Gold Discsfery Made In Siamese Wastes

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 18

Gold Discsfery Made In Siamese Wastes

New Zealander, Working Dredge at Tropical Riverside, Establishes Bungalow Home in Jungle . . . Cheap Labour and Dreadful Fever Toll . . .

(Written for TllE S LS l>y

T. WALSH)

BW ZEALANDERS have Hwon praise in many spheres of world activity, have been able to uphold the reputation of their island home against the competition of the world, but in nothing more romantic have they excelled than in their capacity to hunt down gold. Hardly a lode that yields the yellow metal has not at one time or another been attacked by a New Zealander. From the frozen Terra Del Fuego, across the burning tropics, to the ice-covered steppes of Siberia, and the snow-cased gulches of Yukon, one may see New Zealanders—or their graves; grim reminders that in the war for gold there are many casualties. A lively story of adventure in pursuit of precious metal is contained in a letter sent to friends in Auckland by Mr. E. G. Foord. from “somewhere in the jungle of Siam.” Previously lie was in Malay, scenting gold and managing a dredging claim. He served his apprenticeship on the dredges in Otago, where ancient glacial action powdered the breasts of huge mountains and carried the crushed gold down, to the valleys and the

plains of the Molyneaux. Mr. Foord s father was manager of the first bucket-and-tadder gold dredge in the world. Mrs. Foord, who was with her husband in Malay, waits in Auckland until the new home has been completed in Siam for her. The claim is away on the hills beyond a native township. The roads there were merely tracks, worn hard by the unceasing tread of un-numbered natives and their beasts of burden — the cumbersome elephants. The slow-moving brutes are quick to anger, and the New Zealander saw one playing pitch and toss with a couple of natives: tossing them over his back as Jumuna tosses the straw at the Auckland Zoo. Of course, native life is cheap, fever takes a dreadful toll. More attention is given the religious disposal of the bodies of the dead than is given to the preserving of the life the priests that his remains could not be interred in the Siamese ground: of the living. In one instance a half--caste having died, it was decreed by these people burn their dead. The half-caste had to be given Buddhist burial, so a track had to be cut through solid jungle to a ruined Buddhist shrine; torrential rains had been falling for four months, but the

law of the easte had to be obeyed. The itch to make money is not confined to Europeans. The Siamese is a keen dealer. For many months the heavy gear for the gold-winning machines were carried by elephant transport. But the natives set about cornering transport and doubled their charges. The effort was met by employing car, and motor-trucks, and the natives were wiser and poorer. Mr. Foord has hacked a place for a home out of the jungle, and a bungalow has been built by the riverside close to where the dredge will work. Tigers roam close to the clearing, and big game may be shot almost from the back door. Taking a pot shot at what he thought to be a bear Mr. Foord was thoroughly surprised to find a black panther drop out of a tree nearly on top of him. Elephant and carabou are the most feared of wild animals, for a bullet has to be well placed to “stop them.” Fresh food is got by the gun. Deer one day; birds the next. The peacocks that fly screaming through the trees are fine eating. Then there are pheasants, pigeons, jungle fowl and many others to give variety to the menu. The sole white man among the natives, Mr. Foord emp oyed his spare time searching the bush for new flowers. The wild orchids are such that imagination cannot conceive, their loveliness not being approached outside the tropics. Both he and his wife are keen collectors and have a fine array of old pottery, brasses, poisoned darts, blowpipes, not to mention butterflies, as a result of their sojourn in far Eastern lands.