GABRIEL'S GULLY JUBILEE

Otago Witness, Issue 2978, 12 April 1911, Page 29

GABRIEL'S GULLY JUBILEE

1 (By Our Special Commissioner.) No. IX. CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY. The organisation of goldfields interests at Tuapeka had now become prompt and effective. Due recognition of this has not hitherto been accorded to the provincial authorities, on whom the work devolved. The exigencies were numberous as well as complicated. # With little or no warning the responsibility was suddenly thrust upon the province, and no:, only were the exigencies promptly met, but the groundwork of what proved a sound administrative future was laid. At the opening of his council, towards the end of June, 1861, the Superintendent! (Major Richardson) was able •• to announce : "No time has been lost in providing for the preservation of order by the appointment of an experienced resident magistrate and the organisation of a small mounted police force." In a previous article we enumerated the crimes of the period. It should now be further stated that the short list embraces the whole of the offences for which the goldfields of the day were responsible. Mr Alfred Chetham Strode was the magistrate alluded to, he having been transferred from Port Chalmers to Tuapeka. His term of office at the foldfields was brief, as we rind him back again at Port Chalmers early in October, and in his place at Tuapeka the well known Major Croker was duly installed. Apparently Mr Strode had little or no goldfields "experience, and although judicially well balanced, his mind in other respects was but poorly equipped for goldfields administration. That may possibly account for the shortness oKhis stay at Tuapeka. Major Croker, on the other hand, had practical experience in the work, but subsequent events proved that a military school was not the best training ground for the office of goldsfields warden. .Still he occupied the post for many years—indeed, it was not until overtaken by age and its infirmities thathe was induced to resign. We have had numerous epistolary communications relative to this branch of the subject. In one of these the magistracy of to-day is compared with that of the period referred to. Instead of dealing with crime as an offence pure and simple, we are told, the tendency now is to treat it more as a disease and to operate on it as a scientific problem. There Avas no deliberation in the early days. "Forty shillings, and take him away," was about the measure of judicial consideration indulged m. . On one memorable occasion the versatile Mr Vincent Pyke ventured on a new dispensation, but it was only a partial success. ' One' female facetiously named " Bannockburn Mary" had been giving the Kawarau police a great deal of trouble. . Her besetting fin wes sly grog —an offence with which her previous record was badly bespattered. Instead of AOs, a £4O fine was inflicted, with not more than two hours' grace in which to pay the coin. Mary's Bannockburn friends came promptly to the rescue. The hat went round, and well within the time limit she was back in court; fhoulder high, with sufficient to liquidate the fine and leav<* a margin for expenses. Whether the gentle Mary's experience points a moral and adorns a tale is Enother question. It goes, at all events, to show that extremes meet, and that new departures are liable to lead off in wrong directions. The public service in its elementary form now came into being. The post office authorities announced a weekly mail. The date was July 13. 1861. and the method in which it was established seems to indicate a low opinion of the intelligence of the mining community. The notice said : —" Arrangements are now in process by ' which a mail will be despatched to Tuapeka, along with . ether mails for the south, and will, if necessary, be continued weekly. It is recommended, in order to save trouble, that lettetrs may be stamped or prepaid." It remained for John (or Jock) Graham to relieve the official mind of doubts. Jock was a man of considerable note at the time. He was loud-mouthed and tempestuous, and men of greater ca!ibre had at times to give way to his noisy arguments. He made up a bundle of newspapers and carried it to the diggings, where he disposed of the contents es current literature, at what would now be considered fabulous prices. His master stroke, however, was a.consignment of cats. The diggings became overrun with rats. Here Jock saw a golden opportunity. Picking up every stray cat he could, he had them stowed away in packing cases, and in due course these cases found their way into the gully, whetre the consignment "went off like smoke." The mail to and from Tuapeka then became an established fact. Other conditions developed correspondingly, and th-3 field afforded tangible evidence of permanency. An early victor records the impression made on his mind when revisiting the field after a few weeks' absence. "Coming in sight of Gabriels, I was much astonished at the change that had taken place. The gully was studded with tents from- one end to the other, and the surface, verdant with fine grass when I was last here two months ago, was now gutted and ransacked in a most extraordinary manner. Fully 3000 people must have been at work, and numerous parties were to be seen spreading cut oveir the adjacent gullies and even hills. Altogether there cannot be lees than 60C0 persons in and about these diggings." Another commentation describes the gully, as it appeared at nights, s< •■•:, from adjacant heights : —" It looked ike the firmament coii-.iteila.teii, with this difference : that it the firmament turned upside down, and all its glories displayed on an inverse scale."

