DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CANTERBURY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 80, 8 January 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CANTERBURY.

’ From the Lyttelton Times, Dec. 20. We have received information of the discovery of gold on the West Coast of this province by Captain Dixon, of the schooner Emerald Isle, and of his having, through Mr. Oakes, of the Golden Fleece, put in a claim for the £IOOO promised by the Government for the discovery of a payable field. Besides the claim of Captain Dixon, one has also been put in by a Maori, native of the district where the discovery has been made. On Wednesdty night a Maori named Ihaia Tainui, arrived in Christchurch with a packet from Capt. Dixon for Mr. Oakes, of the Golden Fleece. The packet contained a letter, and several small specimens of gold, about H dwts., which the writer found under the circumstances stated in the following extract with which we have been favored by Captain Oakes .• — “Taramakau, West Coast, “ December 7th, 1862. “ Province of Canterbury. “ Capt. Oakes —Dear Sir, —I send you a sample of gold that 1 dug yesterday ; this's the sec nl place in which I found gold. The sample I send you now I got out of two buckets of earth, so I will leave you to judge what it is like. I think it will be the richest diggings in New Zealand. There is about 18 feet of wash stuff. There is a gully close to tins spot which is very rich. In one Creek where the water was running very rapid, I put the shovel down and took up very little stuff on account of the water running so strong. I washed it out, and got four specks of gold out of it. You may therefore guess the rest. There is not the slightest trouble in turning the course in any part of it. It must be very rich at the bottom. It puts mo in mind of California diggings. There is a good fall for the water. I think this sample you will find to be pure and fine gold. I wish you to exhibit it to all who may wish to see it. I cau give to the Superintendent every satisfaction concerning the gold iu this locality 7, as to being good and in payable quantities. If you can make up a good 'party, I will take them to the spot on my return. You may publish in the papers this news if you wish to do so. The Emerald Isle is the first vessel that ever entered this river : we are also the first white men that have been here, so the natives inform us. Hoping these few lines will find you well, in haste, yours respectfully, “Titos. Dixon, “Master, Schooner Emerald Isle.” Mr. Oakes, agreeably to to the wish of Capt. Dixon, called at the office of the Provincial Secretary at an early hour on Thursday 7 morning, and entered a claim for the Government reward; whilst there, the Maori messenger, Ihaia Tainui, also came in with a similar claim, written in his behalf by Mr. Stack, the native interpreter at Kaiapoi, in the following terms : Kaiapoi, Dec. 19, 1862. “Sir, —I wish to inform the public that I was the discoverer of the gold lately brought over from the west coast. Inuncdiutely on finding it I started for Christchurch to inform the Superintendent, and arrived hero a few days ago. “I am. Sir, &c., “Ihaia Tainui. Ihaia, it is said, turned while with astonishment to find that Capt. Dixon’s claim was already put in, as he had no idea that that gentleman had made any pretensions to the discovery, or that the packet he had himself brought in for Mr. Oakes contained any gold to support such n claim. From what Iha'a ha? told us, we gather that ho bad been some time ago at the Nelson diggings, and learned something of prospecting, but returned home a few months ago, and was struck with the resemblance of the strata about his own district to that where gold was being obtained on the Grey river, and washing some of the sand in the creeks, found gold;in it. On the 17th of October he first made this discovery, and had formed the idea of making up a party to prosecute the search. He lives on the Taramakau, only a few miles from its mouth, and was surprised to see Capt. Dixon come up that river, as the natives had never known it explored by a white man before. The Emerald Isle was at this time aground, and Ihaia, with an intelligent young half-caste, named Henry George, helped to lighten the vessel, and get her afloat. They were afterwards engaged by Capt. Dixon to bring a letter to Mr. Oakes, and had done so without knowing the nature of its contents, or anticipating that in doing so they were jeopardising their claim to the credit of first discovering a gold field in Canterbury. The gold brought by Ihaia is somewhat coarser than that sent by Capt. Dixon, and the former insinuates that it had not been washed out by Capt. Dixon at all, but obtained from some native who had been at the Grey. The Taramakau is a small river, whose mouth is a few miles south of that of the Grey. The country is accessible by land, as is proved by the circumstance of Ihaia and his companion having made their journey that way, and reached Kaiapoi four days after starting. The Maori says he could make a bullock track in three weeks which would bring the Taramakau within two days journey of Christchurch, that he is sure there is a large quantity of gold in the district, but that the snow would prevent its being worked in winter.