DISCOVERY OF THE KUMARA GOLDFIELD.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 901, 15 May 1877, Page 3

DISCOVERY OF THE KUMARA GOLDFIELD.

A committee of the Westland County Council have been enquiring as to the discoverers of the Kumara goldficld. Describing their proceedings, the Westland Times says: —"Very curious, and often comic and grotesque, details were elicited during the conduct of the enquiry. Glimpses of the bright side and of the 'dark side, of the miner's nature —which is the nature of all were seen now and then. James Robinson—the miner whose application led to the appointment of the Committee —was working in the still solitudes of the Kumara forest in April 1873. He knew that another party, Cashman arid party, were working adjacent to him, arid they were the only human beings within miles of him. Yet they never spoke. They met, and passed each 'other, times without number, bub never uttered a word.

Robinson is working the same ground to this day. About three months before the rush, Robinson felt in that happy state which all of us aim to attain, but is generally unattainable —the happy state of being "right." K« told several parties that he was 'right,'and could 'lay them on to being light' For a year or more previous to getting this payable gold he was working alone, and struggling with countless difficulties. At Christmas, 1875, he sold £ll worth of gold. The rush took place in January, 187 H. But Cashman was working in this fiat, and contiguous to Robinson's ground, long before. He was working in the gully there as early as 1871, but did not get payable gold for the first few months. He says he made known his discovery then to'every one,' and that a rush took place to the locality in 1871, when fifty or sixty people were there, but they all left very soon except one party. But when questioned as to the people he meant by 'every one,' his reply was vague. In the Warden's Court, however, Cashman admitted to Mr Seddon that he was making £8 to £lO digging at Houlahan's Flat, long before the rush, but it is quite evident that the reply was forced from him. Witnesses stated that Cashman, instead of making public the auriferous nature of the Kumara ground, did all he could to conceal it, and did so successfully for years. ' Cashman again, in explanation of the fact that he did not make a noise about the discovery, said he was afraid of consequences, should the ground not turn out well when a rush set in. A miner named Peter Malone gave it as Iris opinion that the rush was really brought about 'by a bit of diamond cut diamond between a party named Fahey and Robinson, and Cashman.' There was a good deal heard of this diamond cut diamond business during the course of the investigation—so much that the Chairman remarked that there seemed to be much diamond cutting at Kumara. At all events, the first prospectors were not friends, and there was something said leading to the conclusion that there was much enmity amongst some of them. One witness described the treatment Robinson received at the hands of Cashman. He said that Robinson was howled at, and hooted, and hunted by some of Cashman's party, and that Cashman's object was to drive him away. ' But Robinson stuck to the place like a burr on a sheep's back.' One applicant founded his claira for reward on the fact; that a reward was knocking around, and he thought he might have a go in for it as well as anyone else. The liberality of the Council had reached his ears, and he knew they had plenty of money. This candid man was an Irishman of course. Another applicant admitted that there were several parties getting gold before he went to work on the fiat. Then up turned a miner named Nugent, who wished to make a short statement. The ' short statement' filled nearly three sheets of foolscap, closely written. He detailed how all the land between the Kapitca Creek and the Teremakau was prevented from being sold by his efforts, and claimed to have sold the first payable gold —got by his party —in December 1874. Another witness startled the committee by affirming that his party —Nugont's party—got payable gold before either Robinson or Fahey got it, and that Robinson never sunk at all! To elucidate the facts, and adjudge the merits of the case, will not be easy." We learn from a later paper that the committee has held its final meeting, when a. report was drawn up recognising Jas. Robinson as the chief cause of the Kumara rush, and recommending the G-eneral Government to grant him a special reward, as the case was special, and as the conditions formally attached to lapsed goldfields rewards had not been complied with. The committee considered that James Kobinson had displayed great perseverance in his persistent efforts at Kumara, which were entitled to commendation. No other applicant, the Council held, had made out any ease for reward.