A REMINISCENCE OF THE DUNSTAN RUSH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3511, 28 June 1921, Page 55

A REMINISCENCE OF THE DUNSTAN RUSH.

By

Geo. M. Hassing.

In August, 1862, when Hartley and Riley, the prospectors of the Moiyneux, astonished Dunedin by lodging 871 b weight of gold in the bank, i happened to be wild-pig-killing oil the Waipara Run in North Canterbury. The run belonged to Captain Reader, who had purchased it from Mr Waite, who subsequently went round to the West Ccast, where he took up the country known as Waite’s l'akehes, an < pen block of count country south of the duller River, which he stocked with sheep. His camp being at a small creek a few miles north of the Buller, the Maoris from the pa frequently paid him a visit; and as lie was very kind to them, he became familiarly known as “Old Waite,” or an near as the Maoris could pronounce it, “Ora Waite.” A few years later, when Hr Hector, accompanied by a couple of Maoris, visited the West Coast to ascertain the old Maori names of the headlands, rivers, and streams, he entered this stream on the map of New Zealand as the “Orawaite.” This name, owing to its sweet Maori twang, was afterwards adopted by the U.S.S. Co. for tiie name of one of its vessels. But to resume my narrative : As we received no newspapers at Waipara at that period, my mate (William Ellacott) rode up post haste from Christchurch to inform me of the startling news. 1 immediately packed up mv swag, and we both departed for Lyttelton, where we took passage in a small vessel for Dunedin. On arrival in Dunedin we found the place bristling with activity, and hundreds eager to get away to the new rush. Four others, who came down in the boat with us from Canterbury, joined no, and we all left Dunedin for Waikouaiti in the small steamer Undine. The route by way ot Shag Valley was generally adopted by the early parties leaving for the Dunctan ru«h. At Johnny Jones’ store in Waikouaiti we procured tucker, tent, and tools, and off we started, a merry, sanguine, and happy party of six. On the journey up we overtook and were overtaken by others bound for the rush, until our party numbered about 25 jolly adventurers. I remember camping on Coal Creek Flat one beautiful calm evening. There was plenty of dry manuka scrub, so we lit a dozen or more great bonfires for boiling tlie billies and baking dampers. After tea, two members of our party —brothers. I think—produced eac-h a cornet, and played some of the most lovely music that ever I listened to. Then, as if by contagion, the whole party around the great camp-fires emulated the cornet players, and we sang English, Scotch, and Irish songs till after midnight, 'file picture of that jovial party of mixed pioneers singing around the blazing campfires on Coal Creek Flat on that calm, pleasant night reminded me of similar scenes witnessed in the fifties on the Californian goldfields. Next day we came to a creek with water sft or 4ft deep crossing the road. This would necessitate dripping and carrying the swage, across. Rut here some enterprising fellow, anticipating the rush, had provided a long plank across a narrow l»art of the creek near the road as a temporary bridge, for which he charged a toll of sixpence each. This we all willingly paid, anti proceeded on our journey across the Maniototo Plains till we reached Mr W. D. Mm-ison’s station. Here we found two of the station buildings, one converter! into a butcher’s shop and the other into a cook-house or soup kit'hen This was a treat, as wc had been without meat since leaving Waikouaiti. Fore and hind quarters of mutton were sold here at from Is. 6d. to 2s. per lb. A notice stuck outside tbe cook-shop announced that mutton would be boiled at 6d. a quarter, so, the country being now treeless, we availed ourselves of the offer, and entered the kitchen, where we found a large boiler hanging over a roaring fire, and two men (the senior and junior partner) in very greasy apron.? readv to do the cooking and afterwards retail the soup, into which were put a little barley and a couple of onions, at Is. a pannikin. They also supplii d scones baked in camp-ovens and cut into four quarters at 6d. a quarter; go amidst much joking and laughter over the novelty of the situation and the cute business acumen of our hosts, we ail enjoyed a merry feast. An amusing incident o ••curved here when the senior partner, who was about to serve out the soup in pannikins, missed the di-h-r.ig. TJie junior said lie hung it •*- usual ' u the crossbar in the chimney. It could, however not be found, until the si nior stirred the soup wit : i a long wooden ladel and fished it out. Tin’s produced immense liil-iritv amongst the giietls-; but there V,:v nothing 'lost in fact, some as sc:ted that, it addi 1 a pi.plant flavour to the decoction. After crocdng the tic-k and Pillar and tiic Mount Ida Run finally arrived at Law and Sliennaii’s Gallr-wav Station, near Mutton I’own. At this station one of the large huts was set apart for the accommodation of dig rers. This was run by a big, powerfully built but verv lepulsive- : ting man named Moore. Here one of our p rt\. a Mr Jenkins, barton.:! with Moore by giving him a po - urn rug for >• Moore rem rking gravely, ‘ Ah Jenkins, it j !:.• In’t known you so in I ;t Italia rat you would have got onlv ouaitcr of that damper.” O Mutton Town we found it < ’ i o’ 50 or 4T tent and a canvas etc:., inn by a .Tewi-b firm, of which 1 V. " 1 erwards, hanged as one of the Burgess and Sullivan gang of bush iangers, was an active partner. OaLri.-Ps th< ■ neV and Waitain na siq plii d • ■ 1 : di geo- on tin ru h as w. 11 a.« the first white lady, known as “SweetJemima.” Alter pitching our camp and seining a 50! h bag of flour, for which 1 paid £6 ss. (or half a crown a lb) from Levy & Co., wc Haiti >1 prospecting the beadles of the Clntha up to where Clyde is now located We encountered dozens of others on the same unit, who all de-

