THE STORY OF THE EARLY GOLD DISCOVERIES IN OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1827, 26 November 1886, Page 11

THE STORY OF THE EARLY GOLD DISCOVERIES IN OTAGO.

By Vincent Pykb.

[ALL BIGHTS RESERVED.]

NOTICE.

In Reply to numerous inquiries we desire to state that "The Story of the Early Gold Discoveries in Otago" will be re-published in book form, particulars of which will shortly appear.

Chapter IV.

Letter's about Gabril's Gully.— Mb T. B. Gillies Prophesies.— The 'Rush.'— Off to the Diggings.' — Major Richardson's Visit. — The Chief Surveyor's Report. — Munro's Gully — Waitahuna.-— Captain Baldwin's Account. — Wetherstone's. — The Woolshed. — The Superintendent's

Address to the Provincial Council,

In compliment to Mr Read, the valley in which he made his famous discovery was named ' Gabriel's Gully,' and as such it is still known. Early in June it was visited by many well known settlers, amongst whom were Mr John L. Gillies, the present Secretary of the Harbour Board, J. Burnaide, James M'lndoe, Edward Martin, and Thomas B. Gillies, now Judge of the Supreme Court. The columns, of the two weekly newspapers—the • Witness." and the ' Colonist'— soon teemed with correspondence, de? criptive of the Journey— which was then regarded, not without reason, as a feat worthy of record— and with exciting accounts of the richness of the gully. In a letter, dated 28th June, highly extolling the gold 'field, Mr M'lndoe strongly counsels the working men of Dunedin to "at once make a start." It is better, he urges, for them to 'risk their chance, than to go idly about the streets of Dunedin. One passage in this letter must here be quoted : — • In crossing the Waitahuna River on our read down, we tried a handful of the sand from the banks, and found several small pieces of gold, plainly indicating its source to be an auriferous country. A very readable and interesting letter from the pen of Mr T. B. Gillies, occupying two columns of the Colonist, gives an exhaustive report of the gold-field and its surroundings, in the course of which a curious illustration of the sober demeanour of the goldseekers is thus rendered :— ' The deep gravity, almost solemnity, on every visage, struck me as very peculiar. Men whom I never met before save with a., smile on their countenances, and a joke on their lips, I met there, grave and solemu, as if the cares oi nation were centred on them — they could no^ «yen appreciate a joke.' Evidently the getting of gold was a very serious business with them.

Mr Gillies, in this letter, prophesies of future results, and not unwisely as events have turned out: — 'A railway from Dunedin, through the Taieri, Waihola, and Tokomairiro, to the Tuapeka, which is quite practicable, will be required at no distant day, and will give an immense impetus to the agricultural, as well as mining, pursuits in those districts. With such a work, and the Harbour of Dunedin improved, as has been so long proposed, it is not too sanguine an expectation to look forward to the Province of Otago taking the position of the first Province in New Zealand, and New Zealand taking a first place among6t the colonies of Britain.'

The census returns show that, in December 1861, — when a considerable addition to the population had already resulted by the mr migration from other colonies, caused by the gold discoveries— there were only 27,163 people of both sexes and all ages in Otago, and the whole- colony only numbered 99,021 European imbabitants. In December 1860 the population of the Province was estimated at 12,700; and judging from the immigration and emigration returns this number had sustained very little increase in June 1861— the date of Mr Read's discoveries. Mr Gillies' vaticinations, regarded in the light of 1886, must therefore be accepted as a bold and very shrewd forecast.

These letters, and the continuous favourable reports from Tuapeka, had an immense but not surprising effect. The ' rush' began in earnest. Everyone hastened to enrich himself with the golden spoils of the earth. Mr William H. Cutten, the Commissioner of Lands, was then connected with the Witness, as editor or contributor ; and in a leading article, which appeared in that paper on July 6th, we discern • the touch of a vanished hand.' Thus it runs :—

" Gold, gold, gold is the universal subject of conversation. • . • The number of persons leaving town each morning is quite surprising. The fever is running to such a height that, if it continue, there will scarcely be a man left in town. An anecdote is told of Geelong, that, upon the breaking out of the Australian diggiDgs, there was but one man left, and he had a wooden leg, which the ladies threatened to saw off if he attempted to get away, as they were determined not to be completely deserted. As things go there appears every probability of the Dunedin ladies coming to the same pass. The Tokomariro plain is positively deserted. Master and man have gone together on equal^ terms leaving their farming operations under an agreement to return to reap crops; but, if the fever continues there will be little crop, we should think, to reap. The men having left the plain, there appeared no remedy; and we are informed that the women and children in numberless cases have gone also. On the last Sunday the congregation at church consisted of the minister and precentor."

