ROMANCE OF GOLD SEEKING

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1933, Page 14

ROMANCE OF GOLD SEEKING

g d PICTURESQUE DIGGERS OF PAST. s i GREAT DAYS OF THE WEST COAST. 1 • r . The romance of gold, not the gold of e gold standards and economic puzzles, but g , the raw material as it is found in its - natural surroundings, was the subject of - an interesting address by Mr. H. Gilmore i Smith to the members of the New Ply- - mouth Round Table Club at the fort- - nightly luncheon yesterday. Mr. Smith a traversed the history of the search for gold from the earliest times to the preg sent, dealing particularly with the gold s rushes of New Zealand. 1 Europe’s early gold came from Saxony - and Austria, said Mr. Smith. Spain also 5 contributed and Russia was a big pro- - ducer since 1823. but until, the discovery of America by Columbus the Euros pean supply was always depleted. There i could be said to be three periods of I romance in the search for gold. The first was when Alexander the Great re»l turned from the East laden with the > | plunder from its great stores. The sec--1 ond was when, following Columbus, con- . I quering hordes crossed the Spanish Main t and robbed the treasure houses of the t Incas and ancient Aztecs. The third was 5 the one better known, when wild rushes > were made across the plains of America s to the rich discoveries of California, then across the Pacific to Australia and New Zealand, back to Canada and Alaska and * then to the great finds in South Africa . and West Australia. ' Though gold was found in various ways . the real romance was in alluvial diggings. ’ The pioneer digger was a romantic fig- ' ure in himself. His return might be large or small, but it was visible to the . naked eye and it. was all his own. Alluvial gold was found in many ways, . said Mr. Smith, who related some of the ; peculiar accidents which had resulted in . the discovery of rich fields. The first discovery of gold was made . in New Zealand in the Auckland prov- , ince in 1852. Discoveries were made in : the South Island in 1856, but the first find on the West Coast was in 1859, while i it was not until 1865 that the real rush began. In January, 1865, there were 5000 miners on the coast and three months later there were at least 30,000. Hokitika was the centre. It was said that every night 15,000 and 20,000 miners paraded the one narrow street with its 50 or more hotels and numerous shanties. Most qf tire miners were young men of splendid physique. Bronzed and bearded, they wore high slouched black hats, black and white check or red Crimean shirts, no coats, white moleskin trousers and a crimson or green sash around the waist. They carried sheath knives stuck in their belts and many of them wofe Wellington knee boots. Nowadays all the glamour and romance of the search for gold was past. A certain amount of alluvial gold would continue to be discovered, but in the future man must look to the hills and the mountains, Mr. Smith concluded. The days of the picturesque digger engaged in placer mining were gone for ever.