NEW ZEALAND GOLD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21272, 27 August 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND GOLD

in' KO'x'Aliiii

COUTHERN FIELDS

> Sir Julius Vogel eilitecl, in 1875, an 1 Official Handbook of New Zealand. Ilis forward policy was based on two principles: the country must tie opened up I anil population must be attracted to it. i The handbook was part of his great > advertising campaign. People would not ; conic unless they knew what they were coming to. Like everything Vogel took in hand, it was' done with an air. 1 hav.e been searching its glowing pages for references to the first discovery of gold. I , find that in one place Blind Bay is given . (he honour. The date assigned 1 ' is 1856. [ Blind Bay is now called Tasman Bay; it t is the broad, blunt indentation at whose head stands the city of Nelson. There must be something wrong with that claim. Coroinandel had produced at least one thousand ounces in 1852, and I there were the Waikouaiti discoveries in Otago in 1851. Dunedin held an Exhibi- ' tion in 1865, and in a special report issued on the gold-mining industry it was stated ' as a matter of general agreement that > gold was first discovered in Nelson, at Massacre Bay, by Captain Wakefield, m I 1842. Yogei's Handbook seems to consider that statement of the case as authori--1 tative. The reference to Blind Bay may i refer to (he same field, which was not worked until 1856. If the honour goes to Massacre Bay, 1 notice the curious working of the hand of s fate. Tasman came to the South Seas it) ; quest of gold. He had a boat's crew cut off on (lie only occasion when he ventured close to tlie New Zealand coast. He ! called the place of his disaster Murderers' Bay. It was later changed to Massacre Bay ; Tasman's name seemed a permanent ' reflection on the inhabitants of the place.

Massacre Bay simply recorded the historical fact without further implications likely to affect the self-respect of settlers who made their home there. One might have some pride in living in a spot labelled Massacre Bay; but Murderers' Bay would take too much explaining away. In the very spot, where Tasmnn came nearest to a landing on our coast gold in large quantities was later discovered. and it seems that at, Massacre Bay New Zealand first, got, a hint of the vast wealth lying concealed in her rocks and sands and beaches. Even Massacre Bay was felt, to be an inadequato title. It has beNi Golden Bay these many years. New Fields.

Tlie Gabriel's Gully field was extra- „ ordinarily rich, but it. was limited in area, and there were very great difficul- ' lies in the working of some of the claims. The dipper had in many cases to carry all his wasii-dirt to the water, which might 1 lie a considerable distance away. The | claims were very small, twenty-four feet by twenty-four. Yet we hear of a party of three that took out three hundred 1 ounces of gold in five weeks, and there were others whose luck was even better. '• But as there were far too many men for the ground available, and many of the claims brought no return, a large body ; of skilled miners was left to carry out prospecting for new fields. The fossickers penetrated into the wildest and most_ remote regions. The provincial authorities offered a £2OOO bonus for the discovery of a new field, the sum to be paid only if 16.000 ounces wero produced in tnree months. As this sum represented the duty on that amount of gold the offer was not as generous as it seemed. Gabriel Read bad conceived it his duty to inform the public as soon as ho was certain a rich find was in sight. Naturally, not every discoverer had his sense of social obligation. It leaked out that in various parts of tbo province rich strikes had been made. For some time prospecting on the part of the majority became a frenzied search for the men who in some obscure valley or bend of a river had, it was believed, found sensational fields which they were working in secret. It became a sort of game of hide and seek set in some of the wildest country in all New Zealand's rugged landscape. Hartley and Reilly Two Californian miners, Hartley and Reilly by name, managed to keep secret their discovery of incredibly rich beaches on the Molyneux till they had collected 87 pounds weight of gold. Then they demanded their £2OOO bonus and set otf to their claim again with 10,000 eager men on their trail. So began the Dunstan rush. Hartley and Reilly had their names prominently before the public again in the gold dredging boom of the nineties. The Hartley and Reilly dredge worked the claim the old prospectors had found so fruitful. Luck seemed to follow their

very name. The claim proved disappointing until a drunken dredge-hand let the ladder run down out of control. It crashed through the hard pan on top of which the dredge had been working and penetrated an underlying layer which was even richer than the shallower deposits of the great Dunstan days. In one week more than £SOOO worth of gold was brought to the surface. The Arrow field was discovered by a Maori who, in his simplicity, told some squatters in the neighbourhood. Three parties worked frantically in secret, seeking to get. as much as possible for themselves before the inevitable revelation to the public. They were helped in their policy of concealment by a station owner who was in the, middle of his shearing, and did not wish to see his station-hands stampeding to the new diggings. _ Fossickers who dropped across tho hidden valley were allowed to stay if they kept the discovery from the outside world. The station owner, with his labour problem still pressing, helped the conspiracy of silence by providing stores, always a big difficulty. An indiscretion by one of the party sent to a settlement to get some supplies the station could no longer provide led to the usual rush and the advent •if the law and its authorities. Rut by

this time one party had 82 pounds of gold, and one of the pioneers had won 40 pounds in a fortnight. Snoiovei The last of the great Otago fields was on the Shotover. How this wild tributary of the Molyneux received its name I have never been able to discover. " Shotover ' is an ancient French place-name, a corruption of " Chateau Vert." A shearer who spent his Sundays doing a little prospecting found the first gold. He took out 200 ounces in a single day. With gold at about £3 16s 8d an ounce it was a little more profitable than shearing. That, the Shotover still can yield rich returns is demonstrated by the. latest developments. There are rumours all over New Zealand 10-day of fabulous wealth once more provided by the grim, turbulent old river. The river could be reached only by means of ropes. The early miners swung themselves willi their outfit down the precipitous cliffs. One of the richest clauns on the Shotover was at Maori Point. Two .Maoris had swum the river. Their dog was swept away by the current. One of thein went after it and managed to bring it |u land. There in its coat shone the gold it had gathered in its wild career when the current had swept it to the I bottom. Their firs! day's work on the area

discovered I'V their (wice-luck v <log brought in 300 ounces of 'J'hoy must have picked up the gold almost in handfuls. Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Over (lie old fields to-day Ihe prospector is trying to bring back the brave days of old. The area is wide, and it is no( likely that all the available fields have been tapped and all the hidden gold exhausted. And once again (he old romantic! names are on everybody's lips: Shotover, Kawarau, Roaring Meg, the Dunstan. It may be simply an attempt to escape the depression: but there may be something big in store. A new rush is at least within the possibilities, and the old tracks' may carry once more the eager crowds on the agelong quest for gold. ,