TREASURE TROVE.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 20 November 1923, Page 8

TREASURE TROVE.

BURIED GOLD FOUND. In the old-established western portion of Palmerston North there is a faiily large corner section, which has lately been deprived of its ramshackle dwelling. A local resident who acquired the property some months ago. was digging the ground one Sunday in preparation for the planting of potatoes. The work was directly on the place where the old house had stood, and heavy <lay made progress slow. Over the tops of the nearby pines the sun was sinking, when the amateur gardener paused to lean upon his spade and wipe his brow. Something*— a. dull gold. too. and rdund —fell from between two lumps of Mirth. A casual examination, a dash for the family, and Palmerston North was the scene of an amateur gold’ rush. With gold in the air. a crowd soon collected round the fence, and watched with bn;:, ing eyes the unearthing of the gleaming hoard, which amounted to over £6O. It is hard to imagine how the gold cam to be there, in that it was scattered <;\v: a patch of 4ft. square, and was mo.-Hy unearthed about Bin. or more below the surface of the ground. The first male owner of the property, who died about 24 years ago, left the property to Ids wife, but. he was suspected of having bad a secret hoard of gold, which, it was thought, he had somewhere on the property. Whether this suspicion was tested in th<i dim hours of the night is not known, but this suspected hoard u. supposed to have been buried in a tin or a bottle, while the gold liaul was dis covered scattered over a comparatively wide area. The earliest and latest gold coins found bear the dates of 1837 and 1891 respei lively, and all are iti excellent Condition.