The earnings of the miners duiring the firat six months, or until 31st December,

1861, give about the surest criterion as to the actual etate of affairs, but allowance must be made, in view of the defective state of the service, during the first few months. The gold escort shows a i-eturn of 500 oz, with ICOoz privately owned, foir the month of July. That was the first occasion on which it ran, and seemingly only one trip was made. The September record gives two trips, conveying a total of close on 20,0000 z, and a statement was made which records that close upon £IOO,OOO sterling had been earned at Tuapeka alone. It will also be noted that this was in the most inclement season ot the year, and the weather is still" remembered to have been very severe in the latter part of that season. November appears to have been the best earning month of the year. A tot#l of 80,00Ooz was transmitted, and 25,0000 z to 30,0C00z held at Waitahuna. We are safe in assuming that this month's output was well over ICO,COOoz. One of its finds is reported to have been a 13oz nugget, and there were three others of lesser size. They were found in an adiacer.t t"ully, and for a time attracted general interest to Waitahuna and Waipori. The December returns give two ■ escort trips, which were patronised to the extent of 29,C000z. By this time a great many New Zealand residents had left for their homes, under circumstances to which allusion has already been made. On the other hand, miners from Victoria and other goldlields were arrivng in force, but they had not yet had time to set in to steady work. Indeed, it,was a season of the year when steady work was not to be thought of. The holiday eeason was at hand, and that of itself made the men less eager in the pursuit of gold. We give the foregoing figures as an approximate, but they may be taken as substantially correct. A permanent township now became an urgent necessity. Two of these having become prominent merit mere than passing attention. The Provincial Secretary, Mr John Hardy, already mimed, is here again in evidence. He writes to his honor the Superintendent as fol'ows :—: " Nothing can be of much greater importance, with the view of making these goldfields a means lor permanently settling the country, than the sale of township sites. There will be no difficulty in coming to a correct decision as to where two of these at least, should be placed-—namely, one on the hill at Chaplin's tent. This is central for the population in Tuapeka, GabrieLs, and Weatherctones, and is where the roads to these places diverge. It is well supplied with water, is not very far distant from the lignite in Tuapeka, or from the coal reported to crop out of the field near Weatherstones. The second township should be on the banks of the Waitahuna River, or Waitahuna Flat, where the Mount Stewart, the Round Hill, and the road from Nuggety and Waitahuna. (Jullies unite at the bridge, on the road leading to Tuapeka." Both recommendations were carried out. For years thereafter both places were known respectively as " Coglie's " and " The Junction." Now, however, that the two have been brought under the influence of the railway they stand as Havlock and Lawrence. A wellinformed person to whom we referred the matter states that " Coglie" was keeper of the wayside hotel at Waitahuna crossing. As for Chaplin, the tent-dweller at the junction, no one seems to know anything about him. The name Ebenezer Halley comes as a fitting sequel to these recollections. Cn November ,15, 1861, Mr Strode announced that Dr Halley, described as of Port Chalmers, had that day submitted for examination his diploma, as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and likewise his diploma as a. member of the Apothecaries Company c-f^London, in accordance with the provisions of en ordinance, etc., to define the qualifications and to provide for the remuneration in certain cases of medical pfaotlti >ners. During the then ensuing 25 years Dr Halley practised his profession at Tuapeka, and no one could have done so with more, disinterested motives. A quarter of a century has elapsed since he passed into the shadows of death, where he now sleeps well. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—On. opening your issue of the 18fch vast. I was most agreeably surprised and pleased to see the name of another old and respected friend, Mr A. H. Shury, at the foot of a letter, and here I would venture to digress from the subject to narrate how, after long, long absences, one friend wilt fall in with another. Away back about 1857 a prosecution took place in Dunblane, Perthshire (Scotland), where a person was charged with killing a parr (a very' small and insignificant species of trout), the prosecution alleging that the fish were young salmon fry or smolte. Now, it so happened that when a boy I took from the Allan Water about six burn trout, six parrs, and six smolts, and placed tkem in a well in my father's garden. This well was said to have been made about the time of Mary Queen of Soots. It was built of sandstone, and instead of being cemented or plastered the stones: were held in place' with iron clasps let into the stones, the holes being filled in with run lead. The water was ahout 4ft deep, and was fed by a constant stream of pure running water. Here I immersed my fish, and fed thorn for some time. About 10 or 12 weeks after the smolts had grown to be as large as herrings, when I found them, one after another, floating dp.ad, belly up. I had seen them in gentlemen's estates, although nursed with all the care possible, go the same way; and this is what will happen, and has always happened, to the millions of salmon ova on which the country has wasted, and is wasting, its money. My trout had grown to perhaps Bin or 9in, were alive and healthy, while the parrs were parrs still when last I saw them. Seeing a prosecution reported I wrote to the accused giving him my experience. Thereupon he came and asked' 'me to give evidence. I went to Dunblane and did so. I have been in the colonies 50 years. When the Prince of Wale® was on his visit to Auckland and great numbers of people were gathered there I was living „ in a

