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C—ll

" The principal event " [for Nelson] " of the year 1857 was the discovery of gold in the Aorere district on Massacre Bay. In the beginning of the year Mr. W. Hough, a Nelson storekeeper, having some land at the Aorere, went over there in Company with Mr. W. Lightband, a young man who had some experience as a gold-digger in Australia. They commenced prospecting in some of the gullies. Mr. Hough shortly returned to Nelson, leaving Lightband to prosecute his labours with the assistance of some Maoris. They continued steadily at work until they had obtained about 3oz. of gold, which was forwarded to Nelson. This was the beginning of the development of the rich mineral resources of the provincial district, and the greatest amount of credit is due to William Lightband, whose steady perseverance at the diggings induced others to go over and try for themselves. The first reports received from Lightband were to the effect that his average earnings were about 10s. per day. Although this could not be called a splendid profit, it allured a good many others to follow his example. Fresh gullies and creeks were discovered, yielding better returns, and when the encouraging fact became known that three men, working on the Slate River, a tributary of the Aorere, had obtained lOOoz. of gold in seven weeks, the diggings might be said to promise hopefully. The number of diggers increased from day to day, and it was estimated that on the Ist of May, 1857, there were no less than a thousand men at work upon the Aorere diggings. On the mouth of the river arose the fast-thriving little town of Collingwood. As the winter approached, the expense of transporting provisions from the port of Collingwood, owing to the want of roads, became greater; and as the floods in the rivers at this period destroyed the dams and other works of the diggers, many of these became disheartened and left the place ; although many remained throughout the winter, earning good wages, and others returned in the spring, the diggings have never regained their former population. " When I visited the goldfields in August, 1859, there were, in all, only about two hundred and fifty diggers at work. Although the work is frequently interrupted by the overflowing of the rivers, and although much time is lost in the difficult transportation of provisions, the average gain of a digger at that time was, nevertheless, computed at 12s. per day. But such pay, although sure and permanent, seems, after all, too small to allure a large number of men to engage in the laborious work of gold-digging. What caused the headlong rush of thousands of persons to other goldfields was less the certainty of a reward for their labour to all than the enormous lottery-like gains of some lucky individuals. Such prominent cases of good luck, however, never occurred on the Nelson goldfields; they consequently continued to be only scantily worked, and yielded a comparatively small although permanent produce, which they will continue to yield for a long series of years to come. The largest piece of gold (which was found in the Rocky River) weighed not quite lOoz.; a second, Boz. And by August, 1859, the total amount of the produce was estimated at about £150,000. " The mode of occurrence of gold in the Province of Nelson is quite different from that in Australia—in the Colony of Victoria. The Australian gold is originally derived from quartz reefs passing through fossiliferous strata of Silurian age, which are but very little metamorphosed, and the gold i 3 obtained partly as alluvial gold from deposits of gold-drift (wash-dirt of the miner); partly from the quartz veins themselves, by crushing the quartz, and by subsequent washing and amalgamating processes. As the gold-alluvias are already nearly all washed over, an extensive system of quartzmining has been begun within the last few years, and the vital question still awaiting its final and decisive settlement is: Whether the quartz veins—which, close to the surface, were sometimes found to be unusually rich (the auriferous quality of them has, however, hitherto been tested only to a depth of 300 ft. to 400 ft.) —will continue at a still greater depth to be so rich in gold as to pay for mining." In a footnote, added evidently after the above was written, the author says, "Experience seems more and more to confirm the views of the Australian geologists (Messrs. A. Selwyn and G. Ulrich) that the reefs of gold-quartz in Victoria are real mineral veins which render a permanent system of mining in a downward direction possible, as on the veins of silver-, lead-, tin-, and copperore in Great Britain and Germany, while the prevailing opinion had been that the gold decreased in proportion to the increasing depth of the mine. G. Ulrich has proved upon the quartz reefs of Victoria the most different ores, such as iron pyrites, arsenical pyrites, copper pyrites, galena, grey antimony ore, copper glance, bismuth glance, native copper and native silver, The greatest depth hitherto reached in the gold-mines of Victoria is 460 ft., and at this depth quartz has been obtained containing over soz. gold per ton." The above refers to the state of mining in Victoria not later than 1866. Very different is it at the present time, when the strata have been pierced to depths exceeding 2,500 ft. and 3,000 ft. from the surface, and auriferous quartz veins discovered that will pay for mining even from these great depths. Due to the demonstrative nature of the facts ascertained, a change has also come over popular opinion as to the depth to which quartz veins containing payable gold may reach. Yon Hochstetter continues his description of the Nelson goldfields, as at the time known, as follows: " Upon the Nelson goldfields the gold has been originally derived from quartz veins, which occur in non-fossiliferous crystalline (or metamorphic) schists. A section from east to west, through the mountain-ranges between Blind Bay and the west coast of the Provincial District of Nelson, presents us the succession of the crystalline schists. The western shores of Blind Bay, from Separation Point to the mouth of the Motueka River, consists of granite, which, towards the west, is flanked by gneiss. This granite- and gneiss-zone can be traced towards the south along the Motueka Valley to the junction of the Wangapeka River. It is intersected farther south by the Buller River, at its entrance into the gorge of Devil's Grip, and continues on the eastern escarpment of the range as far as Lake Rotoroa (L. Howik). Proceeding from the granite and gneiss towards the west, we find upon the top of the Pikikerunga Range a broad zone of hornblende schist, which alternates frequently and regularly with quartzite and crystalline limestone in vertical strata, with a strike almost due north and south. These ranges continue to the westward as far as beyond the Takaka Valley, where they are intersected, on Stony Creek and the Waikaro, by dioritic