THE OLDEN COAST

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1933, Page 6

THE OLDEN COAST

ONLY PARTIALLY WORKED

WHERE RICH GROUND REMAINS

(By J. D. L., Greymouth)

During my many years official service as bank manager, a,gent, official gold buyer, and gold smelter, for one of the Banks on the Coast, at Hokitika Waiinca, Rimu, Di 1] man stow a,. ■Wallscnd Alhaura, Nelson C lve k, and Grey mouth; “in the days when the | going was good,” but, -when the value of alluvial gold was only £3 170 6d per oz., it was mv'Jot to 'buy for the bank, many thousands of ounces °f fhe precious metal, much more valuable now, when it is worth approximately, with exchange premium, anything from tfiij 5s to £7 10s per oz. according to assay value. .Gold buyers became possessed of confidential information as to where gold was obtained, quantity and quality, which was .bought from the miners. Wo were hankers .sworn to secrecy so that there are few early records of thy individual rewards obtained by the parties of miners getting gold. Those who did "let on’ firquently had their claims and water rights “jumped"’ by others. ‘-Jumping i, s .still attempted as evidenced in the recent Warden's Court proceedings at Greymouth.

ON THE GOLD AND OFF THE DOLE.

I am interesting myself relating experiences and knowledge obtained in 1830-1900, when in the bank office, or travelling about o.u horseback, ’’P creeks and gullies, buying gold from miners, frequently in their °i in places like 'Unveil Creek. Nelson Creek, etc., in a small room set apart in the local hotel as a bank go’d office. My object is to urge young men to get on the gold and off the dole. People do not want romantic stories of what was done in those days or what, gold was won. That ra c e is over. It is known that in 1932. 40771 o/.s valued approximately £255,000 wer.o obtained, hut people want to know where to dig or. sluice for more, and how to get- about it. Men with knowledge are jre filed in making known their possession,s and "helping the .Unemployment Board in its commendable efforts to infuse “new blood” into gold production—it’s the- one commodity in a troubled world, far which there is anunsatisfied demand, at valu-es- about- 75 per .cent, move than uS(-d to be paid for it. Tho cost of getting it is-mucih less tha.ii formerly. •

During the past year, I have frequently urged men to prospect some of the corners' and blocks left untouched or new ground known to contain “wafih.” 'Tho“ last' I 'instance oqhii'rfed only a few weeks ago, when, some chaps, who got down to 'solid--work-- "Itho••’-saifib-way as the Cromwell go'd miners are doing) at the liead -$f iM(?on|ight -Creek, Grey Valley, haye'f:3fepn; : :h>gH-' ly successful. Thefr find c;une--from-the head of Shellback: Creek, a tributary of Moonlight, off ARo Paparoa Ranges.

Go into camp life - get up with the larks ; “dig into it’’; and so have the cleaner and better■ life, tha.n that of being unemployed in. the city or town, and accepting the un e inployme,nt money which is available for them, and which they have to accept in order to live. It’s -worth more than that., “Give it a go,” -with the assistance and subsidy available to genuine prospectors from the Unemployment Board.

TTOW NOT TO DO IT. Gold mining is a great life, clean and wholesome, -with always the possibility of making good provided it is gone about in the right way. Stick to it, and not do" a-s four would-be prospectors who called upon my party at our &hing “vihars” up the Grey River. They had clubbed to-gethoi', in Auckland, acquired an old car and with a few pounds to pay steamer fare and Height across Cook Strait, motored through most of the ‘“inhabited” gold mining fields, keeping to the main roads, looking for gold. Of course, they never came across any. It is not picked up on the main thoroughfare.?. We, gave those young men the us? of our whare, and the loan of shovels, picks, gold dish, and other gear for a couple of days, and showed them likely "wash, with water available, and taught them how to make boxes, to save the gold. They scratched the surface for two or three feet down, but did not even get through the overburden whuei came down after the recent heavy rain. They declared there wa, s no gold there mid returned the tools to the whare. We were lucky to find that after getting through nearly all the food we had in the camp, they had dug up our crop of nOw potatoes, “got down on the peas, beans, and lettuce, before leaving,' and -sent me a message of thanks for our West Coast -hospitality.

