EARLY GOLDFIELD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26719, 13 March 1948, Page 8

EARLY GOLDFIELD

WAITAHUNA GULLY CELEBRATIONS NEXT WEEK CAIRN TO BE UNVEILED

Next week, past and present residents of the Waitahuna district will celebrate tjie eighty-seventh anniversary of the discovery of gold in the Waitahuna Gully, and will suitably honour the memory of their pioneers. On Friday, sports, a picnic, and an old-time dance will be held, there will be an historical parade and the unveiling of a memorial cairn on Saturday, followed by a social at night, and special services will be held in the local churches on Sunday. . Before the gold rush of 1861, the Waitahuna Gully was a warm, wellsheltered valley, covered in silver tussock and native grasses, down the full length of which flowed a clear stream. There was no sign of habitation. But suddenly change came to this peaceful scene. A few weeks after his success in Gabriel’s Gully, Gabriel Read, accompanied by Baldwin, crossed to the Waitahuna Gully, and there, in 1861, found gold. As the news spread, like fire in the fern, and a rush to the area set in, soon the gully saw men from many parts of the world participating in the feverish search for gold. At first the miners worked separately fossick-

ing, panning and fending for themselves. Soon, however, their first cooperative moves were seen in the formation of sluicing parties, a number of men combining to use surface water, shovels, and a trolley or box, on a suitable slope. Following on the work of these sluicing patries with their limited facilities came the local formation of sluicing companies. Farm Development The demand for foodstuffs was pressing. With the rush of miners to both Gabriel’s Gully and Waitahuna Gullv the need for land to be cultivated was great. The land surrounding Lawrence and Waitahuna was surveyed for small farms, which were quickly taken up, and the large runs were bought by the Provincial Government for sub-dividing, while certain areas were set aside as mining or educational reserves. Homes were built by the farmers, their land fenced and gorse plants for this purpose were bought at a considerable price and imported to the district. In 1877 came' progress in another form, the completion of the railway from Milton, first to Waitahuna and then to Lawrence. This improvement in transport facilities brought rapid developments to what was both a mining and a farming centre. The town of Waitahuna, as distinct from the gully, expanded about and near the railway station. The old . coach road to Lawrence fell into disuse in favour of the greater speed, comfort and capacity of the new means of transport. Rabbit Menace From this time dates a change in scene over the whole countryside, the effects of which are still felt by the farmer, for this is the period of the coming of the rabbit. The gold was rapidly running out, and many miners leaving the district in search of more lucrative areas, while left behind were deserted areas of sluiced and dredged land and neglected homes. Mining companies bought up the poorer companies, and so it went on. Land impoverished by intensive cropping or by mining became gorse-covered. the ideal home for rabbits and scrub, both of which increased at an' alarming rate. Sheep were thin and halfstarved, the farmers poverty-stricken, and the land itself was saved from utter ruin by erosion, only by the red bidibidi and young scrub. This scene of complete desolation and despair for the farmers was one of prosperity for the rabbiters, of whom there .were many engaged in a lucrative industry. Rabbits by the cartload and even by the trainload were sent off to the freezer, and those in this trade thrived at the farmers’ and the land’s expense. Return to Prosperity

The final scene in this story, however, is not one of desolation and rabbits, but further progress, changed metnods, improvement of stock and success on me farms. Cropping m the old way had to be abandoned, war on the raboits had to be waged by the farmers themselves and the land built up in fertility. Their efforts resulted in startling increases in the carrying capacity of the land and the quality of the stock carried. Tuapeka County, which in 1898, carried 392,913 sheep,had increased to 594,444 in 1945, the latest statistics available, while in the Waitahuna Riding, the number has doubled itself, and a corresponding improvement in quality has occurred. A picturesque spot m the early days of Otago. Waitahuna has had a share in building up Dunedin city itself, in spreading over the country the wealth found in the gully, in opening up farming land, and in the distribution of population all over New Zealand. To-day there is one sluicing claim still working in the gully, carrying on in this busy farming community. With Nature’s and science’s aid, the second and third generation have done outstanding work and proved themselves worthy to follow in the steps of the pioneers.