Chapter I.

Otago Witness, Issue 1824, 5 November 1886, Page 14

Chapter I.

Bablv Settlers. — Exodus.— Maori Goldfinders. — The Matau.— Mr Archibald's Expedition.— The Fortifications. — Me Ligar's Discovery. — Tuturau. — His HONOR'S Comment. — Popular Feeling. — Petition to the Provincial Council.— Reward Offered.

The French proverb — 'Man proposes, but God disposes' — has never, perhaps, been more strikingly exemplified than in the history of Otago. The gallant company of pioneers— the ♦Pilgrim Fathers,' as they are, sometimes, not inaptly designated — who landed at the Heads, in 1848, from the 'Wickliffe' and the • Philip Laing,' under the leadership of Captain Cargill, and the chaplaincy of the Rev. Thomas Burns, made the brave venture (and a very brave venture indeed it was in those days) of expatriating themselves from their native land, with the sole purpose of founding a settlement where they might worship freely, and freely dwell, after the manner of their forefathers. The Association, of whioh these voyagers were the first outcome, was an off-set, if I may bo phrase it, of the Free Church movement in Scotland. Peace and security were the chief objecfc3 they sought, when they went out from the country of their birth to seek a home and an abiding place in the remote and savage wildernesses of the Pacific. We may be quite sure that no hope of possible gold-fields was in their minds when they sailed away from home and friends. There is ample evidence in the records of those early days that such an event as the discovery of gold was very far from their thoughts, and would have been exceedingly distasteful to them if they had foreseen it. But all unwittingly they lighted on a golden oountry — a circumstance which some of 'the Identity'— & phrase first brought into use by Mr Edward Cargill— still profess to regard in the light of a calamity.

It happened, however, that within three years of their arrival the wonderful story came slowly over the 6ea that, in the neighbouring colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, gold had been discovered in abundance. A number of the young men of the ' Settlement/ as Otago was then termed, being suddenly seized by the auri sacra fames, made their way across to the new Dorado, heedless of many admonitory shakings of the head, and much excellent advice lavished upon them by their elders. Most of these venturers returned, after a while, to New Zealand. I cannot learn of any of them that they came back bearing sheaves with them. But they oertainly acquired some knowledge of gold mining; and from their temporary exodus, and subsequent return to the 'flesh-pots' of Ofcago, may be traced, in part, the subsequent events which I propose to narrate.

Something also is -undoubtedly traceable to information gathered from the natives by the early settlers. That the Maoris were aware of the occurrence of gold, before the arrival of European colonists, is a tolerably well established fact. When making inquiries on this subject in 1862, I was informed by Mr Palmer, an old whaler, then resident at East Taieri, that, many years previous to the settlement of Otago, he was told by a native chief, whose name he gave as ♦ Tuawaiki,' but which I suspect was really Tewaewae, that 'plenty firro,' * or yellow stone, such as that of which the watchseals of the white men were made, and which had attracted the old Chief's attention, was to be found on the river beaches inland, and that the Matau or Molyaeux nver was the place where it principally occurred.

(To avoid confusion I may say here that 'Matau,' 'Molyneux,' and 'Clntha' are diverse names for the same river. The Maoris called it • Matau ' — a name still retained for one of its branches by Inch Clutha ; ~ Captain Cook placed it on his chart as the ' Molyneux,' co named after one of

* I do not guarantee the correctness of the orthography of this word nor that of another used further on ; for I regret to 6ay that an acquaintance with the Maori language has not, except in a very limited degree, been added to my lingual accomplishments. I give the word aB I fat it from Mr Palmer.

his officers ; and finally Mr .T. T. Thomson, when chief surveyor, dubbed it • Clutha.')

Other natives freely made similar statements, when they observed the value that the newcomers seemed to place upon golden coins and ornaments. One party of settlers made an effort to verify these statements in 1852, and started up the Molyneux to attempt the discovery of El Dorado. The chief promoter of this expedition was Mr Thomas Archibald, formerly a resident at the Pomahaka, who was good enough to acquaint me with the oircumstances under which it took place, in a letter dated 29th September 1862. From this letter I make the following extract :-—

1 Nearly all the Maori residents at the Molyneux at the time of our excursion were strangers, having been only a few years in the place. There were only a man and woman who knew the country between the mouth of the river and the lakes. The man, Raki Raki (sic), had resided on the Wakatipu Lake, but had left many years ago. He left a brother, who had two wives, behind ; and who, he said, were the only Maoris in the interior. He told me he once picked up a piece of "simon" (gold) about the size of a small potato on the banks of the Molyneux, but did not know its value, and he threw it into the river. They told us they had 6een the small simon on the sides of the river, where three canoes had been lying. On seeing a small sample of gold (which, I think, Mr Meredith brought down from Tasmania, about the beginning of 1852), the natives were the more convinced we should find it in the sands of the Molyneux. As some of us were on the eve of starting for Australia, we thought we would give the River a trial first, more especially as we had the services of a Californian miner, who had left a whaling vessel in the Bay. We made a party of five, and started up the River in March, 1852, in a whale boat which I brought from Dunedin. We prospected the bars and the banks of the river, as far as a creek now named the Beaumont. As none of us knew anything about gold-sacking except the American, and getting nothing more than the colour, we resolved to return after having nearly a three weeks' cruise ; the more so as the river seemed a succession of rapids, which it was difficult to get the boat through. If our Californian miner had been the practical hand he represented himself to be, I have no doubt we would have been successful in getting a good prospect.'

