SEARCHING FOR GOLD

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 6

SEARCHING FOR GOLD

AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES. EARLY DAYS AT COOLGARDIE. Soldier of fortune, gold prospector and one time bookmaker, Mr. W. H. Dawkins has returned to Christchurch after forty-six years in and around the mining camps of Western Australia. He told a Christchurch Times reporter recently something of the adventurous life which has been his choice. Tanned bronze by years in the open, the greyness of his beard is the only indication that he has reached, the age of seventy-four. From his earliest days Mr. Dawkins has led the life of a rover. In 1879, together with his family, he left the village three miles from Dorchester, where he was born, and embarked on the Rangitiki, a windjammer owned by the New Zealand Shpping Company. Seventy-nine days later the ship arrived at Wellington. For the next few years he worked in Canterbury, and then in 1888 the call of adventure became too strong and he boarded a ship at Picton bound for Sydney. For six months Mr. Dawkins and a shipboard acquaintance worked at whatever came their way until they both went “broke” at the races. So once more they took the road, arriving eventually at Melbourne, where they worked during '9O and '9l. A GOLD FIND. From Melbourne they travelled on to Adelaide, where six months after their arrival there came the “first wind from the west.” Gold had been found, but just when he needed money Mr. Dawkins had a run of bad luck. Most of his belongings, including his gun, were placed in pawn, and he took ship for the gold districts, where he was to reside for forty-two years. Here and there casual employment served to provide the necessary money. The maritime strike, coming when he was at Albany, gave chances of big money if one was bold, and, as Mr. Dawkins put it, he turned “blackleg.” This meant wages of thirty shillings a day. Working on ships and wharves he progressed along the coast until at Christmas he found himself at Perth. At this time the Eatons had just come down after prospecting the country round Coolgardie. They had found no gold and excitement had quietened down when Bayley and Ford arrived, telling of the big strike. They had been more fortunate than the Eatons, for an aboriginal had guided them to the place where they made their find. But it was some time before Mr. Dawkins was able to get on his way to the fields. Then one evening Ford returned to Perth with the news that his original hopes had been more than fulfilled. I was talking to him under the trees in the park where we all used to meet,” continued Mr. Dawkins. “He said that he was going back in March, and that if ever I wanted to get up to the fields now was the time. So I drew my pay and hopped up to Coolgardie, where I remained four months with little success. But I was back the following year and did some nice business limning Calcutta sweeps and making a book. Most of the alluvial gold had gone by this time, but in order to make some money I started the Coolgardie Racing Club. Just when the track had been surveyed and things were getting into running order, came the strike at Kurnalpi. I could not resist the temptation, and handed over the club to Rod Mclver, who became its first sec-

retary. But we had held many meetings in the main street. It was pony racing, of course.” Kurnalpi proved no more successful than had the other centres, and Mr. Dawkins moved on to the 1.0. U- district. It had been so named because the Kennedy brothers, who made the find, had been “grub staked” by the local storekeeper. It was at the 1.0. U. that Mr. Dawkins had the best luck of his life. He was in partnership with one Bob Brown, who discovered a nugget which contained 33 ounces of fine gold and 84 ounces solid in crystals. So large was this find that it was sent by the Australian Government to the Paris Exhibition. But more important to the partners, they received £5 an. ounce for His next big adventure was made in the company of Jim Smith in 1899. Smith was acknowledged to be the finest bushman in Australia, and for six months they prospected the country round the Victoria Spring. Not more than a dozen white men had been in this district before their arrival,, and it had never been surveyed. But in spite of hardship and privation during that and the following years, there was no return for their labour. So the wanderer decided to go back to the old game. For two years he had great success at Kookyri, a newly opened field, where he had two billiard saloons. At last, after he had saved some money, the Black Range was discovered, and once more he left in search of gold. At that time he little knew that he would be there for twenty years. In the first three weeks Mr. Dawkins found the mine on which he was located until he returned to New Zealand. * The prospects were not good, but I was tired of wandering,” he said, “and so settled to work. It has never made me rich, but I have never been short. It times I had as much as £lBoo'in fixed deposits, and at others I had twenty or thirty pounds. But there was never any lawlessness at the fields.”

For the past twelve years he has been partially crippled by arthritis, but to look at the man, with a twinkle in his eye as he sits in the sun sucking a well-worn pipe, one cannot but echo his words, “It has been a beautiful life.”