TONS OF GOLD

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 301, 4 December 1931, Page 11

TONS OF GOLD

GREAT DAYS OF THE THAMES THE RUSH OF ’67. THE FAMOUS SHOTOVER. Time was, in the roaring ’sixties and ’seventies, when actually tons of gold were trundled through the streets of the mining township of the Thames, New Zealand, ites "L.C.W.” in the ‘‘Sydney Morning Herald.” Thousands of seasoned miners and prospectors, casual fossickers, and adventurers, rushed the mining area on its proclamation as a goldfield on August 1, 1867. Ten days later news of the first great "find” was flashed through the colony and round the world. It was that of the Shotover, on Karunui stream, a famous goldcharged reef picked up by a party of four when fossicking for alluvial gold. The original finders —W. A. Hunt. W. Cobley, J. E. White, and George Clarkson—long since passed, left no authentic record of the manner in which they came upon tho amazingly rich reef. The main essentials of the story, however, are related by Mr. F. W. Weston, a Thames-trained journalist, and now a senior member of the New Zealand Hansard staff, in a Thames diamond jubilee booklet. They were sifted out from official re cords and personal interviews witn surviving pioneers of the goldfield. The Shotover reef was struck under a waterfall in the moss-covered bed of a creels which the minors were explor ing for alluvial gold. Whether they got the tip from a friendly Maori, or the find was brought about by the chance of picking up a gold-bearing specimen at. tho mouth of tho creek and following it up, is not on record. But this much is certain, that Hunt himself told a friend that the Maoris had. aided him in finding the reef, .hich he had per sonally inspected, but on he advice of the warden kept his knowledge secret, until the issue of the proclamation. The gold originally dug out, says Mr Weston, was so poor in quality that its discoverers were sceptical whether it reall- was gold until tests were made which assured them on the point. Curiously, the rich reef was found at the extreme northern limit of the area, which the Maoris had agreed to open to the pakeha miners. "The boundary,” says Mr. Weston, "passed right through the show of gold in the creek bottom, even cutting off the richest portion of tho gold.” “ut this difficulty was overcome, and the finders were enabled to re-peg the claim so as .to bring in the whole of the exposed gold. The lucky four, who exploited the Shotover, are said to have made at least £40,000 apiece out of the claim. But easy come, easy go. Their assured competence dwindled in later speculations, and some died in comparatively poor circumstances. OTHER BIG PATCHES. The bonanza of 1869-71 was the patch struck in the Caledonian, Golden Crown, and Manakau mines, on reefs which made the Thames famous, but even the did not yield, in the aggregate, the wealth that in later years developed in the famous Waihi mine. In the first six months of 1871 Cale donia produced 198,144 ounces of gold, and in the following six months 163,437 ounces, or a total of 361,581 for tie year, and paid divid nds of £l9B 10/ per share. The value of shares rose as high as £212 10/-. The gold vein petered out, and the shares tumbled to next to noth' But the boom period was by no means ended. The first returns from the field in 1869 aggregated 116,381 ounces, valued at £385,058, and in 1870-71 (Thames and Coromandel) 234,769 ounces, valued at £848,544, with an extra £20,000 worth of silver. It was computed that the amount paid in dividends in 1870 was well over £200,000, the Golden Crown Co. topping the list with the amazing return to its shareholders of £485 13/per share. In 1871 the same company paid a further £2Ol 7/6 per share, and the Caledonian £lOB 10/- per share on a total gold production of well over half a million. In the following year the Caledonian reached its zenith, dug up over half a million in gold, and paid out £195 10/- per share in dividends. The total yield from the field in that year was just on a million. Although quantities of gold were won in succeeding years, nothing of great moment disturbed Thamesites until 1877, when the Moanataiari Co. banked over 10,000 ounces of gold as a result of a week’s crushing, and Alburnia made tho remarkable crushing of 1177 ounces of gold from 75 tons of ore. When returns bad fallen to the lowest level the field had known, the Waiotahi bonanza was struck, and brought about an immediate revival. "In 1906,” Mr. Weston records, ‘‘the Waiotahi Co. crushed 4896 tons of ore, from which it obtained £73,884 worth of gold, and was able to pay £51,300 in dividends. These results were eclipsed by the returns in 1907, which were 82,640 ounces, valued at £223,678, and gave the shareholders another £lBO,OOO in dividends. Again, in 1908, 11,562 tons were treated for returns valued at £149,822, and the dividends were further increased bv £112,000.” The rich patch then practically petered out. Other gold-getters of the boom period included the still-famous Waihi mine, worth a story in itself. The total value of the Thames field ourpu*. between 1867 and 1924 ran to nearly £8,000,000. WHAT OF THF FUTURE? "Will the Thames as a goldfield ever regain its former glory? The question,” says Mr. Weston, ‘‘is often debated oy those old mine's who survil e, and is generally answered in the Scottish fashion, by another question —Why noti” Some of tho deep level mines are still wo-king on payable gold, but the common opinion of o!d--timtrs is thsi the field to this day has me-ely teen '‘surface scratched,” and that fortunes still await met, of grit and enterprise.