Mr Archibald, the writer of the above letter, was subsequently, and for a brief space, an officer of the Gold-Fields Department at Roxburgh, or, as it was then known, the Teviot. Gold was found by the settlers in many parts of the * Province ' ; but the facts were either suppressed, as being considered likely to lead to mischievous results, or neglected as of trivial import. The late Mr John Hyde Harris showed a 6mall quantity of fine, scaly, gold, which he informed me was obtained in 1853 in the neighbourhood of the remarkable chert rocks, then known as 'the Fortifications,' not far from Mount Hyde, and consequently in the vicinity of the Hindon workings. There seems to have been a vague impression existant, that there was gold in Otigo, though nothing certain was discovered. But in 1856, Mr Charles Ligar, at that time Surveyor - General of New Zealand, and who afterwards held the same office in Victoria, fluttered the dovecotes in Corioli — otherwise Ofcago — by an official intimation of the actual existence of auriferious deposits. As an interesting record of the past, I reproduce his letter in its entirety :— ' Otago, Ist December 1856. ' His Honor the Superintendent, Otago. Sir, — As I deem it the duty of every one in the community to increase the stock of information relative to the resources of this our adopted country, I hasten to inform your Honor that in my recent visit to the South part of the Province of Otago, I found gold very generally distributed in the gravel and sand of the Mataura River at Tuturau, and that for (sic) the geological character of the District I am of opinion that a remunerative Gold Field exists in the neighbourhood. • I have, &c., 'Charles Ligar.' If Mr Charles Ligar had thrown dynamite in its most diabolical form into • His Honor's ' office, it is questionable whether he would have created greater consternation. Captain Cargill appears to have had a very lively, and perhaps I not an altogether unnatural dislike to goldI fields, • diggers, 5 and everything connected therewith. He was not at all singular in this respect. The more solid of the early settlers were entirely with him in entertaining ' holy horror and pious dread ' of the discomforts and troubles attendant on a ' rush,' or anything calculated to distract the population from the slow but sure progress of settlement, which he and they were engaged in steadily building up, and which would have been endangered by any precipitate movement, •such as the discovery of gold was likely to engender. The Provincial Counoil assembled on December 2nd — the day following the receipt of Mr | Ligar's communication, which Captain Cargill specially referred to in his opening address, in ; the following terms : — ' A letter from Mr Ligar, on the existence of gold, will be laid before you for public information. It is right, however, to I observe that gold has been found for years past in Auckland and Nelson, but hitherto quite unremunerative; and that in no circumstances would it be advisable to allow any searcher to go upon a Eun without leave of the Lessee, or upon a native reserve without leave of the Datives.'

Notwithstanding the Superintendent's discouraging notice of the prospect opened out by Mr Ligar's discovery, and hi" deprecatory reference to the 'unremunerative' character of the Nelson and AuoMand fields, the people of the Province seem, to have been of opinion

that a gold field would be rather a desirable thing for Otago to possess. All the more so, perhaps, because at this time the Government, failing to secure a sufficient influx of population direct from Britain, were making strenuous efforts to entice immigrants from other colonies. Besides, the reports from Nelson at all events were very satisfactory. Mr William Fox, the Premier and AttorneyGeneral of the colony, had stated in the House, in reply to the anxious inquiries of Mr Stafford, that 'there was no doubt as to the discovery of gold, for a sample had been sent to the Governor; and there had been a rush to the gold fields, of some three hundred persons or more.' And he thoughtfully added the assurance that — * There was as yet no reason to apprehend a breach of the peace.' The good folk of Otago, having' had time to ponder over all these things, prepared a petition on the subject of. a remunerative gold-field, which was signed by 138 'inhabitants of the Province,' and duly presented to the Provincial Council on November 4, 1857, by Mr Stevenson, who then represented the East Taieri district in that body. This petition is now an historical document, and I append it in full : — ' Unto His Honor the Superintendent and the Provincial Council of the Province of Otago. 1 The Pc ition of the undersigned inhabitants of the Province, humbly sheweth — ' That many of the labouring population have already left this Province for the Nelson Gold Fields, and many men are preparing to do so, to the serious loss and manifest injury of the Province. ' That the advantage anticipated from the Governmedt Assisted Immigration will be neutralised, and beoome a source of loss, unless some attraction, such as a local remunerative GoldField be discovered, by which means we may hope to retain our population. ♦ That the exigence of Gold in this Province is a well-ascertained fact ; but from variouscauses private enterprise has no t hitherto been systematically directed towards proving whether Gold exists in payable quantities. ' That your petitioners consider it to be the duty of the Provincial Government to take immediate steps towards ascertaining the Gold capabilities of this Province. ' May it therefore please your Honor and the Provincial Council, immediately to offer a handsome reward under proper conditions, for the proof of the existence of a remunerative Gold Field within this Province. 1 And your petitioners will ever pray.' The petitioners, or their arguments were successful ; and the sum of £500 was voted in the Appropriation Ordinance of the year as a ' Bonus for the Discovery of a Remunerative Gold Field within the Province of Otago.