NEW ZEALAND GOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20977, 14 September 1931, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND GOLD.

SOME EARLY HISTORY. j, DISCOVERIES AT THAMES. MAORIS* CLAIM FOR REVENUE. STIRRING DAYS RECALLED. BY TAIAHA. No. I. Itecent intimations of new discoveries / ftf gold in the Thames field have had their echo in a petition to the authorities, on behalf .of natives formerly interested in lands affected by the discoveries, for the payment of royalties or for some revenue on the old basis of so much per head according to the number of men engaged in the recovery of the gold. It is understood that as the natives Bo longer own the land, their prospects of benefiting by the discoveries of gold thereon are slight, but the claim serves to recall some interesting incidents of the early days of gold prospecting in New Zealand and the canny attitude of even the unsophisticated Maori of the early sixties toward exploitation of mineral resources. Tales of the discoveries of gold in the South Island have been surrounded with a glamour of romance, but it is unlikely that the actual incidents were more romantic—in the sense of adventure—than those associated with the prospecting of the North Island gold areas. The early days of the industry in the Auckland province were also those of extreme disquiet among some of the Maori tribes and always there was the danger of a small spark of excitement giving rise to a conflagration 4 hat would cost lives and treasure more precious than any gold that might be won. On the other hand, there were always men of daring who looked upon regulations as bonds for the townsman and the husbandman only and who braved the perils to themselves and to their fellowpakehas for the sake of the yellow metal. Turning the pages of the records dealing .with those early days, one cannot escape ihe conviction that some of these men yrere of the stamp of the old privateers, whose doings received official blessings so long as they did not involve authority in the mastication of humble-pie, or fail to return from their cruises laden with the rich loot of their traffic. Breaches Overlooked. In one instance at least the sanctity tof native lands was broken by a pros.pector, the officialdom of the day overlooking both the breach and its immediate consequences as the result of an offer to bpen up the land to prospectors generally, on payment of a certain sum for every prospector admitted under Governmental authority. In other cases actual prospecting generally anticipated the making of agreements for gold-seeking between the Crown and the native owners of land involved, and throughout the history of prospecting in the North Island at least the feverish pursuit of fortune by individuals succeeded in carrying the State machine along with the current and in procuring fresh agreements with native pwners as necessity arose. It must be borne in mind that native ownership/ of land was then a very warm topic and that hasty trespass upon a Maori block might easily lead to violence —and often did, in fact. When in 1851 Mr. C. Ring obtained auriferous quartz and some fine gold from the Kapanga Stream, Coromandel, and claimed the reward of £SOO offered by a committee of gold-exploiters for the first discovery, the number of prospectors interested ■was so great, that the Lieutenant Governor of the day, Colonel Wynyard, found it necessary to enter into arrange-, ments with ihe native owners of the land to pfermit thei search for gold between Cape Colville and Kauaerenga, near Grahamstown. The terms of this first agreement included payment of £6OO for any number of prospectors up to 500, £9OO for any number between 500 and 1000 men, and £ISOO for any number between 1000 and 2000; in addition to a per capita payment of 2s for each licence or miner's right. The natives were permitted, under the bgreement, to dig for gold on their own account, but were not allowed to permit pthers that privilege. South Island Discoveries. About 3000 miners commenced operations on the Coromandel field, but fresh discoveries elsewhere left the field practically abandoned after a time. William Lightband had in the meantime discovered gold near Coflingwood, in the South Island; John Rochfort had done the same in the Buller district, West Coast, in 1859-60, and Gabriel Reed's success at Tuapeka, Otago, fired the blood of the fortune-hunters in 1861. These discoveries gave the South Island fields far greater attractions than those offered Sn the North. It was in the year of Gabriel Reed's success at Tuapeka, however, that the Coromandel field again became a centre of mining operations. In the meantime, the arrangements entered into by Colonel Wynyard with the native landpwners had lapsed, and it was necessary to make fresh terms. On November 9, 3861, the Lieutenant-Governor and the natives agreed that gold could be sought from the Waiau River, near Coromandel, to Cape Colville, but the terms were left in abeyance to see whether the prospectors would respond to the possibilities opened up. By 1862, some 300 miners had gathered on the field, and as disputes began to arise between the diggers and the natives/ Mr. (afterwards Sir) Donald McLean, the principal native officer, proceeded to Coromandel to negotiate with the natives. Hostilities Interfere. That was before the days of the Young (Maori Party, but there was already in existence a Native Land League, which offered a great deal of obstruction to the negotiations/ Eventually, however, on 'June 27 of that year, an arrangement to allow of mining on the Tokatea block at Coromandel was arrived at. The benefit to the native owners was represented by a guarantee of £SOO per annum for the first 500 miners, and £1 per head for any number in excess of 500. In the following month, other lands were opened on the basis of £1 per head per annum. June 28, 1862, marked the proclamation cf the Coromandel goldfield by Mr. H. U. Turton, as mining commissioner. The commencement of hostilities with the Waikato natives in the middle of >1863 again caused the desertion of the Coromandel district by its mining population. About one-third of the Thames tribesmen joined the insurgents, but after the fall of Rangiriri in November, 1863, they returned to their homes. In 1864, thoughts were turned to this Thames as a possible source of gold, and a report from Colonel Chesney in that year, to the effect that ; gold had been discovered at Te Aroha, gave a strong incentive to the . search. Copies ol photographs taken Oy New