JUBILEE OF GABRIEL'S GULLY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2975, 22 March 1911, Page 65

JUBILEE OF GABRIEL'S GULLY.

SOME PIONEERING EXPERIENCES. MR HUGH "PATERSON. Mr Hugh P&tersqn, Dundas street, Dunedin, has supplied the following account of his gold digging experiences to the Jubile©_ Committee: — I, with my mates. Joseph Cb-uickshanks, David Findlay, and John O'Neill, were all resident in' Otago about 12 months prior to the Gabriel's Gully rush. (My dates are as nearly correct as possible, but are subject to correction.) Joe and I were employed in the lightering trade between Dunedin and Port Chalmers during th© early part of 1861, and I might here mention that Jo© had been on the Victorian diggings for four or five years, and I had six months' experience there also. In March car April of the year 1861 a rush set in for the Lindis, a district hard to get at except by way of Oama.ru. I was anxious to get away with the* crowd, but Joe, who had more experience in regard to rushes, said "No, wait until we hear of gold coming from there. We will then be in plenty of time if the field is good." Joe's advice was good, for in a short time numbers cairn© back with woeful tales of their hardships 'and the absence- of payable gold. About the first or second Saturday in June it was rumoured in Port Chalmers that a man named Gabriel Read had discovered a rich find of gold in the Tuapeka district. I visited: Dunedin that night, and found the inhabitants in a great state of excitement over th© good news. As the gold fever was contagious, I fell an-easy victim. On the Monday morning following I .hired a horse from a Mr Ellis, who kept a livery stable at the. north end of Great King street, at 15s per day. The journey on horseback tocik me three da.vs to perform, and inustice to the memories of the deceased horse and owner I am frank enough to admit it was not their fault that I took such a long time on the rood. The first night I put up at the Taieri Ferry Hotel, kept, by a Mr Dwyer, and the second I spent on the saddle of Mount Stuart. The night was cold and frosty, and I had no rug or covering of any kind, and no shelter in the way of scrub. Pleasant, wasn't it? In, the morning I saddiled up and made a start,, and had not proceeded marc than a mile when I sighted a tilted waggon right ahead, and on arrival was just in time to get a. warm cup of coffee, etc. The party consisted of Mr Cullen and far-m servants from the East Taieri, bound for Gabriel's. I arrived at Gabriel's the same afternoon, and on the following a/terneon a meeting was was held in the open air, and I think that the late Mr J. L. Gillies was present, assisted by some of the old stock from Milton and the Taieri The object of the meeting was to form a Vigilance Committee for the purpose of mutual protection, in the anticipation of a rush of people from Australia. The general belief at that time was that the people from Australia had' no respect for- the law of meum and tuum; but the advent of the- Australians on th© field soon exploded that belief, for a more orderly crowd never visited any field, and I have seen a few, particularly on. the West Coast of Now Zealand:. I spent two days in looking round and- taking stock, and then I returned to Dunedin, taking two days on the way. On my arrival at Dunedin our party—whose names are given above—was formed, and as the stock of tents had run. short at th© tentmakers wo had to make our ownnot a. very difficult task for.oVl sailors. We got a sack of biscuits baked, and bought timber suitable for a California pump, a torn or cr;:d'e, and alto canvas for the pump, and th© tools necessary for gold mining. When on the visit to Gabriel's I noticed they had a. lot of water to contend with, which necessitated continuous bailing with a bucket; hence my idea of the California, pump. When we were read? we "arranged with Sam Parrel to take our implements awl stores to Tuapoka at the rat© of £9O per'ton. Our party accompanied the dray containing our effects for this "reason: I noticed when returning from Tuapeka that there were several drays _ begged! at Scrogg's Creek, -which necessitated their loading being removed by hand to terra firma. On our arrival at the bad place in the road we carried the load across, and even then had a hard job to get the empty da-ay over to where it was reloaded. At Milton I pointed out to Sam the advisability of halving his load, as his team would not be strong enough to take the full load right through to Gabriel's. My advice, was taken, and rest assured that our miscellaneous lot was takan on, much to the disgust of those whoso gocd3 were left behind at Milton. I may say that they had preceded us on foot, and were patiently awaiting our arrival; hence their disgust. On reaching the mouth of the oreek w© were unable to cross owing to the flood. We camped there, and as the ground l was soaking wet i we found' the timber cam© in us-clful, j

