LURE OF GOLD

Wairarapa Daily Times, 26 January 1932, Page 3

LURE OF GOLD

ACTIVITY IN AUSTRALIA. A correspondent writing in the “Sydney Morning Herald” says:—-“It is doubtful if even in the great digging days of the 60’s and 70 s there were more men searching for gold than there are' at present roaming the hillsides and raking the river and creek beds in the hope of a strike. In those now faroff times the rich alluvial fields around Summer Hill Creek, Hargraves and Gulgong in New South Wales, Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria, and Gympie and Charters Towers in Queensland, kept thousands of men employed in their immediate vicinities. But so far the present rush has discovered no new fields offering such opportunities, so the prospectors of to-day arc more spread out. Quite a number are working the old fields, it is true —well over 2000 men are fossicking in the headwaters of the Macquarie River, where the first Australian gold was discovered by Hargreaves in 1851 —but

they are mostly raw new-chums, learning the game, or old “gully rakers” who have spent years in the district* and are too old to break out into new country.

A few weeks on an old alluvial field can teach a now-chum a great deal. He sees how “beaches” and “terraces” are worked, the use of dams, wing-dams, and water-races, and, most important of all, he can learn something about ‘ ‘ wash ’ ’ —what is ‘ ‘ wash ’ ’ and what is not “wash.” If he is wise lie will mate up with an oldtimer, who, though he may have a lifetime of futile gully raking behind him, will teach him countless numbers of those little tricks of the game that the books never seem to mention. Those small things of camp life that identify the bushman from the “camper,” To many, especially those whom hard times have forced out, the bush life offers no attractions. The heat, the cold, the rain, ties, ants, and all the inconveniences of tent life assume huge proportions, and they only live for the day when industry will be returned to normal and they can go back to the shop and the factory. To others, however, and it is only right that it should be a- minority, it has been the opening of the door to a new life, a fuller, cleaner, wider life, the exist- !

cnee of which, amongst the while of machinery and the rush of city hustle, they had not dreamed of. The hardships and inconveniences that, to the one, are an all-absorbing misfortune, to the other arc but incidents to lie met, overcome, and forgotten as they arise.

To these men prospecting is a glorious life, offering a wonderfully free and independent existence. No man who has seen “colours” in the bottom of the pan ever forgets the thrill of it. It is not avarice or anything like greed that keeps a man working on and on at a claim from which he is getting little more than “tucker money,” 1/at rather that the discovery of gold itself seems

to hold a fascination that is shared by no other field of human endeavour.

But the game must be learned, and the apprenticeship is a long and arduous one. To follow a lead for weeks and then have it “peter out,” to find a spot where pan after pan shows colours, but months of work are only rewarded with a few weights of “'dirt”; to locate a good “show” and be forced to abandon it for lack of water or some other essential —these and many more drawbacks make the finding of gold the fascinating game that it is,

and drive all but the hardiest an ay in sheer exasperation. Along the river banks and up on the hillsides, deep in the valleys, . and perched on hanging ledges are. found the camps of these new “professionals.” A tent, or even a bag humpy, is perhaps all it consists of, and all around on logs and stumps and strewn, about the ground will be pieces of rock —quartz, slate, granite, diorite, serpentine, or whatever the country l is

made of —a young prospector never returns to camp without, at least, one pocketful of rock. Only one kind oi camp has more rock lying about it than a young prospector’s —and that is an old prospector’s.

A few of the old-timers may r iow with concern this invasion of thcii sacred fastnesses by the new army, but generally' tliey r arc only too willing to offer what advice and help they can to a new-chum, and unless they have actually reached the “hatter” stage it is always worth listening to. A “hatter” is an old digger that has spent years in the hills, and has become a little unbalanced on the subject of gold. It is a “hatter” that one meets about small towns in mining districts, a picturesque figure, shaggy', unkempt and bearded. He has interesting specimens to show, and hints of a fabulously rich lode that he alone knows the location of. He backs his statement with assay reports from the Alines Department, which often show that the sample tested carried several ounces of gold to the ton, an interesting proposition if the sample was a fair one, but later developments often prove that the test was made from a picked piece of stone, and the gold content of the whole lode is really very small. That seems to be the “hatter’s” greatest weakness —lie simply cannot resist the temptation to send a rich piece of stone for assay. He is well-known in tho assay' department of the School of Alines.

The great influx of new-chums has been a boon to the “hatter.” Ho has someone who will listen to his tales of hidden riches, and though the ncwclium never has money to develop the schemes, many partnerships are formed, and away they' go into the hills together to uncover the “big show.” Later it is discovered that the plan is not working right, and that the gold that was going to be so easily got is very elusive. Then comes the break. The younger man goes off with a little more knowledge gained, and the old-timer to grumble at the impulsiveness of youth. A big gold strike would be a great help to Australia in her present 'need, and maybe a new-chum prospector will make it. If lie does, the monetary reward will not- be all that lie gains. He will

have realised the truth of those lines of Service’s: —“It’s not the gold that I’m wanting so much as just finding the gold.”