D.—No G.

smallest specks to about the roughness of brau. It wot found in the C'lutha River, above the. junction of the Manuherikia, and in the Tuapeka stream, in sufficient quantities to make it probable that it would pay to work if set about in the proper 'Manner, with some wholesale system of washing, such as rftiic-iiu/. * • * * Specks were also found in the Manuherikia, Pomahaka, and Waitahuua. * * * Along with the gold was found black sand, in some places fine, and resembling emery ; in other places coarser, and sometimes in square block crystals." 8. This announcement, important as it now appears, was unheeded at the time, and it was reserved for Mr. Gabriel Bead and Messrs. Hartley and Beilly to develop the hidden treasures, of which Mr. Garvie undoubtedly intimated the presence, although he was probably unaware of the importance of his discovery. 9. In a foot-note attached to Mr. Game's report, the Chief Surveyor states that the best sample of gold which had then been brought into town was found in the south branch of the Tokomairiro Eiver. " This sample," adds Mr. Thompson, "indicates a workable gold-field." The locality referred to is now known as the Woolshed Diggings, where a native of Bombay, named Edward Peters, was in the habit of obtaining small quantities of gold from sands of the Eiver. Peters also obtained gold from a gully on Davy and Bowler's run, near the north bank of the Tuapeka Eiver, and consequently not far from Gabriel's Gully. 10. In the same year, INSB, the Chief Surveyor discovered gold in the Lindis Eiver, a circumstance to which he publicly referred in a lecture subsequently delivered at Dunedin. Traces of gold were found shortly after in the sands of a, small stream which enters the sea near the township of Hampden on the Moeraki Beach. 11. But notwithstanding these accumulated proofs of the distribution of gold throughout the Province, no systematic search was prosecuted until 1861, when some men who were engaged on the new road which the Government was forming across the run of Mr. McLean to the pastoral districts beyond the Lindis Pass, in the Dunstan Mountains, accidentally struck upon ,a deposit of the precious metal. This occurred towards the end of March, and a small rush immediately set in. Although fair prospects were obtained, the general yield was not very encouraging. The field was therefore pronounced a failure, and the greater part of the miners returned. But even to the present date the neighbourhood of the Lindis Pass continues to be wrought, not altogether unsuccessfully, for gold. 12. Scarcely had the brief excitement consequent on the Lindis discoveries subsided when it was revived by information of a more determinate character. In June a letter was received by his Honor the Superintendent from Mr. Gabriel Eead, announcing the discovery of what is now the Tuapeka Gold-field. I make the following extract from Mr. Bead's letter :— " Tokomairiro, 4th June, 1861. " To Major Eichardson, &c, — " Sir, —I take the liberty of troubling you with a short report on the result of a gold prospecting tour which I commenced about a fortnight since, and which occupied me about ten days. During that period I travelled inland about thirty-five miles, and examined the ravines and tributaries of the Waitahuna and Tuapeka Eivers. " My equipment consisted of a tent, blanket, and spade, tin dish, butcher's knife, and about a week's supply of provisions. I examined a large area of country, and washed pans of earth in different localities. I found at many places prospects which would hold out a certainty that men with the proper tools would be munificently remunerated ; and in one place for ten hours' work with pan and butcher's knife I was enabled to collect about seven ounces of gold." 13. A portion of Mr. Eead's statement found its way into the public press, and numbers of persons of all classes flocked to the scene of the discovery—the now world-famed " Gabriel's Gully." The results were highly satisfactory. The first gold escort, in August, brought down 5,056 ounces. The excitement soon became intense. Thousands were bitten by the gold fever, and abandoned their ordinary pursuits to " try their luck " at the diggings'. The contagion spread to the adjacent Provinces, to the Northern Island, and finally to Victoria and the Australian Colonies ; and the rush to Otago soon assumed enormous proportions. Then commenced one of those startling revolutions which, under the direction of an all-wise Providence, is everywhere wrought out by the discovery of gold. In 18C0 only 69 vessels were entered inwards. In the following year 256 vessels, many of them of large tonnage, arrived at the port; and the population computed in December, 1860, at 12,691, had increased by December, 1861, to 30,269 souls. 14. Wetherstone's and Monroe's Gullies were shortly afterwards opened up by the miners; and in the mouth of July another rich Gold-field was discovered in the Waitahuna stream by Mr. Gabriel Eead, accompanied by Captain Baldwin and Mr. Cargill. The first dishful of earth, washed by Captain Baldwin, yielded a quarter of an ounce ; the next, washed by Gabriel Eead, yielded half an ounce. The place was "rushed " by about 500 men, who speedily deserted it, and declared the "Waitahuna to be a " duffer." For some time there were only three parties on the field. On Ist September there were about 200, and on the 30th 4,000 men were at work there and doing well. Since then its prosperity has been continuous. 15. In the month of September there occurred one of those feverish reactionary movements, which would appear to be necessarily consequent on every new " rush." The world-famous gold fields of Balaarat, Bendigo, and Ararat, in Victoria, were all rushed and deserted as unprofitable •when first opened up. The senseless panic which hurried thousands from Otago in 1861, is only -neither illustration of the same general rule. Many who hastened to seek sudden fortune at

Announcement unheeded.

The Tokomairiro.

Lindis, 1858.

Lindis Diggings, 1861.

Discovery of the Tnapeka. Mr. Read's letter.

Gabriel's Gully.

Rushjto Otago.

Other gullies.

Re>action.

3

GOLD FIELDS OF OTAGO.