dared the river a duffer. A few fine colours could be obtained, but no encouraging prospect. We spent three or four days in vain prospecting, while an enterprising man (All* Henry Hill) had a little Hat-bottomed boat built to cross the river just below the present township of Clyde. We then broke up camp, and our party crossed the river and travelled down on the southern side prospecting the beaches as we went. We crossed the Fraser River (named after cur late, worthy, old Minister of Public Works, who was then manager of Earnsdeugh Station) until we arrived at the mouth of Butcher’s Gully. Here we obtained a splendid prospect on the liver beach, which ran back about ten or fifteen yards from the edge of the river to a high bank. 'The river-wash averaged about- half a pennyweight to the dish, and as my mate (Ellacott) was the most expert at panning off, he was appointed to that job. Of course, we had pegged off a river claim for six men, and we all held miners’ rights issued by Vincent Pyke, the first Commissioner on the new goldfields. At the margin of the river and about the centre of our claim rosea large eonical-eha-ped rock about sft above the river, with a crater-like hollow a foot or so deep in its centre. Into this hollow the gold we obtained was poured as it was panned off. This would amount to about 3ozs or 4ozs a day. We kept at this panning off for a. week or so, as well as cleaning off the beach wash-dirt, which we carried in in bags, and then stacked close to the bank some 40 or 50 loads of auriferous gravel-wash, in anticipation of the river rising. Then one day a heavy, warm rain set in, which continued the whole day and all night. I shall never forget our astonishment in the morning when we beheld a roaring torrent sweeping down between the bank on which we were camped and the rock containing cur gold, the ro-ck being then about 6in out of the water. To reach the rock was beyond our power, so we had to take the matter philosophically and calmly await developments. By noon the rock had entirely disappeared, and the liver Still rising fast owing to the sudden melting of the snow on the Southern Alps. The following morning the river would be about Bft or 10ft above the rock, and near to our tent door, and still rising. We thereupon decided to give the river best, break camp, and leave for the Dunstan (Clyde) which had now replaced Mutton Town On arriving at the Fraser, which was now very high, muddy, and dangerous to crocs, we discovered, near its confluence with the Clntha, a narrow perpendicular, rocky gorge which was only some 6ft wide at the top, but at the surface one side was about 2ft higher than the other ; and though we could get a. splendid run none of us were game enough to attempt the jump, and there were about a dozen of us; but the loar of the river running like a mighty mill sluice through that gorge just before emptying itself into the Clntha offered no chance of life if a mistake were made. Presently a shepherd with a couple of dogs came up to the other side of the gorge, and beckoned to us to make the attempt. So one of our party mustered up courage, made a run, and over lie went. But he just managed to land his feet on the opposite high ledge with his body at an angle over the gorge, and had it not been for the instantaneous and firm grip of the shepherd his doom would have been sealed. We then made a temporary bridge by tying dried manuka sticks together with flax ; but on dropping this bridge across the gorge its back broke, and we .-aw no more of it. We then resolved to go up the river to its widest -part; join hands, and endeavour to ford it. In this we-suc-ceeded though the foaming current reached our armpits. When finally we reached Clyde crossing we found a boat had been substituted for the flat-bottomed box, and, getting safely across, we were surprised to find quite a street of tents in the new township. Two cradles for washing gravel, which we had ordered in Dunedin before leaving, had ju.-t arrived. These sold off the wagon for £lO apiece; and as the reports from up tbe river were most discouraging, mv mate and I decided to leave for Waneka where we arrived in due course. i never again revisited the location of our claim, but I have often wondered what became of the gold we poured info the pothole of that rock. St may be there to this day for all 1 know. The want of success of those who were earliest on the field was simply that they had little or no knowledge or idea of liver gold mining. Hartley and Riley had experience of Californian river-mining, so that with simply a pick, shovel, tin dish, and cradle, they fossicked out 87lbs weight of gold during the winter months of ’62. They obtained their r.upplies chiefly from Hassnl’s store on the Lindis diggings, opened the year previously ; and an their appearance caused a suspicion among the few diggers working there, an old Californian miner named loin Watson was told off to shadow them. W atson dropped on them in the gorge below Cromwell, but as he was coining along the side of the mountain they could (see him a long while before he discovered them. So they were ready for him -fold him they were just making tucker: showed him about a pennyweight in a dish ns the remit of the previous day’s work, and generally putting on a very poor fa.ee. Watcon returned to Lindis, and reported accordingly. The Dunstan rush bronchi thousands of enterprising men from Australia, and was the means of_ opening up the Wakatipu and the West Const, goldfields for the subsequent permanent and prosperous settlement of a happy and contented People.