IN GOLD RUSH DAYS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 April 1929, Page 3

IN GOLD RUSH DAYS

FORTUNES MADE OVER-NIGHT

ADDRESS BY MR A. D. DOBSON

CHRISTCHURCH, April 15

“We are ail very proud because we founded this very beautiful city o. .nirs,” said Mr A. Dudley Dobson, on tile subject of “Gold Riish Days” to an assemblage of a rout two iiindred members of the Canterbury Pilgrims’ Association in the Art Galicry on Saturday, “but if it hadn’t neon for the gold it might have been very small potatoes!” The West Coast, he said, had first i.ieen discovered as a country rich in minerals when in the early days of A 1 atari occupation Xgahue, a Maori navigation, had gone up the coast in search of greenstone. He had taken his canoe up the Arahura River and there had discovered the mineral in large quantities. He had then returned and from the sailing directions whien lie had obtained, other navigators had made their way to the spot. These directions were extraordinarily accurate and even to this end they could he followed with ease. The Maoris were not interested in gold and it was not until the whites had been in the country a long time that the first gold was distoverd.

(Die of tire first discoveries was. in 1851 when Mr AY. T. L. Travers found

gold at Massacre Bay. A further discovery two years later by some miners proved very rich. There was a rush but not a very big one, for at tin t time there were few people in the colony. Gold was to be found hi almost any of the creeks at the northern oi d of the West Coast. Later in the saintyear a commission was appointed to investigate the- possibilities of the oo;i't as a gold-bearing country. The .report was not encouraging but the early prospectors kept on searching. In the Nilson district diggers were getting r n ounce a day, equalling £3. The population began to increase as the rush set in and gold was found in increasing quantities.

KNIVES AS TOOLS

$ 4 Scon word of finds was coining from all parts of the country. Un the Slate River men were picking gold" out of the rock with pocket knives. “That is not merely hearsay,” said Air Dobson, “1 saw it myself. One party of Maoris got six ounces of gold., equivalent to £lB in one morning.” , ,f

By 18(31 parties were going'iiito the West Coast in increasing nmijbers. The Provincial Council and Government of lire time were doing great work. Travel facilities were being improved wonderfully quickly. Good roads were being built and railways extended. The Lyttelton tunnel was built when there were only 8000 people in the Canterbury Province. The “Golden West” was all the time increasing its output. In iB6O came the record year of the West Coast. While N'els m produced £29,643 the Coast showed an aggregate yield of £2,140,946. By 1877, the £10,000,100 mark had been reached. HOW 'THE'GOLD CAME.

A range' "of gold-benring"i I bcks extended right down the toast and the creeks formed natural sluice boxes, said Mr Dobson. The gold washed down lrom the mountains, being heavy, sank to the bottom when the more level stretches were reached. Thus all the bottoms of the creeks were covered with gold. Under these conditions a man had not much difficulty in scrat hing out a living. “When gold dul reach the sea it was thrown hack. Thus one would find strata in the sand; a strip of black sand and then one of gold sand. The stones on the beaches were often coated on the underneath with gold. One party who went prospecting on the beach made £IOOO in a week merely by brushing the go'll off the stones !

Exploration and prospecting parties underwent great hardships. One party led by Mr Henry Whitcombe. went over the Temnakau Pass and dropped down towards Hokitka. Not being used to the heavily wooded country they met on the west end, they were soon lost. They camped for the night and then went on. They suffered considerably for want of food. At last they reached the mouth of the Hokitika River and attempted to cross in a Maori canoe they found there. The current proved too strong and the canoe overturned, with the result that Air Whitcombe was drowned. Eventually, after undergoing numerous hardships, the other menders of the party straggled into Hokitika. Other exploration parties also met with disaster. The work had gone ahead, howener, aTid gradually the country had been brought under control.

He had gone some time hack, said Mr Dobson, over the scenes of the old rrshes. He had visited the diggings in the Hokitika district, where Air Evans, who was in the audience, had done some wonderful engineering work. These diggings were in a rather nitifyl state now. hut this was a condition which all old mining fields fell into. Tn a,rot her hundred years there would nrobably remain no trace of the old diggings from which, between 1857 and 1915, £07.230.09(1 worth of gold had been taken.

\t the ronclusin of the lecture AT' - J. A. Flesher. who presided, thanked Air Dobson, wlron he described as an “ir’failing source of ancient history ” Musical items were given by Air L”vell. Pmifh’s glee party. Aliss Donaldson and Air Alartin.