Rhymesters al6O found the subject irresistible. •Off to the Diggings' is the title of an essay in verse, by *J. 8., Kaikorai ' ; which, setting aside li fcerary considerations, affords a'vivid portraiture of the prevailing excitement:— Gome wba at a Bpade wud kick, Or turn their no6e up at a pick, Are off to df? throw thin and thtat ," O£c to the Diggings.

Deacons wi' pistols at their belt, Wha ne'er before ha'e powder smelt Have left the church belter skelt, Off to the Diggings. Where are all the debtors gone ? (Creditors— Ochone! Oclione!) Like to swallows they have flown 02 to the Diggings. What's f o come o' women folks ? Bar the windows, turn tho locks, Off and join yuur swains in flo -ka— Off to the Diggings.

Tho very editor's afraid He'll h.ive to quit the writing trade, And wi' his «hov«l and hia spade Off to the Diggings. A label on the office door, " Otago Witnef 8 goneaahore— On a reef of golden oreOS to the Diggings."

And so on through sixteen doggerel verses, in which fact appears to predominate over fancy. ' Never since the foundation of the settlement,' says another writer, 'has there been anything like tho excitement produced in the Province by the recent discovery of the Gold Fields at the Tokomairiro, or rather the Tuapeka.'

It is from contemporaneous writings such as these that the character of great social movements is most accurately gauged. Newspapers furnish the best of all possible materials for history, because they embalm the actual events of the immediately present time — the transient impulses of the hour — presenting affairs from many points of personal observation, and illustrating the various moods of many minds. If Ido not more largely avail myself of these sources of information it is not from lack of matter, but because it seems undesirable to over-lay and interrupt the progress of the narrative by a too diffuse introduction of circumstantial details.

The excitement spread rapidly, and daily increased in intensity. It animated all circles and disturbed all men's ordinary avocations. It infected the Provincial Council, and even invade I the sanctum of the Executive. The business of the session was hurriedly concluded. The Speaker, Mr T. B. Gillies, vacated the chair, and Mr Rennie was quickly appointed in his f-tead. On July 6th the Superintendent prorogued the Council, after a sitting of only twelve days, during which time there had been initiated, considered, and passed, eleven imporfcantmeasures — including an Executive Council Ordinance, an Education Ordinance, and a Road Board Ordinance ; and a Loan for £34,500 had been sanctioned. Conspicuous ainong&t the items of the Appropriation Ordinance of that session its one, which then appeared for the first time, of £1,688 for the * Gold Fields Police Department.'

No sooner had the members departed, and the doors of the Council chamber been closed, than the Superintendent, attended by several of his officers, himself proceeded to Tuapeka on a tour of inspection. It is to be regretted that Major Richardson has not placed on record any account of the impressions he received on that occasion. One of his party, however — Mr J. T. Thomson, Chief Surveyor — wrote a very detailed account of the visit, and gave particulars of several claims inspected by himself, which duly appeared in the Dunedin newpapers. In this report it was stated that Gabriel Read's party of three men had obtained 112 ounces in fourteen days; John Jenkins' party of five, 49 ounces in four days ; Peter Lindsay's party of three, 30 ounces in three and a-half days ; Bumside and J. L. Gillies, 8 ounces in six days ' with a tpade and tin dish.' Cargill's party of four washed out 10 ounces in a single forenoon ; and Peter Lindsay gathered 7£ ounces in five and a-half hours. Such news, so authenticated, could not fail still further to heighten the gold-fever with which the Jggpple were inflamed. The position may be summed up in a few words—society was temporarily unhinged.

Other discoveries followed in quick succe&sion. A few days in fact after Read's great 'find ' at Gabriels, a woman — Mrs Munro, wife of a shepherd in Davy and Bowler's run — found payable gold on the other bide of the dividing range, in what is known as Munro's gully. And on J£riday the 19th of July the Waitahuna goldfield was discovered. Again Gabriel Read wag the pioneer ; but on this occasion he was acornpanied by one whose name is familiar to the reader. In the Witness of August 10th, there appeared an article headed ' Prospecting.' The suave syllables of the introductory sentences are strongly suggestive of the probable writer ; and from these we seem to catch a faint glimpse — one of the few afforded — by Major Richardson of his view of the situation : —

• We are indebted for the following graphic description of the result of a " prospect " to a gentleman who has been a successful digger on the Tuapeka, notwithstanding his education and habits of life being such as apparently to disqualfy him for manual labour. The energy with which gold digging is pursued, and how little is cared for personal comfort in the excitement of a prospect, is shown by repeated instances of persons gently nurtured, bearing the wet and cold of such weather as we have had lately, for the pleasure of being the discoverer of a new gold field.'

