Romance of Gold Diggings.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 25 April 1890, Page 3

Romance of Gold Diggings.

Th^ hisWty of one ofithe^ Ballarat 'cHiums, : called fche Claim," because its first owner belonged to this craft, reads, like a page of romance. The blacksmith with a party of eight, all novices, sank the shaft in so irregular and unwork. taanlike a manner that it was absolutely at the risk o? his life that a maV.xn.ade the descent to th« bottom. Withoat' opening out a regular drive they, washed all the stuff within reach, and after realizing £12,800, offered it ior sale ; but so wet. and rotten was the ground, so badly sunk the shaft; that at first no pur. chaser could be found. - i At last a party of ten plucked up courage and bought all Tight and title to the efahn arid tools for £77. They entered into' possession at noon . on Saturday, and long before the sun bad set bad in their possession ; £2,000 worth of gold. By working day and night in spelli ti 11' the fol - lowing Monday they raised this to £10,000. Then, after the usual reckless manner of lucky diggers, they left this mine of wealth, and went on the spree for a week. Their tenants made good use of the time at their disposal; they opened up two drives, and before the week was out were the happy possessors of £14,400, all taken out of the claim. The other party then returned, after a week's work, during which they realized £6,000, th«y sold out to a storekeeper for £100, who put in a gang to work on shares, and .those, labouring in a desultory fashion for' Vi fortnight, took out £5,000. At the end of that time, one of the party, an old hand from Van Diemen's Land, the prods, and.n«xt morning on returning to work found the whole of the workings had fallen in. The rest of the party appeared to have taken this misfortune very calm ly, and to have completely . abandoned the claim, for no mention is made of their further proceedings; but it is related how the author of the mischief coolly marked put a claim 24ft. square on the top of the ruin, and, working with a hired party, sank a Bhaft as straight as a die for the gutter. Tha first tubfuj of wash dirt they found turned out 4pfi>. weight of gold, and the next two averaped IMb. each ; and ai Eallarat gold was and i* superior to. jiny other at all times, fetching at least £4 an ounce, those three bucketful* of earth were worta £2,880 to their fortunate possessor, fl together, out of that ■mall ajva, hardly larg-r than a good sized, room, was taken in a few weeks gold worth nearly £80,000.