LOCALITY NO 1. MoonligSf, Shellback, and Caledonia Creeks, rising ill Paparoa Ranges, and running into Grey (Riv-er.—The biggest and best returns .during my Cnee years buying at A ha ura ana Nelson jCrei'k, dime from these localities. One of the .early experiences was in 1892, when Mitchell, Russell and "Wood brought into the bank, a -slug weighing • 1230z5. They secured an advance of a few pounds -against it for tucker, with an injunction to the banker not to “k*t on.” 9 ‘ eh* find came, from the head of Moonlight fpbek but they had rivals when Hugh 'McDonnell and Lawrence Murphy from Garden Gully, near Moonlight, camp into the bank later, with a-j

pocket full of slugs, to bo placed . in the safe for them, with the request ,not to let any one know. Mwpny was the “greenest” fellow I ever met. He was then only a few months, out from 'lreland, to look for gold, which he did and got it, while others looked on in town.

■Mr Higgins, Grey County Engineer, says: “The other big nagger r remember, found i.n Moonlight, were won by Evan Evans, Thom, a.,* Cbincey, and Feter pjeeni. (The last one in 1916), Hugh McDonnell’s was from Carden Gully in the neighbourhood of 80ozs., but McDonnell got quite a lot. of smaller specs, as they wer e popularly called.” ' Mr Higgins refers to Ids great ad- ] miration for the men who transported a small battery to the head of Moonlight in 1870, which with the improved moans of transit tl ven in these days ■would not be a email matter, but was a stupendous undertaking (n 1870. Mr Arthur Brooks, of Almira, now of Roe ft on, writes: —“You mention quartz reefs being found at Moonlight, Shellback and Snowy River. You know that a battery was installed at Moonlight GO yeai s ago, but nothing ever came of it-; that is not to say that it was a duffer. 1 am still of the opinion that rich reefs are to be found there yet, because coarse gold ■that came from there was impregnated with quartz stone, which makes it feasible that it came from a reef in the vicinity of where it was found. Speaking of Shellback, the same tiling applies there, in fact the only man that ever did give it a good go was Jim Hargreaves. He declared that he found a good reef at the head o| Shellback, when out there prospecting. It was late in .the evening, on his way to the camp when he fell over a. hank and dragged the moss and scrub with him, arid exposed some stone carrying gold. He went back there afterwards, but could never find the place. He was never able to have another go. Eiom that I would think that is the place to look for a good reef. It is now easily accessible by car to about three or four mi-lt-ls to where you would expect to locate the reef that Mr Hai - greaves could nox find again. It would require a party with a good camping outfit and prepared to rough it for a. time.”

Mi- Arthur Dunn, still residing at Ahaura, refers to the Piceni nugget found as recently as 1917, in Moonlight Creek. It weighed 87-lozs., worth then £3 17s (id per oz., or £307. On to-day's value it would realise £550. Mr Dunn reminds me that McDonnell and Murphy’s big nugget was found in 1892 , at Garden Gully, off Moonlight Greek, on tire Eastern side of Paparoa Ranges.

