THE STORY OF THE EARLY GOLD DISCOVERIES IN OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1825, 12 November 1886, Page 14

THE STORY OF THE EARLY GOLD DISCOVERIES IN OTAGO.

By Vincent Pyke. Note.— Tlte writer will be (/lad to receive any communication respecting events in the early days icith which correspondents may feel disposed to favour him, addressed care of Editor of Witness. ' Chapter 11. The Chief Subveyor's Repoet. — Prospecting. — Mr Gaevie's Discoveries. — The Clutha, , Manuherikia, and Tuapkka RiyjSßs. — First Practical Proof of Gold in Otago. — Woolshed Creek. — The MaTAtTBA. — Blacklock and Roebuck's Expedition. — Discovery of Gold at Lindis ■ -Pass. Tphe Petitioners were cartainly justified in asserting that the ' existence of Gold ' — always written with a capital G — was a ' well ascertained fact'; for small quantities of the metal were occasionally brought into Dunediu for sale or inspection. But the ' finds ' were casual and inconsiderable. Information respecting the geological resources of the country generally was very scanty and imperfect in those early days. Thus, in an official Report, datedJune2, lßs7, Mr J. T. Thomson, tho Chief purveyor of the Province, says of coal, that its ♦ existence has often been hinted at,' but that there are not •sufficient indications to warrant the retention by Government of any tracts of land ou account of the supposed existence of the mineral : Yet of gold he writes with greater certainty : — " The existence of gold is undoubted : a fact first brought to light by by Mr Ligar, Surveyor-general of New Zealand, The principal specimens yet found have been obtained in the gravel of the Mataura River, near Tuturau ; but lam credibly informed that indications are everywhere met with in the Waiopai and Mataura Plains. I have nowhere yet known of any individual success at the occupation of gold*washing or digging as a business, nor have I Been above the small fraction of an ounce in the hands of anyone. Knowing that gold had been found, I paid borne attention to the subject at various localities. The spots where I actually tried the sand j and rocks for gold were on the Upper Mataura to the north of the Dome Mountain ; on the i Aparima near Taringtura Hill ; in the Orawia near Grassbum ; and on the Waiau, near the Limestone Gorge. The trials (and they must be admitted to be very imperfect) were made by washing the sands in our pannikins, these being the best utensils for the purpose in our possession, and by digging in the chinks of the rocks, and scoopiug out the sand aud mud with our knives. Iv all our attempts we were successful in finding the metal ; but I must not omit to mention of one of my assistants having reported the obtaining of one spsck in the Waiau sands.' Mr Thomson then goes on to ' point to the districts of the Hokouui Hills, to the Slate Ranges, and to the valleys of the Mataura and Waiau as being probably auriferous ' ; and particularly recommends ' the North Waiopai Plains and Upper Mataura as being the most promising fields of trial. The objection' (to quote still further from the Report) ' that I have heard stated by practical" diggers" as to the successful parsuit of the metal is, iv " washing," the frequent freshes ; and in " sinking," the depth of the bottom and porous nature of the strata to be gone through. These difficulties, no doubt, were sufficient inducements offering, ingenuity and perseverance would overcome; but the process appears to call for greater means than are generally possessed by individuals in this Province.' It is to be feared that the ' diggers ' encountered by Mr Thomson were not so ♦ practical ' as they assumed or he supposed them to be. But what is most remarkable is that the localities specially indicated in his Report, are precisely those in which, up to the present time, gold ha« not been found in appreciable quantities, unletS the Waikaia.aad Nokotnai may be considered as> coming within the reference to the Uppei Mataura. Science, in fact, has done little or nothing in helping on mineral] discoveries in Otago, and subsequent events furnish another illustration of the truth conveyed by Charles Reade's notable saying — ♦ Men without a polysyllable to their tongues have found all the gold andallthesilverthateverhas been discovered.' It is only fair to Mr Thomson, however, to add that he did not prefer any claim to geological , knowledge. More ample confirmation of the presence of gold was at hand. In the months of October and November 1857, and daring the early part of 1858, Mr Alexander Garvie, then Assistantsurveyor, executed a reconnoissance survey of the South-eastern Districts, and in his very full and complete Report, dated 15th July 1858, he remarks that—

