DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CANTERBURY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1055, 20 December 1862, Page 4

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CANTERBURY.

We have received information of the discovery of gold on the' West Coast of this Province by Captain Dixon, of .the schooner Emerald Isle, and o? his having through Mr. Oakes, of the Golden Fleece, put in a claim for the £1000 promised by the Government for tho discovery of a payable field. Besides the claim of Captain Dixon, one has also been put in by a Maori, native of the district where the discovery has been made. On Wednesday night a Maori named Ihaia Tainui arrived in Christchurch with a packet from

Capt. Dixon for Mr. Oakes, of the Golden Fleece. The packet contained a letter, and several small specimens of gold, about dwts., which the writer found under the circumstances stated in the following extract with which we have been favored by Captain Oakes :~ " Taramakau, West Coast, " December 7th, 1862. " Province of Canterbury. Oakes— Dear Sir, —I send yrfu a sample of gold that I dug yesterday; this is the second place m which I found gold. The sample I send you now I got out of two buckets of earth, so I will leave you to judge what it is like. I think it will be the richest diggings in New Zealand. There is about 18 feet of washstuff. There is a gully close to this spot which is very rich In one creek where the water was running very rapid, I put the shovel down and took up very little stuff on account of the water running so strong. . I washed it out, and got four specks of gold out of it. You may therefore guess the rest. There is not the slightest trouble in turning the course in any part of it. It must be very rich at the bottom. It: puts me in mmd of California diggings. There is a good fall, for the water. I think this sample you will find to ii l anc * P ure I wish you to exhibit it to all who may wish to see it. I can give to the superintendent every satisfaction concerning the m locality, as to being good and in payable quantities. If you can make up a good party, I will take them to the spot on my return. You may publish in the papers this news if you wish to do so. The Emerald Isle is the first vessel that eyer entered this river: we are also the first white men that have been here, so the natives inform us. Hoping these few lines will find you all well, in haste, yours respectfully, "Thos. Dixon, " Master Schooner Emerald Isle." . Mr, Oakes, agreeably to the wish of Capt. Dixon, called at the office of the Provinical Secretary at an early hour on Thursday morning, and entered a claim for the Government reward; whilst there, the Maori messenger, Ihaia Tainui, also came in with a similar claim, written in his behalf by Mr. Stack, the native interpreter at Kaiapoi, in the following terms:— "Kaiapoi, Dec. 19, 18'62. _" Sir, —I wish to inform the public that I was the discoyerer of the gold lately brought over from the West Coast. ' Immediately on finding it I started for Christchurch to inform the Superintendent, and arrived here a few days ago. " I am, Sir, &c., "Ihaia Tainui. Ihaiah, it is said, turned white with astonishment to find that Capt. Dixon's claim was already put in, as he had no idea that that gentleman had made any pretensions to the discovery, or that the packet he had himself brought in for Mr Oakes contained any gold to support such a claim. From what Ihaiah has told us, we. gather that he had been some time ago at the Nelson diggings, and learned something of prospecting, but returned home a few months ago, and was struck with the resemblance of the strata about his own district to that where gold was being obtained on the Grey river, and Washing some of the sand in the creeks, found gold in it. On the 17th October he first made this discovery, and had formed the idea of making up a party to prosecute the search. He lives on the Taramakau, only a few miles from its mouth, and was surprised to see Capt. Dixon come up that river, asthe natives had never known it explored by a white man before. The Emerald Isle was at this time aground, and Ihaia, with an intelligent young half-caste named Henry George, helped to lighten the vessel, and get her afloat. They were afterwards engaged by Captain Dixon to bring a letter to Mr. Oakes, and had done so without knowing the nature of its contents, or anticipating that in doing so they were jeopardising their claim to the credit of first discovering a gold field in Canterbury. The gold brought by Ihaia is somewhat coarser than that sent by Capt. Dixon, and the former insinuates that it had not been washed out by Capt. Dixon at all, but obtained from some native who had been at the Grey. The Taramakau is a small river, whose mouth is a few miles south of that of the Grey. The country is accessible by land, as is proved by the circumstance of Ihaiah and his companion having made their journey that way, and reached Kaiapoi four days after starting. The Maori says he could make a bullock track in three weeks, which would bring the Taramakau within two [days journey of Cliristchurch, that he is sure there is a large quantity of gold in the district, but that the snow would prevent its b#ng worked in winter.