GABRIEL’S GULLY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 78, 22 May 1911, Page 4

GABRIEL’S GULLY.

The, jubilee of the Gabiiol’s Gully gold discovery, to attend which the Hon. K. McKenzie left Wellington last Friday night, says the “Mew Zealand Times,” recalls the most vividly interesting incident in the h - torv of Mew Zealand gold discoveries, it ‘was in Mav, 1861, tlmt Gabriel Head found alluvial gold at Tuapeka, getting, it is said, .£25 wortli in ten bmirs with no better implement than a butcher’s knife. Mo at once informed the Otago Provincial Superintendent, and immediately the rush set in The sober Scotch community had looked askance at the influx of adventurers which the diseveries encouraged, and for a long time they remained impassive, hut .the Gabriel’s Gully find clcctificd everyone. Tokomairiro, the nearest township, was promptly deserted, only the minister and precentor being lott to attendTlio Sunday service. Although it was the middle of winter, lialf Dunedin marched off to the diggings, encountering snowstorms and many other hardships, such as lack of fuel. Timber was so scarce that a gin-ease will go down into history as having changed hands at £5. It was required to make a miner’s “cradle.” Cartage cost as much as ,£l5O a ton, and all necessaries wore tremendously dear. Iho field gave a good return, thousands making a comfortable living, and a few were rewarded more amply. Hie gold output of the Otago fields rose to two millions sterling in the year 1863.