GABRIEL READ

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1939, Page 3

GABRIEL READ

AT THE DUNSTAN DIGGINGS. The Walker letters throw interesting light on the celebrated Gabriel Read, discoverer of Gabriel’s Gully, in January, 1863, not much more than a year after the rush had begun as the result of his information. One of the letters mentioned reads: “Last Saturday, Gabriel Read ... lent us his pack-horse to fetch grub. It was very good of him; he is a very nice fellow, a very superior digger; he has been making his oz a day here for some time, but it has run out, so he is off into the ranges with his pack, prospecting. He offered for one of us to go with him which we have caught at. Bill is off tomorrow prospecting with him and his mate....” But Gabriel’s luck did not avail the Walkers on this occasion. “They got to the top of the hill and were covered up in mist so that they got in a regular mess. ‘ It is all boggy and the horse of course would not go over, so they went round in circles, and finally found themselves at the same rock from which they had started, so they gave it up for the night. Read had no tent poles with him, so it was a case of camping out, which Bill did not see the propriety of, so he came back. Alf’s compass was very useful, in fact it puzzles me how people get on here without one.”