EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26543, 19 August 1947, Page 4

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

FROM THE FILES OF THE ©tago ©ail? ©lines ' DUNEDIN, AUGUST 19, 1862 The Daily Times publishes a lengthy statement from Messrs Hartley and Riley concerning their discovery of gold on the Molyneux River. [The previously published statement that the 871 b of gold deposited with the Treasury in Dunedin was obtained from Mount Watkins, near Waikouaiti, was incorrect.] The two miners stated that they had started on their prospecting trip about February 1 and that about 12 or - 15 miles below the junction of the Manuherikia with the Molyneux they first obtained payable prospects. “The rich part of the river where we obtained the gold is between the Manuherikia and Upper Clutha Valleys. 'f; . For the first month or six weeks we were well satisfied with two or three ounces a day, but as the river became lower and we learned more of the nature and extent of the diggings ,we did not wash anything unless we thought it would pay about a pound weight a day—that is, six ounces each. . . . ’ The best dirt we found was the surface dirt on the bars. We did not usually wash more than from three to six inches of the top dirt. . We had nothing to do but to set Ihe cradle at the edge of the river and keep it going from morning to night, as one could get dirt and feed the cradle as fast as the other could wash.. From one crevice the two men' took 12oz in a few hours. They suffered many hardships, as they had to cover ' their tracks to and from their operations, and as a consequence at times ran short of provisions. “The conditions agreed to between the Provincial Government and Messrs Hartley and Riley, the discoverers, are that they are to receive a reward of £2OOO on receipt in three months of 16,0000 z of gold, the produce of the 1 locality. The men are to give every i possible information as to the gold - ■ producing spots. . . . The goldfield 1 is to be not less than five miles from any place where 100 miners are working.” “The men state that they were tracked and discovered by a Victorian ; miner to the very spot where they were getting their richest yields on one of the river bars, but so ignorant i was he of the system of working that i they succeeded, by doleful statements 'of disappointment, in disarming his -suspicions.” “On Saturday afternoon was witnessed a sight joyous to the hearts oi all beholders. It was no less than a small dust cloud which took its rise from a late mud bed near the Cutting Rising gently and pleasantly, it directed . —its course southward down Princes •treet, and, after besprinkling a few / u f the shops, it assumed a spiral form and whirmic round for a minute or so?-4t dikfiavged its contents at the window of' the Town BoarcUoffi.ce,... as much as saying, if a cloud ofdtot can be said to say anything: There, vou have tried by all your arts to keep me down as long as possible, but here I am in spite of your bad ways, which you have made no efforts to mend. Take that.’ ” - “An application has been made for an extended mining claim on the sea beach ,at Moeraki. The applicant states that the sand has been tested and has shown a yield of something vety handsome to the ton.’’