An Old Prospector.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1577, 9 December 1885, Page 2

An Old Prospector.

During last session of Parliament a petition was considered from Edward Pi-terf, stating that he was now ohl, infirm, and destitute, and asking for some relict on tlio ground of his having been the original discoverer of the Otago goldficlds. The GoMfu'lds Comiiiiltne recommended that a sum of t£so should bo given to Peters on condition of a sinnlinr sum being collected from the public. Wo notico that Mr Vincent Pyke has now, through the columns of the Otago Daily Times made a vigorous appeal for subscriptions to raise thft specified sum, and so provide for the old age of. a man to whom Otago aud New Zealand owe a great deal. The claim advanced by Black Peter, as he used to ho called, is a perfectly legitimate one. i It was from information derived from Black Peter, the result of long continued solitary prospecting on his nart, that j Mr Gabriel ttead was induced to set out |on tli« trip.to Tuapeka which result % d m the discovery of the colcbr-ited Gabriel's jGnlly. A couple of years before Gabriel's was discovered Black Peter found good gold m the Woolshed Creek aud subsequently obtained prospects at Evaiiß' Flat and Munro's Gully, but the old Otago s> ttlers were loth to believe m the oxistence of a paying gold field at their own doors, until the surpassing richness i»f Gabriel's Gully was disclosed and loft no rooin-for doubt.