A Horse Shod with Gold.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 2007, 20 December 1886, Page 2

A Horse Shod with Gold.

The Argue publishes the following anecdote taken from the quarterly mining reports “In the year 1856 a storekeeper named Donald Cameron, carrying on butinaes at the Woolsbed, waa elected first member of Parliament for the Ovens district, and be bad the honor —unique in the history ol tbe oolony—of being driven in triumph from the Woolsbed into Beeebworth in e gig, with a tandem teem, the leading bone of which was shod with gold. An old resident of the district hae favoured n* with the following particulars of tbe occurrence : —“ Just before the election an eccentric individual known ai Tinker Brown, who had made e lot ol money on the diggings, suddenly purchased a circus, with tents, horses, As., complete, and coming into B*eclw<rth with his company, he offered to drive the newly gifted member and supply golden horse* shoes, lor the occasion. Tbe Woolehed “ bosses,” who were greatly elated at the success of the election, warmly took up Brown’s ides, and they resolved, in addition to present their member with a diamond scarf pin. The horseshoes were made by a working jeweller Denied Tofield, end weighed 9oz each. The team was driven from Wool, shed to Beeokworth, and keek s* far as La Serena Hill. On removing the shoes of the leader (a piebald circus horse], th-y were found to have lost Ifoz. Before “ Tinker Brown ” died he willed them to a married daughter keeping a public house at W*gga Wagga. They war* in existence until about years ago, whan the owner had them melted, and tnrned into sovereign*.'*