GOLD-SEEKERS OF THE FIFTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2360, 18 May 1899, Page 24

GOLD-SEEKERS OF THE FIFTIES.

ROMANCE OF DIGGINGS LIFE,

THE BUCKLAND RUSH.

THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE STORY.

(Melbourne Argus.)

It is impossible to tell the story of a great goldfield in a chapter — one may just pick a few of the striking incidents. The series of rushes which followed upon the discovery of Reid's Creek, in the Ovens district, had about them so many elements of romance. There were many big pockets of gold and sensational nuggets, the discovery 1 of which rang through the ranges from end to end, all culminating in that wonderful gully — the Woolshed. Reid's Creek was originally a cattle run. The former owners of it — one of whom, Mr Robert Reid, was quite lately the parliamentary representative of Toorak — are said to have sat on the banks one day considering whether they should sell out and start for the mines of California. Had they pulled the tufts of kangaroo grass at their hand they would have ' found gold ' in its roots. There was all the colour of the new rushes on the Ovens, the reckless prodigality, the amazing effects of prosperity upon those unused to it — the still more amazing conviction that the profusion would last for ever.

As to two of the more striking incidents of the Ovens rushes let Mr Travis, the pre- r .sent Secretary for Mines, speak. Like his' political chief, he bears the mark of the long-handled shovel on his palm. In October, 1852, Mr Travis, with a few other Canadian youths, landed in Melbourne, and found the gold madness at its height. Like a wise boy he sold his armoury of Colt's revolvers and sheath knives at six times their value, bought flour which cost £5 a bag lo buy, and £15 a bag to' cart to the Ovens, and started for Pennyweight Flat. Mr Travis, as Secretary for Mines, has had the privilege of often visiting since the fields where he once joined in the rush for fortune, and found them for the most part deserted and overgrown — the old huts lost in a maze "of gum saplings