'SHELLBACK AND CALEDONIA

These had been overlooked prior to 1890, when Chinese prospectors tool: complete .possession of the water rights, and alluvial fields. The Chinese miners took precious, good care to keep .results to themselves. They sold only sufficient gold to keep tliemseives in ‘■tores required in their frugal Stay. "■ The exception was when their finds, were of such extent, or nature, that they had to dispose of it. On one occasion, through the agency of the late James Hargieaves, mining advocate, Ahaura, who enjoyed the absolute confidence of all Chinese miners, a sugar hag of crushed gray blue quartz was brought into the bank for treatment. The Chinese had tried to pound it in a postal and mortar without success, so- we smelted it, and paid them £428 net. That find was not made known to the public nor were very many other similar (though smaller) .parcels. Mr Hargreaves tried to locate the main lode in the Paparoa Range, out of which all the Shellback specimens were undoubtedly squeezed, hut lie died, through advanced years, and was unable to expose it. On the facts known to those who know the locality, there is a waahh of golden country existing in this locality, awaiting development. Once opened it would employ a- large population. Prospecting in that rough country by the old method of pick and shovel is out of date. The' ground is ovcrgrow.il, cheap power and boring machines with fair facilities for getting in tucker and explosives are now avai.labie.lt was not possible to get in any quantity of explosives in 1890. There were no roads or bridges.

ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS

Gold from Moonlight field is probably purer than any other, i.e., its assay value at Melbourne mint is worth several shillings more per oz. than average W'eslt Coast alluvial gold. Pure gold is based on a. standard fineness of 1000. The value of gold mined varies according to its fineness or purity.. Gold is invariably alloyed with base metals found such, as iron, copper, zinc, etc., and rarely found above 990. The average for the West Coast was about 98(1, while the puiest in the Dominion was recovered from Moonlight, viz 997 fine. Gold produced from Ford’s Creek, a few miles away on tiio other side of .the Papa row Range, is worth quite 20b an ounce less, owing to the quantity of copper contained therein. Banks were paving £3 IBs Od per oz, in 1893 for alluvial gold won on the West Coast, except Ford’s Greek, which would not fetcli mere Ilian £2 16s per oz. in the rough. In fact goidbuyers were so often taken in, that the custom was to make a. cash advance pending smelting uni cl assaying. Goidbuyers “fell in” occasionally, paying full price for Ford’s Creek gold,' which was -similar to the heavy nuggety, good assay quality from Bell Hill, off Nelson Creek. On one occasion at Nelson Creek I had packed the valise with several

good bullion bags, the result o,f the evening’s purchase. I was feeling happier than v: | mill bemud3 several of the minerp had taken out fixed deposit receipts instead of cash, when a late customor came and hoped lie was not too late, having tramped in from Bdl Hi 1. Remembering that I had few hundred pounds left, in the valise, and the additional prospect of move fixed deposits, I turned up the kerosene lamp, and operand up for business. The parcel of gold was produced into the blower, a wonderful wash-up of about 60 ounces of beautiful heavy o-old so like- E-ell Hid-, I thought) ; clean ■a:s ia whist!®. I pot the magnet through and tossed the blower, bint nob a particle of iron sand, or imi purities appeared, so 1 weighed up' and j urged him to leave a igurn. on fixed de- ! posit, but nothing doing, the party wauited the cash to square up the storekeepers. He even promised me the next wash-up. Once again the valke was packed. The cash,, which consi's,tod of tens, fives, and one pound iioteis was almost exhausted, and gone into circulation.. Instead thereof, -several bullion bags 'of gold and one of silver coin remained. I left Nelson Creek at 10 p.m., a very happy young banker, with iloaded revolver in my belt, my tnn-ty steed and a black dog (which would bite at a shadow). At Aim-uni nine miles away, aftor locking up the valine, tired out that I was I wrote ia note to the Grey branch, to catch the 'mail coach for Grey early-piny the morning (no trains), requesting that an escort officer he despatched with a full 'supply of tens, fives, and one pound notes.; to return to Grey with the bullion. Oh! What a difference in the morning, when my i purchase did not stand daylight. in-j spection. I had been doped with Ford’s Creek gold, washed in acid, which had removed the copper appearance. It wa.s a profitable lesson to me. T got experience in gold buying. The faked pare ell' did not go down wjth that escort; it was mixed up with Moonlight high assay gold in Later despatches.