The correspondent referred to then proceeds as follows:—

• The next few months must either prove or re* fute — not the existence of a workable and payable Gold Field, that h~s been already decided — but its extent and durability. This is now the great and all-important problem, on the solution of which depends to a certain extent ,the future of this Province, and is involved the interests of the whole Colony — a solution therefore pregnant with mighty events and replete with vast results, changing the existing order of things, placing Otago in the van of the New Zealand Provinces, and, perchance, either establishing a separate Government for, or removing the existing one to, the Middle Island. . . . My purpose in writing is to give you, in accordance to promice, a brief account, v a plain unvarnished tale," of the prospecting expedition recently undertaken by Mr Read, in order to asoarfoia £h» foal character of tha4 ecrmfcry lying

towards the head of the Waitahuna Flat, and which he kindly invited me to accompany.'

The writer of the letter from which I have thus far quoted is Captain Baldwin, who has kindly furnished me with a more graphic account of this prospecting expedition than appears in the published report. •He writes as follows :-—

Early in June 1861, about the 9th I think, I started for Dunedin. I wa3 living up the country at the time, near the Teviot, on a station I had just purchased from the late Mr J. 8. Worthington, afterwards gold receiver at Queenstown. I stopped at Mr Gairdner's the first night, and the next evening I made Peter Robertson's. Mr Robertson was at that time head shepherd for Musgrave and Murray, and his hut — midway betwixt Tuapeka and Waitahuna on the old short track— was a regular stopping place for all of us up-country people. My friend, Peter, himself was a sociable body, very fond of a friendly crack, and always brimtul of news. He was supposed to live within the limits of civilisation, and you were always sure of finding the Witness or Colonist lying about, containing Dunedin news of not more than three weeks old ; and, mind you, hi those days this was something to remember. After I had unsaddled and tethered my horse I came across my host. When the usual greetings were over he asked, " Did ye hear naethin' of thia' gran' discovery of gowd up in yon gulJy at Tuapeka as ye passed by?" "Gold," I asked; " what gold ?" " Eh ! mon but its a fac'. The mon was here himself last nicht — a red shirted chap called Read. Ye ken him fine, mon, and he showed me a bonnie fine handful of gowd. By my certie, but the sight of yon turned my head a'most." This was the first intimation I had of the discovery of Tuapeka. I need scaicely say I slept but little that night, and equally needless for me to add I was ready to retrace my steps at daylight next morning. I made Bowler's hut at breakfast time. After breakfast, the head shepherd in charge, a man named White, walked across the low spur that separated the hut from Gabriel's Gully. We found Read camped here. His tent was pitched by his claim about midway down the gully, very near that narrow point where a spur running from the westward juts into it. It is a leading spur that runs close into the banks of the creek, and bad naturally been used by Mr Bowler's sheep and cattle as a crossing place from one side of the gully to the other. Its frequent usage in this way had laid bare the bed rock at the creek, and here Read had "fossicked" out his first find. As I camped with him that night he told me the whole story. His life had been an eventful one. Soon after Marshall had discovered those shining flakes at Sutter's mill in California, and bis cry of gold awoke the world, Read was on the spot and worked there a few years. He saved some money. Then he purchased a schooner with his Bavings and traded amongst the islands of the Pacific. But he was wrecked after a little on the Island of Hawaii, the largest of the Sandwich Island group, and then, after various adventures in the Pacific, he betook himself to his home in Tasmania. From thence he passed over to the Victoria goldfields. But he was a restless man, and from Victoria he had drifted across to New Zealand. This was the substance of his adventurous life as he told it to me in his tent that night. The next morning I started home to briDg back my station hands and some provisions. Before leaving, however, I pegged off a piece of ground adjoining Read's claim, and this he undertook to look after and protect during my absence. When I returned some four or five days later the place was rapidly filling with people, and Read's mate, a young fellow named Brookes, had joined him.

