CHINESE INTEREST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26774, 18 May 1948, Page 6

CHINESE INTEREST

OTAGO EARLY SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION

PICTURES OF GOLD DIGGERS Ten interesting photographs of gold digging by the Chinese in Central Otago about the ItsßO’s are now uisplayed m the Otago Early Settlers’ Association exhibition. The photographs were taken by the Rev. Alexander Don, whc, during the course of his ministry, visited practically the whole of the Chinese population in Otago and Southland. They have been presented to the Early Settlers’ Association by the Otago and Southland branch of the New Zealand Chinese Association. A caption to one of the pictures sums up the story of Chinese industry in that early chapter of Otago’s history. It reads: “ The patient and industrious Chinese diggers carried their water races for miles round the rugged slopes of the mountains to their sluicing claims.” The accompanying picture captures the barren appearance of the Central Otago hills and shows the diggers standing beside their mining apparatus. The largest camp in the digging days was at Lawrence. By 1880, 400 Chinese in the Tuapeka district had made Lawrence their rallying point. Many lived in huts, but some of the early miners on the Molyneux, as shown in one of the photographs, solved their building problems by living in weather-proof caves provided by nature. Often, in order to use the newest methods of recovering gold at deeper levels, the Chiriese pooled their resources, but a reminder of the old methods is given in the picture of an elderlv Chinese rocking nis primitive cradle on the bank of the Molyneux. The first Chinese church was opened at Round Hill, Southland, by the Rev. Dr D. M. Stuart and the Rev. William Bannerman in March, 1883. Mr Don, the missionary, was also present. In a hut in Potter’s Gully an the Garrick Range, Mr George McNeur is seen speaking to Chinese diggers before they left for their villages in China in 1901. Other Gifts The Chinese Association has also presented to the Early Settlers’ Association four panels bearing Chinese characters, which were originally in the Chinese public hall at Lawrence. The hall has now been removed. The panels have been placed flanking the door leading from the early settlers’ exhibition to the museum. The translation of one of the panels reads: “ May this hall enjoy the guiding 1 protecting care of heaven shining in this distant land."