EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26774, 18 May 1948, Page 4

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

FROM THE FILES OF THE ©tago ©ail? Himes DUNEDIN, MAY 18, 1863. “ The export of gold from Otago has been as follows: —1861, 187,6950 z, 1862, 397,6020 z, 1863 to date. 250,351, total. 835,8480 z. In addition, a considerable quantity has been brought down by private hand. The quantity so conveyed amounts to about £100,000." “A miner who was in the first rush to Skipper’s Gully has shown us a remarkable nugget, said to have been one of the largest found in that locality. It weighs four ounces; about onefifth of its bulk is quartz. It affords a very good indication of rich lobes in the mountains, and we should not be surprised to hear of rich discoveries in the spring.” “A ridiculous paragraph lately appeared in the Melbourne Argus, copied from another paper in which the writer contended that there were some 85.000 miners in Otago. We are able to say that the whole population of the province does not exceed 50,000, that on the diggings there are at the outside only 20,000 people, and of these not more than 13,000 are miners. These results are arrived at from official returns. verified from other sources, and may be accepted as strictly correct.” ‘‘A moa is said to have been seen by two district parties of miners; but there is nothing reliable as tending to Erove that specimens of that gigantic ird still exist in the province.” “On the evening of the 11th a store was cut into at the Cardrona and a bag containing gold to the amount of 70oz stolen. Suspicion rested on two men and a party of miners visited their tent, and charged them with the robbery. The two men drew their knives and used threatening language. They were at last pacified by one of the storekeepers offering them £2O if they would return the gold. The gold was restored, but Inspector Timbrel 1 being in the neighbourhood respecting stolen cattle, and -hearing of the robbery, tracked the two men and captured them within four miles of the Dunstan.”