boarding-house, and the landlady asked me whether I would have any objection to her putting another bed in my room, as the house was full, and a gentleman from the country was anxious to come for a day or two. I agreed, and on my coming homo one evening the bed was there and a gentleman in it. He told me in conversation that he had come from Dunblane. "Dunblane!" I said; "I know Dunblane. I was there once giving evidence in a smoltpoaching case." •" Are you the lad Allan," he asked. " who came from the Bridge-of-Allan and gave evidence in that case?' " The same," I replied. Stretching out his hand he grasped mine, and said: "You saved me getting into trouble that day, and I never knew where to find you to thank ycu till now." I never felt more pleased over anything than that after a long, long term I should be thus thanked' for a very small service I had performed half a century before. Three such experiences I have had, one of them even anore astonishing than that I have just narrated. To revert to the days of the rush to Gabriel's Gully: Upon arrival at Wetherstones the party to which I belonged pitched tent on the leading spur to Gabriels, and, joining another party of three, we agreed to work together. The claim they were working was a " tucker" claim, and we arranged that three should hold and work the claim while two went prospecting. Wetherstones took its name from the circumstance that two young men, in prospecting, sunk right on "to a boulder around which they scraped up a pannikin full of rough gold. At this time it was oomnuted there were 10,000 diggers on the Tuapeka fields. Some were in glorious luck. From one claim a party of five men got £ISOO a man, and washed up in about six weeks. When they had cleaned up a paddock to the wash, and the water had flowed over it all night, one could look down and see the gold, like split peas, distributed all over it. We were camped almost on the edge of this claim, yet there was not even the colour for us. One day when we were at Gabriels prospecting we passed down the right side of the stream. About the centre there was a baker's oven, and on the edge of it a party had driven into the spur, and was carting the washdirt out just beside the oven. There had been rain, and in the wash one could see the gold distributed all through it. That was the first prospect out of the famous Blue Spur. Our luck, however, had not turned. Word now came in of a new rush to Waipori., and all was excitement. Particulars were posted up at the police camp, and, going, there, we took a note of them, paying special attention to the route that was outlined. Going over to Wetherstones we got caught in a heavy thunderstorm, and were thoroughly soaked. We now arranged that three should go to the rush while two held our "tucker" claim, and some prepared for a daybreak start. After the shower a brisk wind sprang up, and we hung out wet clothes up to dry in order to start, as we thought, at an early hour, but while we were cooking breakfast every spur leading out of the gully was alive from too to .bottom with diggers, their red blankets thrown collarlike over the shoulder, while the " biflv." fryingpan, and prospecting pan were shining in the morning sun, The sight of these diggers toiling up the hillsides was almost indescribable, but old Dr Burns used to remark, "If the morning ;in Otago is bright and clear, the more need to carry an umbrella," and so it proved that day.—l am, etc., Thomas Allan. g IEj —Your special commissioner, writing with ' reference to the Gabriel's Gully jubilee, makes an erroneous reference to the murder of " Yorky" at Miller's Flat. He describes " Yorky " as a waggoner on the road carting goods to Bighton's store at Roxburgh. At that time there was no road on the east side of the river, but a bridle-track bv Evans Flat up the Black Hill to the flagstaff by Gardner's station and the Devil's Backbone. By this track " Yorky " packed his goods to a small store at Portuguese Creek, at the Lawrence end of Miller's Flat. On the evening before the murder he came to Wether-' stones with his two mares —a brown and a chestnut with a white face, —and turned them out on. the flat. While he was getting his gondis packed at J. C. Brown s Al Store in Wetherstones the chestnut mare got into a hole. The miners gathered to pull her out, myself with the rest. After the mare was got out the supposed murderer arrived on the scene of the accident, " Yorky " having sent to Ballarat, in Victoria, for him, as he was an old mate there, and having paid his passage to New Zealand: " Yorky " sent him', after he arrived at the store, for two bottles of gin to shout for the miners who had helped to take the mare out" of the hole. The supposed murderer and "Yorky" then went to the store, packed 1 the horges, and started for Miller's Flat. That was the last seen of poor " Yorky '• alive. As I was mining in Wetherstones at the time, and was present, I give you this as a correct account of " Yorky's " . mlurder—an occurrence which has remained a mystery to the present day. The late Mr Peter Robertson, of Lawrence, was the only person who saw what was) supposed to _be " Yorkey's'.' murderer on this morning after the murder was committed. Mr Robertson then saw a man, riding a chestnut horse, coming from the direction of Beaumont. This man passed between Mr Robertson's homestead and Lawrence on the road next Waitahuna, but he could not be traced any further. Your correspondent refers to two persons as having been suspected of the murder. I myself was acquainted with one of them on the Shotever River. This person, was apprehended, and would have been convicted of the crime but for a banker in Queenstown, who proved that he had deposited gold in the bank late on the evening previous to the night that " Yorky" was murdered, so that ho could not have been at Miller's Flat. As to the Waipori murder to which your correspondent refers, the victim was Mr Lomas, father-in-law of the late Mr Thomas Dickson, and the murderer's name was Jones; while the lady he refers to is alive and in good health in Waipori at present.—l am, etc., R. M'Ledlie. Blue Spur, Tuapeka.