CHRISTMAS GOLD

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1932, Page 14

CHRISTMAS GOLD

MEMORY OF THE THAMES

£BOOO IN SIX HOURS. FAMOUS ALBURNIA PATCH. Auckland, Dec. 20. As another Christmas approaches it recalls to many old residents of Thames and Auckland the sensational Christmas Eve discovery, in 1878, of the rich Ra’dforii patch of gold in the Auburnia Hill,; when the. Alburnia Company was driving the famous, 70ft. level. The patch was named after the late Mr. T. Radford, the manager of the mine at the time, and known , among the miners as. “Captain Big Tom.” He; had as his shift boss Mr. James Jobe, who still lives at Thames, and, although he id in failing health retains vivid memories of that Christmas Eve. ’ ; PROMISED PINT OF BEER. Mr. Jobe tells of the dramatic turn of events which resulted in the discovery of. gold after a. tiresome job of driving 350 ft. along a reef of barren, hungry quartz, without a grain of gold in the truckful, before the first of the rich: ore was 1 struck. He relates how the “Boss” (Mr. Radford) came into the drive one day at the Bsft. point and speculated. aloud as to the probability of getting gold in the small space that remained before; the boundary of . the Whau Company was reached. He promised to “shout's pint of beer” to his shift , boss' whenever the latter could show him a colour, of gold in the reef. After firing the: next shot Mr. Jobe found on the floor of the drive a piece of stone containing a blotch of gold about the size of a shilling.. He' ran down the Moanataiari creek to', overtake , his . Cornish. , kinsman, met him near Driscoll’s “pub,” reported the discovery, ’arid 1 , claimed and received the promised reward. This; single blotch, of gold was the precursor of such wealth as the Alburnia ‘Hill had not produced before. The very, next series of shots fired in the Y reef, ‘brought down quartz about 6ft. long, sft. high, and 3ft. wide, which gave ’feoOflx of specimens, with an ounce to the pound. The next shot again disclosed a band of gold six inches wide, which yielded 10001 b. of specimens. .. This was only, the beginning of; a patch which extended right along the 65ft. of the reef to?.the Whau Boundary. THE CHRISTMAS BOX. On Christmas Eve a' whim struck “The i Boss!’\ when in the street af- Grahamstovzn, that he would like “to. give the company a, Christmas present,” so he asked Mr. Jobe to get three other men’of the mine staff, go up to the 70ft. level and see what they could get in the way of specimens. ,It was agreed that “just for ohce” it- should be done. Accordingly Jobe gathered up James Geary, Thomas Leach and Janies Carr, and r together . they set off up the creek, arriving- at the mine about midnight. On' into Christmas morning they worked and before daylight they had shot down ore which gave them 17cwt. of specimens, besides two candle-boxes, from the specimen leader. The specimens thus taken out to • make the shareholders’ “Christ-mas-Box” yielded 3000; ounces of gold—about £BOOO- in. value—all taken out in six hours’ work by four-men.

The reef proved very rich to a sloping height of 35ft. and payable ore was found right up to the boundary of the company’s. property. Below the reef proved rich, but-not to any great depth. In the three years that the Radford patch lasted it produced about 75,000 ounces of gold, and the. company paid during the period nearly £60,000 in dividends.