THE TUAPEKA GOLDFIELDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 17

THE TUAPEKA GOLDFIELDS.

By

J. S.

The most romantic page in the history of Otago is the story of its gold discoveries. The province was only about 12 years’ old when the diggings “ broke out.’’ The progress that had been made was wonderful in the face of difficulty. Otago was not an easy place to settle. The hills were steep, the plains marshy, and the rivers swift. Morebver, money was “ tight,” the bank rate of interest, according, to Sir Robert Stout, being 174 per cent. Things were depressing, and a stimulus was required. News of the great intoxicating, gold rushes irr~other lands was arriving every mail to excite the envy jf the people and Government of Otago. Probably many an adventurous pioneer was then regretting that, he landed in Port Chalmers in ’4B and not in San Francisco in ’49. Then there was Bendigo and “the boys” flocked there in their thousands. The port of Otago was quiet, but the mountains of the province seemed to promise more than the wealth on their tussocky faces. So. the Provincial Government, out of its none too great store, offered a substantial reward for a gold discovery. Where the Tokomairiro comes out on the plain there was a woolshed, and a halfbred shearers’ cook, who was a runaway sailor, a native of Bombay, named “ Black Peter,” fossicking the gravel there found some gold, and a little later, with some others, secured a little more in tire Tuapeka River. Then, when he was down in ’Milton at the hotel he drank, and, like many others, talked more than was good for him. Whether Gabriel Read “ shouted ” for him or not, Gabriel got the real benefit of the “ shout.” Peter had told him all he knew. The experienced alluvial Californian miner was soon off to see if the gold was procurable in any quantity, and a few days were all that were needed to prove the field. He got in quickly with the news to the Government, for Gabriel was none of your strong, silent men. When he found the golden egg he cackled with might and main. Barroom eloquence he may have had, but his reports are profuse in long words and Latin quotations, and so he got the reward for the discovery. In those days without even telegraph, to say nothing of telephone or wireless, the news quickly went round, and Otago then received the stimulus for which it was looking. Gold discovery after gold discovery was reported, and discoverie were sometimes reported where there was no gold. Dunedin became the most populous city in New Zealand, and the strong financial centre. Some maintain it still holds the latter laurel, but it has undoubtedly lost the former. Numbers of the goldfields in Otago were' like some of the lands in Otago—they gave of themselves freely and quickly, and were soon neglected by the people who took their wealth. But all the lands of Otago were not light and free. Some of the early croppers starved on land that is now. rich and flourishing, because it has yet to give in return for scientific treatment. The alluvial beds of some of our mountain- streams yielded their gold to miners with pick, shovel, and tin dish, and iiow have little more to give, but follow these streams down into their deeper waterways, and there we know that much wealth is still hidden. Generally the gold prospector now does not search in the distant mountains, but in places where ancient and modern rivers have left it. Where the modern river has the gold stored, there it can be only partly secured by dredges. Where an ancient river has left its gold and then flowed somewhere else and left it high dry should be an ideal goldfield. T / Such the Tuapeka is supposed to be. Gabriel’s Gully was rich, probably the richest in the world, but it was only ri&h in parts. The miners found that, for when they tried beyond a certain point the gold stopped. At this point, however, there was a big portion of the hill made up of gravel lying in layers at a strange angle, and all cCmente’d together very tightly. After a few intervals the “ hang ” of this was discovered, and a great deal of gold was extracted from it, and miners ate busy at it yet. The Blue Spur, as this was called, was in 1879 the oldest and largest sluicing claim in'the world. Bigger claims have risen up, but most of them have been wound up by now. If a strange thing in Nature is a scenic -wonder, then Blue - Spur is one, But its value in many ways has not been properly realised. Its want of singularity is the thing that-is important, for several similar and larger deposits than it occur between it and the sea, and it is believed that in these many millions of yet unwon gold lie. The geologists have not overlooked this field. Hutton and Ulrich examined it in 1875. In T 879 S. H. Cox made a more detailed report. In 1894 M'Kay made a study of it in his work, “Tire Old Auriferous Drifts of Central Otago.” Professor Park, in 1910 in his work “ Geology of New Zealand,” and Professor Marshall in -his Geology of the Tuapeka District” (1918), together with the others, venture .an opinion on the origin of the cement deposits. All of these authorities, with the exception of Marshall, ascribed their origin to glacial action. Marshall holds the opinion that the de-

posits have been put there by an ancient river. From out of a little mining experience I venture to say that both arc correct, as glaciers and rivers very often are in close proximity. There is no doubt that Otago has geologically had it ups and downs—mostly ups. It is quiet at present. When all these movements were taking place, however, when a mountain would gradually rise where a plain was before, or a great lava flow .would surge over a sandy beach as is seen by the rock layers in the cuttings behind Mornington—they would be very diverting, in the true sense of the word, to the rivers of those days. The rivers would have to cut channels, sometimes abandoning their old one completely. According to Dr Marshall the Channel in which the Clutha is running to-day is quite a new one. The query then is, Where is the old one? The old auriferous drifts of Otago may represent the old Clutha Valley. A- chain of them can be traced from far inland to the sea. The Nevis, Bannockburn, the Fraser River, Tinkers, Cambrians, St. Bathans, Nascby, Hyde, Waipori, Blue Spur, Wetherstones, Paddy’s Point, Waitahuna, Adams Flat, and the huge fan of alluvial material from Kaitangata to the mouth of the Tokomairiro River all suggest that at one time over this course a considerable stream flowed. If, as Dr Marshall holds, the present bed of the Clutha is a new one, the fulfilment of the dream of Sir Julius Vogel of getting to the bottom of it by some diversion of the river, might not pay as well as search in the old course, which is now left high and dry. ' In many places it requires no vision to know of its wealth. The facts speak for themselves. Many experienced members have told me that the Tuapeka section of this ancient river is one of the greatest alluval deposits in the world. The surface only has been scratched and about £7,000,000 worth of gold has been won. But the days of the pick and shovel are over, and those of engineering, chemistry and electricity have succeeded them. The field which Gabriel Read found is, even now, not without promise.