'The eastern portion from the coast to the Manuherikia, appears to ba composed almost entirely of rocks belonging to the micaschist systems. Towards the south-west, clay-slate and altered rock appear, as at Tapanui, the lower part of the Pomahaka, and the Clutha, below the Tuapeka. . . . Traces of gold were found in the gravel of several of the streams and rivers-. The trials were all made on the very surface, at mich odd times as would not interrupt tho proper work of the survey, by one of the party who happened to have previously visited the Australian goldfields. The gold found was in every case small and scaly, varying from the smallest epecks to about the roughness of bran. It wa* found in the Clutha rives, above the junction oj the Mamiherikia, and in the Tuapeka stream, in sufficient quantities to make it probable that it would pay to work if set about in a proper manner, with some wholesale system of washing finch as sluicing. Specks were also found in the ffamtherlkta, PmahaKa, and Waitahnna

and it will probably be found also in some of the tributaries of the Mataura and Fomahaka.'

The person — ' one of the party' — of Australian experience referred to in the foregoiug extract was a Mr Buchanan, long resident in Dunedin.

The italics are mine— inserted to more fully direct attention to the fact that in this report Mr Garvie exactly indicated the sites of some of the most famous and profitable of the gold workings afterwards discovered. In nry first official Report, as Commissioner of Gold Fields, dated Ist October 1862, 1 wrote as follows :—

• I cannot but regard this as the first practical demonstration of the mineral wealth of Otago. Earlier explorers had merely ascertained its existence, yet here was sufficient evidence to have satisfied the most incredulous. The announcement was, however, unheeded at the- time» and it was reserved for Mr Gabriel Read and Messrs Hartley and Reilly to develope the hidden treasures of which Mr Garvie undoubtedly intimated the presence, although he was probably unaware of the importance of his discovery.'

Writing now — 24 years later, and possessing much fuller information of early events than I then had— l am not disposed to modify that expression of opinion. I am still at a loss to understand how it was that no effort was made at the time to test the accuracy and value of these important discoveries. As illustrating the utter calmness of the official mind, it may be mentioned that Mr Garvie's, or \ rather Buchanan's, prospecting was done in February and March, 1858 ; his report was sent iv in July ; it was for warded by the Chief Surveyor to the Commissioners of the Wasto Laud Board.in August ; and finally published in the Otago Provincial Gazette at the end of September. Buried in the pages of that respectable periodical it fell dead on the public ear — probably was never seen beyond the official circles ; and no action whatever followed. Yet all the time there was the • Bonus> of £500, proffered for the discovery of a remunerative gold-field.

In a foot-note appended to Garvie's report Mr Thomson stated that 'the best sample of gold yet brought into town was found in the Tokomairlro River (south branch). This sample indicates a workable gold-field.' The exact locality referred to is better known as the Woolshed Creek, where gold-mining has been carried on continuously, and, at one tiaie, extensively from 1862 to the present date. It was there that 4 Black Peter,' otherwise Edward Peter, a native of Bombay, was in the habit of washing small quantities of gold from the sands of the river. Mr Thomson informed me that it was Peter who had shown him the gold in 1858, and acquainted him with the place whence he obtained it. Peter also found gold in the Tuapeka Stream, under circumstances which will be referred to hereafter.

In the same year — 1858— the Chief Surveyor himself discovered gold in the Lindis river, a circumstance to which he referred in a public lecture subsequently delivered in Dunedin. Some small finds were aUo made about this time in the sands of the Kuri, a small stream which flows into the sea near Hampden. These and other similar discoveries furnished quite sufficient evidence of the • existence ' of gold, and show that, at least in a desultory way, search was being made for it in many directions. But the time was not yet.

The first systematic effort to develope the auriferous resources of Otago was made in 1860, when a small ' rush ' took place on the banks of the Mataura. It was announced iv the newspaper press that the reward for the discovery of a payable gold field was claimed in June of that year by some 'residents iv Invercargill' for alleged discoveries in the neighbourhood of that town. A paragraph in a letter from Invercargill which appeared in the Witness of July 21 evidently has reference to that somewhat vague announcement : — * It has long been known that the " precious metal " existed in and about the Mataura River ; but a proper search never having been made, the matter lay dormant till a few weeks back, when Messrs James Blacklock and Roebuck, of Invercargill, started off on a prospecting excursion, and returned a few days after with a fair sample of gold which they had obtained with the aid of a kuifo and tin dish. They expressed themselves certain of obfcainingit in large and payable quantities, and having provided themselves with a cradle aud the proper tools they went back again on Wednesday last.'

