£8000 IN SIX HOURS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 642, 21 December 1932, Page 5

£BOOO IN SIX HOURS.

Memories of a Thames Discovery. A SENSATIONAL FIND. (Special to the " Star.”) AUCKLAND, December 21. As another Christmas approaches it recalls to many old residents of Thames and Auckland the sensational Christmas Eve discovery, in 1878. of the rich Radford patch of gold in the Alburnia 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 is in failing health, retains vivid memories of that Christmas Eve.

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 struck. He relates how the “Boss” (Mr Radford) came into the drive one day at the 65ft 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 a 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 and 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 reef brought down

quartz about 6ft long, sft high, and 3ft wide, which gave 5001 b of specimens worth 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. On Christmas Morning. On Christmas Eve a whim struck the “ Boss ” when in the street at Grahamstown, 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 once ” it should be done. Accordingly Jobe gathered up James Geary, Thomas Leach and James Carr, and 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 17 cwt of specimens, besides two candleboxes, from the specimen leader. The specimens thus taken out to make the shareholders’ “ Christmas 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 boundarv 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.