DEATH OF OLD MINER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18389, 3 May 1923, Page 8

DEATH OF OLD MINER.

70 YEARS IN. GOLD QUEST, EARLYi RUSHES RECALLED. [BT TEX.EQBAI?B\— CORRESPONDENT.] "WHITIANGA. Wednesday. The death/ occurred at Coromandel recently of Mr. W. A. Surflen, in his 87*Jh year. He had been identified for 70 years ■with mining in the colonies. When 17 years old, ho joined the Australian Gold Mining Company. This company early in 1852 landed in Sydney 40 Cornish miners, with horses, carts, drivers and a plentiful supply of machinery that proved useless. The company's method was.to send out a fast rider to a new rush to peg out a number of claims and pay the license fees. Then the company's minora followed to work the claims. The , claims were exceedingly rich and coarse virgin gold ■■ was ' easily seen as tho washdirt was broken. Perhaps it was too easily seen, as it ' is said that not much of the heavy stuff reached the company. . Only a divergence of the company's operations into gold buying saved .the. situation, Mr. Surflen being employed in the new business. The rew venture was decidedly profitable when gold was bought at £2 per ounce and afterwards sold in England at about £4. # Mr. Surflen, however, elected to try his own fortune as a digger and at the end of 1852 was on the Ophir diggings, working within a few yards of where Hargravea found the first gold in Australia in 185.1. After an experience of some of the most famous rushes, Mr. Surflen made his way to Now Zealand to join the rush to the West Coast. He had a claim on the* Black Sand lead. Here the black sand was sft. thick with gold in fine particles, so evenly distributed throughout that a* teaspoonrul taken out of any part of the! mass showed the precious metal. *' The discovery of the Thames goldfield drew him northwards, and at the Thames he pegged out the well known Waitem&ta claim,' adjoining the Nonnariel ground. After mining for a time at Coromandol he "went to Australia, returning to Coromandel a short time ago, where he spent his last days.