OLD SKELETON FOUND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19218, 6 January 1926, Page 10

OLD SKELETON FOUND.

WEATHERBEATEM IN HILLS. THE MINING DAYS RECALLED. A "LONE DIGGER'S" SECRET. [BY telegraph.—own correspondent.] CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday. The discovery of a skeleton on land at the back of Golden Point, in the vicinity of what is known as the Garden Gully portion of the Reefton district, has uncovered what may bo an untold romance or pitiful story. Tho remains now lie at tho Reefton police station, and with them is a Ivropp razor, tho blade of which still shows a small portion of brightness, a pair of rnsty scissors, a pocket knife, some of tho glass of a pair of spectacles, and the lower part of a pair of boots. Reefton medical men consider that the remains must have been exposed to tho weather for at least 30 years. Writing to the Star this evening a correspondent says: " About 35 years ago, when Conn's Creek, Waimangaroa, near Westport, was in its heyday as a goldmining centre, a sensation was caused by the reported discovery of a very large nugget. It appeared that a ' lone digger' had arrived in Waimangaroa from the hinterland of Denniston, bringing with him a gold nugget, variously reported as weighing from 51b. to 151b. As was usual at that period, all details were jealously kept secret, and very little real information regarding the value of the find, and none at all regarding the location, became public. That a big • find had been made was evidenced to the local folk by the fact that the lucky digger held ' open house' at tho local hotel for a week, besides supplying all and sundry free with cigarettes and tobacco. Some weeks later the digger disappeared as mysteriously as ho had arrived, for none knew him or whence he came. " It was common falk on tho diggings at that time that various parties had intended to keep the digger under close observation, so as to ascertain where he had made his valuable discovery. Whether they did so, and with what result, has never transpired, but, so far as I know, he has not been heard of since. A report gained currency that he was murdered in the hills. The report was generally discredited as one of the numerous sensational 1 yarns' which were eagerly lapped up by those suffering from the 1 gold fever.'" Experienced diggers were firmly of opinion that tho ' mother lode ' of all the alluvial gold found in Conn's Creek and at Addison's Flat would bo' found somewhere in the ranges behind Westport. It is just possible that the ' lone digger ' had stumbled on the lode and kept his secret, and had lost his life in guarding it."