UNEMPLOYMENT AND PROSPECTING FOR GOLD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3829, 2 August 1927, Page 18

UNEMPLOYMENT AND PROSPECTING FOR GOLD.

TO TH3 EDITOR. Sir, —In 1896 we were hydraulic mining in Roxburgh. One day an up-to-date miner, Jx,mes Martin, asked me to make one of four to prospect a flat in the Upper Waikaia River for gold. I told him first to show me the ground, as we would be responsible for the other two men. On January 3, with good horses, we rode to Coal Creek and' started to ascend the Old. Man Range. After passing the head of the I’omahaka River and the Government snowshed, we descended to Potter’s in a snowstorm. Here we interviewed the last of the grand old miners, Andrew Rae. who informed us that the ol<J hands had taken two tons of gold front this small basin. We now followed a track in the snow until we came to a bluff of rocks. Below was Campbells Creek. On the bank were four huts. The miners who had worked here for over 20 years had been called the “ Tunnel Party.” Martin said, “ Which will vou patronise?” “ The first my horse comes to,” I said, “and I hope it is Dublin Jack; he is a good cook.”

On our arrival the door was opened by an old white-haired man of anything up to 70 years. It was Bob Murray, his poor old hands shaking with palsy and covered flour. I asked him to get me a crowbar to tie the horse up to, and said I would look after the bread in his absence. The hut was 10ft by 14ft, with a peathouse on the end to hold three months’ firing. We both slept that night in Bob’s hard box bunk. Next day, Sunday, the weather cleared. We started up a steep ridge, and then descended to a creek called Swinbourne, after which we climbed a higher ridge, from the top of which we saw the Upper Waikaia River some distance below us. Here we dismounted to ease our horses. Martin pointed out the flat he wished to work, the water for hydraulic power if the gold was there, and the gorge to bring up a tunnel tailrace to prove it. There was too much snow to take our horses down to have a look. I told Martin his prospecting was out of date. If the authorities liked we would have a plant made in Dunedin, which we could pack on horses, and bore by hand. At all events I would make one of four to try his flat.

The fog was coming up the Waikaia Valley, and before we could mount our horses it was on us. Then how it snowed! AU we could do was to give the horses their heads and leave the going entirely to them. They took us back to Campbell’s Creek. In a few days four of us left Coal Creek with our packer, Gunn, who for Id per lb (from a loaf of bread to a stic!: of timber) would keep us going fertile season. We were kept at Campbell's, for a snowstorm drove the packer home. We packed all over to the claim, cut six month's’ peat, and did a considerable amount of work before we saw Gunn again.

Martui camped with me the first night. Returning with the spirit-level from the rge, I informed him we had made a

mistake, but as lie was in charge I would say nothing. All he could say was, “The reef might rise.”

M e put the funnel through, and made a good job. It will be there for 100 years, covered up with floods and slips. As fur the flat and its contents, they are .still there.

M e now proposed to go prospecting, as we had two months’ stores. I was to interview the manager of the Tunnel I’arty to see the only piece of rich gorge unworked_ by the old miners in_Campbell’s. If possible we would work it. Next day Ned Toy took me.a short cut to Campbells Gorge. When we passed a big heap of. cattle bones he informed me that one winter a mate, being hard up, had tried camping in a hut. He found these poor cattle in a snowstorm, and kept them alive for a month by shovelling snow from the tussocks, but when they came to the ground, which had been burnt at the wrong time of the year, they had to die.

loy pointed out the unworked gorge. I said to him: “The first rock is 100 tons, the next 50 tons, and the rest about 20 tons. The miners below in the old days blasted ledges to stack their stone on.

ley said: “ It is not a good piece to work or the old-timers would have done it. I told him that as far as we were concerned it would remain there for ever. M e followed up the gorge, and just below Potter’s came to a 12ft fall in the creek with a reef showing. Toy told me the ground above had not been worked in his time, and as far as he could see was impossible. I told him we were going to hang by ropes, drill holes in the face of the cliff to insert crowbars as foundations for slabs of rock to build up a gap to the ledge above, and then pass the creek above us and have the gorge dry.

That night when we camped together ip Toy s hard box bunk I asked him what they had averaged in his claim for 20 years. He replied: “Keep it to yourself >n my lifetime. Two of us had money when we came here. That money has made money. We have averaged 10s 3d per man per week for 23 years. Before you laugh at us tell me what have you done. All the big cheques earned in Southland and South Canterbury have gone in prospecting for minerals in the mountains from Otago to. Westland with the bravest and soberest of mates. Like you, we hoped some day to find gold.” We no.w shifted to Campbell’s Gorge. All went well, and we started for the bottom. It was my turn for the last shift. I came on a slab of rock. and. calling my mates down, told them to take off their hats to the best men Otago ever saw. The ground had been worked over 30 years before.

This was the end of our prospecting. A’ the first chance I made for Campbell’s Basin to see tw< men prospecting a known reef. One was a company promoter, the other gaining experience. They invited me into the drive, as it was snowing. I told them I felt safer outside. A few nights later it fell in. Next day we climbed to Potter’s, interviewed Andrew Rae, and descended to the Waikaia River to see two men who for three years had worked in the river below a terrace from which £6OOO had been taken. My mates

went to Pat’s hut. Alexander entertained me. 1 told him the work was well done, but useless. Their packer and the grand old storekeeper who had backed them would receive nothing from that claim, and the reef ■ they had come to was the end of their troubles. In a few days we returned to Roxburgh. The cost of our prospecting trip (s.,y four men for four months at 7s per day, £134 8s; packing and tools. £52) was £lB6 Bs. The value of gold obtained to pay same was 355. But, worst of all, our brave packer, Gunn, was found lying dead under the snow. His body was recovered, with a horsecover round it, the following spring when the snow melted. While the old-time miners prospected this island for gold they found other minerals. For want of information, in some cases they took their experience to their grave, and to-day we have unemployment.—l am, etc., Fred Daw. Oainaru.