'About six weeks afterwards Read suggested to me that he and I should go on a prospecting tour. The party was to consist of Read and myself and a man named John Cargill, who is, I fancy, at present a fisherman at Blueskin. Read was anxious that nothing should be said of our intentions, but somehow or another it leaked out, and our movements were strictly watched. We started on the evening of the 18th of July 1861, but were followed by a number of persons, and had to return again. Towards four o'clock the next morning, however, we managed to get away unperceived. We had our dinner at the old Waitahuna crossing place, and then turning to the left we followed up the) river for about a mile or so. Here we decided to camp for the night, intending the nest morning to follow the river up to its source in the Waipori ranges. Read was a great believer in the auriferous character of these ranges, and as it afterwards turned out, was quite correct in his belief. Before camping, however, I ran up to the top of an adjoining spur and saw that we were at the mouth of a great big gully, and that this gully had some nice scrub in the middle of it. It looked a tempting place to camp in, I thought, and I, persuaded Read accordingly to camp there. It was full of wild pigs, I remember,' and I also remember how I was scared out of my 6leep that night. I was suddenly awakened by finding something cold poking its nose against me. Thinking it was one of the wild pigs we had disturbed, and fearing he might be looking out for a 6oft place for the purpose of having a good bite at me or thrusting his tusk into me, perhaps, I jumped np and ran out, to find it was my horse. He was an old favourite horse we had packed, and felt cold, I suppose. At daybreak next morning I was awakened by Read. He rushed excitedly into the tent, exclaiming, "I have found another Goldfield. Get up and dress yourself quickly. I want you to wash out the first tin dishful of stuff. It will be something to say hereafter." I dressed and followed him up the flat — up to where tho little creek came rippling down through a small gorge, and just immediately before the gully began to expand and widen Out. The hole Read had bottomed was only about 18 inches or two feet deep, but the bottom tfoemed a- yelUnrmass of shiciug ft-^ep. From

the two tin dishf uls of Btuff I washed out we got I think about three quarters of an ounce of gold. I pegged off my own claim for myself and my party a little lower down the creek. Both Read and myself I remember expected it would turn out something wonderful. The ground contained a natural rocky reservoir some eight or ten fee* deep into which the creek emptied itself by a small waterfall. The only outlet was over the top, and the place seemed a natural pocket for all the gold that had been brought down the gully for ages before. Well, we returned to Tuapeka, and shortly afterwards my party, aug* mented by Messrs John and Joseph Borton, o£ Oamaru, and James and the late Robert Fulton, of the Taieri, started for Waitahuna, and for weeks and weeks we worked at the blessed reser* voir. And we took out of it, what ? We'l, I think some three or four ounces for all our labour and trouble — if so much.'

There is just one circumstance omitted from Captain Baldwin's letter — written, be it remembered, after an interval of twenty-five years — which appears in his report of 1861, and this I shall supply. Speaking of their arrival at the Waitahuna Ford, he says : — • Mr Read, putting a shovel-full of the top-sand into his dish, washed it out, and, much to my surprise, pointed out some light specks of gold lying in the bottom.'

Other payable gullies were discovered about the same time. Wetherstone's, so named after the original prospector, was soon found, it being but an offshoot of Gabriel's, immediately beyond the low range separating the two valleys, although I find no mention of it in the press till November, in which month a paragraphic notice gave the information that a large rush had taken place to Wetherstone's during the preceding week, with the addition that there was ' more gold than ia Gabriel's.' The Woolshed diggings also were being wrought for months before the fin>t refer* ence was made to them. In August the Marawhenua river was^successf ully prospected, and aconhding newspaper published the information after this fashion : — ' Our informant states that he saw a shepherd washing, and that the gold was scaley and as large as his finger nail !'

Thus, in many ways, the permanence of the Otago goldfields were now assured. It was not without sufficient justification that the Superintendent, in referring to the events of this episodical period, addressed ' The Speaker and Gentlemen.of the Provincial Council ' in tho following terms, when they re-assembled in October : —

• When I last had the pleasure of addressing you, scarcely four months since, I communicated the intelligence, which had reached me from sources on which I could rely, that we were on the eve of important gold discoveries. The dim foreshadowing of that hour has changed into the well-established reality of the present. Whatever may be the character, extent, richness, and remunerative nature of our Gold Field, I have no doubt that for many a day to come it will yield to industry a fair return for labour, and to capital a fair return of profit.'