THE TUAPEKA GOLD FIELDS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 14, 3 October 1861, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE TUAPEKA GOLD FIELDS.

('From a Correspondent.) August, 1861. As many Ahuririans have lately migrated to this district, a few observations on it will perhaps be acceptable. It is a well-grassed country, very scarce of timber, and not much scrub ; the hills are steep, with glass to the top, small patches of fern here and there forming the exception rather than the rule. The gold which Ims attracted so many, and will attract thousands more, has b.?en found about the edges of a small biook running Southerly, and joining the Tuapika rivulet, which flows Westward. To assert that such a pldce is a rich gold field may mean little or much, according to circumstances, but to give a definite meaning to the term it is necessary to compare with some standard. Taking the Massacre Bay district as a guide, it may be said that the “ Tuapeka” has in its first burst outshone the “ Aorere fields” in their first; but whether the former will continue to excel the latter remains to be proved. Taking the early diggings of New South Wales as our standard, say “ Turon” and “ Ophir,” and it may be safi ly asserted that while a few may have done better here than any did there during the first three months after their discovery, yet the extent of payable ground discovered here is of so much less extent than there that the probability is that the average gains per head here will be less than there. It is often—nay, generally—very difficult to learn the profits of a large body of gold-diggers, very few men choosing to tell everybody what they get, and to tell one gentleman is equivalent to telling the world, or at least that portion of it which reads and speaks the English tongue. However, in this district it appears the "first diggers cast off all reserve, and freely informed a gentleman exactly what they* had got, and by so doing informed all the newspaper readers and news-hearers in the colony. Of the facts given to the world by Mr. Gillies I need not enlarge, much less shall I dispute them ; but the inferences and deductions to be gathered from them, and the opinions expressed on the subject, are all fairly open to comment. Assuming, then, that such and such parties got so many pounds or so many ounces per day, as afl New Zealand is aware, and that it was got in a small gully, at a few feet depth, the "inference conveyed was that it was surfacing; and opinions were expressed that when people could get no more rich surfacing, they would sink deeper, and the logical deduction follows, do belter; whereas the surfacing here is bottoming , the rock laying near the surface, and proving richest where it is within a few feet, rather than where it is deeper : the practical inference follows that deep sinking is not likely to pay in this district. Again, in the famous letters about the Tuapeka, it was stated that the surfacing in Gabriel’s gully was richer than anything ever known in Australia by experienced men. Whoever penned 'that paragraph either knew very little of the Australian dur. gings, or else he wilfully misled the public ; for such an opinion is as directly opposed to fact as possible. More gold has been got on

the surface in one gully on Bendigo in a few weeks (to say nothing of the heavy finds on the bottom, there shallow as here) than has been raised in all the New Zealand gold fields put together. There is no comparison between the “ Eaglehawk” or any other of the many dry gullies,about the Bendigo and the now famous Gabriel’s gully. Mure tans of gold were found there than hundredweights here. .But the subject which is of the most importance to intending diggers is not so much the richness of a particular spot as the extent of payable ground discovered. On this head the Tuapeka is sadly deficient. Hundreds of men are prospecting round about the neighbourhood, but no new ground has been found worth working. Three small gullies or valleys, and some of the small runs or blind gullies leading into them, are as yet the only places where gold has been found in payable quantities, and even in them there appears to be plenty of ground not worth working. The upper part of Gabriel's gully, for instance, is not worked, holes having been Lied here and there, but without success, while the labour required is much greater than in the rich parts, the upper part containing a much greater depth of drift, and equally troubled with excess of water. From all appearances, the probability is that a few months dry weather will see this district deserted. Should any new diggings be discovered, the rush to them will be greater than New Zealand has hitherto witnessed, for there are hundreds here not making their rations, and hundreds more not gaining what might be called wages, whereas provisions and tools are enormously high, and new hands are arriving by the score daily, and the news and letters in the Otago papers will probably attract thousands from the Australian colonies.

There is one phrase so common in correspondence from gold fields that it ought to be stereotyped ; it is—“ All those who work steadily do well, while those who give bad accounts are those who do nothing but go backwards and forwards, &c. now to the uninitiated this may seem very plain, but it may be literally correct, and yet convey a very erroneous idea ; for its real meaning is, “All those who have been fortunate enough to find rich ground, and are working steadily at it, are doing well ; while those whose fortune has not been so favourable, who are going here and there trying a hole here and another there, without hitting the right spot, aie the grumblers hut in many cases the latter are in reality working harder than the former. Gabriel stumbled on to a spot where the gold lay very near the surface, and could ho gathered without much labour. He at once proclaims to the world that the whole district is, if not equally rich, at least nearly so ; and takes care to inform the Superintendent of the Province that though he dies not seek a Government appointment, he will be very happy to fill one if he gets the chance ; and informs the diggers that he can find plenty of rich claims when this is worked out ; but if this is true, that is very doubtful ; for a man who can find two or three rich claims needs only to work them out to be independent of Government salary. Hence Gabriel is likely to prove a humbug. There are great complaints about the state of the track from Dunedin, and correspondents of the Otago papers indulge in very strong language on the .adject, without due cause, for any one who has seen a rush to uninhabited country in mid-winter needs not to be told bow the ground will be cut up bv the heavy traffic rendered necessary for to supply the necessaries of life to a" digging population ; and no thinking man will blame the Government for not foreseeing and providing tor an emergency which mere human knowledge would fail to foretell. No doubt the Government of Otago have faults enoiudi of their own to answer for, without being condemned for not having a metalled road and bridges over the streams between Dunedin and Tuapeka.

The following are the prices charged at most of the stores hero'lately for the first necessaries : —Flour, Is. the lb. ; mutton and beef, Is. ; salt, Is. ; sugar, Is. Gd. ; tea, Gs.; codec. 4s. Tools —picks, los. each ; spades, 4:1 ; shovels, .$1 ; iron buckets. A‘l ; boards for toms and sluices, is. to is. Gd. the superficial foot. Watertights, £'2 10s. the pair ; other articles in proportion. Gold is bought at ,£3 10s. the ounce.