when spread cut under the tent, by keeping our bodies clear of tho damp ground. When the fresh subsided Joe and I made our way up the flat to what was since called Weatherstones, after the old man who' was the first to start .digging there. We got a good prospect in a little side gully halfway up the creek cm the left hand side. I think it lay between what was known afterwards as the Blue Spur and Post Office Hill, our method of saving the gold was by means of a cradle, and our earnings were an ounce per man daily. There was not much ground to work, the creek being narrow, with the banks rising abruptly on both sides, especially the Blue Spur side. When worked out in the creek we turned our attention to the back portion of the claim. We sunk a shaft and bottomed at 16ft, the washwirt from the bottom of the shaft yielding one pound weight of gold. We then erected a winch, and I claim, without fear of contradiction, that it was the first winch erected on the Tuapeka goldfields. The time was about the middle of August. The washdirt was of a cementy nature, and in order to get the gold out it had to bo puddled. I mad© a journey to Gabriel's, and succeeded in purchasing the half of a beer hogshead; and let me tell you it was •no cpiSy ■ matter to get it over the hill to Weatherstones. I had to carry it on my head a la the "Merry' Widow" hat, or, rather, the "Beehive" type. In driving- underground we had to bo careful, as the lesd was no width. After working to our boundary we tried cross-cutting, but did not succeed in getting payable washdirt. We then started sinking- a shaft jon the crown of the spur—which I think was afterwards named Post Office Hill, — and we sunk to the depth of 30ft and then abandoned it. I heard afterwards that someone bottomed our shaft, but what degree of" success they met with I am .unable to say, ia« our party left the gully for Dunedin about the middle of September.

There wore no stores in our time at Weatherstones. Mr M'Gill, flourmiller, of Milton, occasionally made a tour of the different goldficlds with his bullock-drawn waggons, and the price of the flour was £lO per sack of 2001 b. At intervals a shepherd from the local run would l drive round the various fields with a mob of 40 or 50 sheep. The price per head was £l, and. understand, you had to be spry in catching your sheep. No waiting, or he would call the dogs off, saving, "I can't wait here all day." At other times, if the larder wanted replenishing, we would start ,p : ig-hunting— generally on Sunday—in a locality four or five miles distant in the direction of Upper Waitahuna. The weather during cur time was very severe, both frost and snow. About the middle of July there was a very heavy fall of snow, necessitating the use of a shovel to relieve the weight on our tents severai times during the day, and l towards morning the ridge pole showed signs of collapsing. When it dawned on us that some one should get up and stave off the inevitable, the question was, "Who?"' After a little argument it was decided that the man who was cook for the week should get up, and ias it was a case of • three to o/ne you cat* imagine who won. He did not hav© a pleasant job, let ,me toll you, as he had to tramp knee-cfeop in Ihe snow to an adjacent clump of totara to get a forked stick to support the ridg epolc.

A few nights later the cook was reminded that as it was freezing hard he had better got in his morning water. He took a bucket and wended his way to the creek a short distance from the tent. The water hole was about two feet deep, with a bank on one side about one or two feet in height, and it was there we usually leaned over and filled the bucket at one «lip. Our cook was not long gone when we heard an exclamation "Oh I" and as he nearcd the tent we heard loud mutterings ; and I may tell you it was not the Lord's Prayer he was repeating, although I will admit that same of the words ho used may be met with in the Bible. On arrival inside the tent there was no need to ask what was tho matter, for- our friend was holding his wet pa.ntsi to prevent their coming into contact with his skin. During the time ho was getting out of ins wet clothing he was making irreverent remarks about the person who made New Zealand, and most uncomplimentary statements about the unfinished condition of the same. In

his calmer moments he informed us that when leaning over to fill the bucket ho shipped' into the -water hole. In til© fore part of these notes I stated that it took mo three days on horseback to reach Tuapeka, via Milton. Later on 1 walked from Weatherstones to Dunedm, via Maungatua, a distance of 55 miles, on two separate occasions, in on© day. MR W. BIRSS. M.r W Birss, of Appleby, near Inveircargill. relates his experiences as follows: I arrived in Dunedln by the Storm Cloud in 1860, and after a few months cam© to Invercargill. Hearing of the rush to Gabriel's Gully in 1861, a party of us set out to try our luok there, carrying swags weighing 101 b. We took four days to reach toe place, as seme of the party were Highlanders and striclty observed the Sunday as a day of rest, and w© spent it resting at the Molyneux. We reached Tuapeka and staked out our claim at Gabriel* Gully, but found it too wet, and determined to try Munro's Gully, choosing a spot at the mouth of a small gully called' Holy Joe's " There were five of us, and our claim turned out a. good one, and had we been more experienced miners we could ha,ve made more out of it. We stayed threo months, and our mining operation:, were carried out in a somewhat crude fashion. There were stores where w© usually obtained provisions, and one© a week we bought a sheep from Mor Mun o, and as those of us who were Highlandsn ceroid talk the Gaelic with him, w© usually obtained a, fine specimen. It was Wed in an old oil drum, and served! for breakfast, dinner, and tea for a week. Wo encountered a flour famine, and could not get any for love or money. However, ©no lay I ran across an old shipmate driving in with a load, a.nd he said that every bag with the exception of one was already bought and paid for, and though _ that one was premised, if I paid and carried it oft nothing wouk} be. said. The money, £5, was at once forthcoming, and with the help of my mates the unwieldlly bag of 2001 b was carried up the steep hill-one of the heaviest lifts we had,—and that night we rejoiced in fresh damper for tea. Returning from the diggings we had a fortunate escape, for we passed Garratt and his partv setting up their tents. We were allowed to pass, but the next party were stuck up and robbed of their hard-earned gold. Reaching Invercargill, I found work awaiting me, and thus ended my digging experiences at Tuapeka.