Mr J. P. Joyce M.H.R., informs me that he knew Blacklock aud Roebuck, and remembers their prospecting expedition. • They worked,' he writes, ' on the Mataura, and a little below the Native reserve at Tuturau, partly in the bed of the river, which was then low, and partly by stripping a portion of the bank. Other parties among which was one headed by Sinclair, an old resident of the Bluff, and, I think Jabez Ham of Invercargill* also worked there. The result of their united labours was about two pounds weight of gold, the getting of which must have cost them about a couple of hundred pounds at least.' Mr Joyce had himself previouly found gold at the same place, and had given a small quantity of it to Mr J. T. Thomson, then Chief Surveyor of Otago. Since then various parties have at different times obtained a little gold. Tuturau is the place whore Mr Ligar also claimed to have discovered gold in 1856 ; and at a later period it was the scene of a ' bogus ' rush instigated by the notorious Sam Perkins, to which fuller allusion will be made in due chronological order.

Notwithstanding many failures, the search for gold was still continued by a number of persons, whose faith in its existence survived repeated discomfitures. Their constancy was at length rewarded ; but, strangely enough it was by accident, and not design, that the first workable gold-field was eventually found. Vague rumours of this discovery reached

* Mr Jabez Ham was f übsequently2editor of tHe • Daily Telegraph ' in Dqwdto.

Dunedin, by way of Oamaru, in March 1861 ; but the earliest definite account appeared early in April, in the Ly ttelton Times.

"A party of men, employed in road-making by the Otago Government, picked up some nuggets in the river Lindis, a tributary of the Molyneux, whero they wereengagedmakingcuttings forthe main road to cross. Mr M'Lean, on whose run the gold was found saw some gold in possession of one of tho men. It weighed about 40z., and consisted of some waterworu nuggets from the size of a grain of wheat to that of a bean, and apparently of a very fine quality. . . . As the stream where tho gold was found is small and close to the hills, it offers no prospect of a large field sufficient to induce diggers to proceed thero from auy distance at this time of tho year.'

So little was known of the interior of the Province in those days that the 'Witness' newspaper, after having variously described 'the new gold-field' (a phrase invariably used as though gold-fields had been numerousand wellestablished—) as being 70, 60, and 90 miles distant from Dunedin, finally declared — 'theprecise locality is quite a mystery.'

The scene of the discovery was iv a narrow gorge, or low saddle, at tho north-east extremity of that vast chain of mountains which stretches, like n huge rampart, across the heart of Ottgo, and is geographically known as the Duns tan Ranges. Beyond these are the valleys and pastures of the Upper Clutha and its tributaries, where, in tho early days of settlement, some enterprising colonists had found or forced their way, bringing with them their flocks and herds. The only available route to this country was then by way of the Waitaki Valley and through the Lindis Pass, at the head of a branch of the Ahuriri, itself a tributary of the Waitaki, and of a small creek flowing into the Lindis stream. The Pass being then absolutely inaccessible for wheeled traffic, the pioneer runholdeis, prominent amongst whom was the Hon. John M'Lean, now of Redcastle, sought the assistance of the Government in the formation of a road. Their request was granted, but it was made a condition by the Government that they should employ the roadmakers. To this circumstance probably the discovery is primarily due ; for amongst the men so employed, there were some who had been on the Australian gold-fields, and it was in the prosecution of their labours that they found gold scattered through the soil, and subsequently discovered it in the sands of the streams.

Note.— Mr Thomas Pratt, M.H.R, informs me that the word " firro " in Mr Palmer's statement (Chapter I), should be written " whero "— pronounced " f erro " — the " wh " always being sounded as "f" in the Maori tongue. It means "coloured." "Simon" — the word employed by Mr Archibald— is probably a corruption of "timata" (placing the accent ou "i"), which means " heavy."