THE WAIKATO GOLDFIELD.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 229, 31 January 1885, Page 3

THE WAIKATO GOLDFIELD.

There has been a good deal of quiet talk lately about a goldfield in the Waikato, and "whispers have gone round of substantial parcels of water-worn gold having been brought down from, the locality. As a Christchurch contemporary very sapiently remarks, a new goldfield is very badly "wanted just now, less badly by the people of Auckland, who have no real or serious depression, than by the Southerners who have. Now, it is not my purpose to get up a "storekeepers' and publicans' rush," or even to enchanco the selling value of the lands belonging to certain speculators, as was attempted in the case of the great diamond "sell" some time ago, when the Obsekver blew the bubble out! But I know something- of the Waikato, and I have a story to tell which may throw some light on the locality of this alleged goldfield, and possibly facilitate further exploration mid discovery.

At frequent intervals from, tlio beginning of the year 185(5 to 1860, I dabbled, iv golcl<ligging in Victoria, as I did in most other things from bullock -punching, which ranked as one of the fine arts in those halcyon clays, up to teaching the young idea how to shoot, or running a magic lantern. Ever since I have had a sneaking regard for unearthing a good "find," and I never see auriferous indications without sighing for those old days when we made money easily, and spent it more easily still. In the course of a rather wandering, not to say adventurous life, I have more than once penetrated far into the King Country, formed close friendships with many leading chiefs, under peculiar circumstances which gave me a special claim on their gratitude. On one of these occasions, when Sir George Grey and an official retinue 'visited Hikurangi. a distinguished chief and I met confidentially in a dark spot in the fern. Tawhiao had tabooed all intoxicating liquors from the settlement, but. of course, this did not apply to the European visitors, who took their medicine regularly as we were camping out, and the wind up there; on the ranges was at nights cold and piercing. The keen-eyed chief had not failed to observe that I carried a pocket-pistol, and on the plea of cramps in the stomach and divers other aches and pains, he besought me to act the Good Samaritan. In order to evade theroyai fiat we went out into the high fern, squatted down where we were entirely screened from observation, and soon a prolonged gurgling noise, followed by deep grunts of gratification, told the havoc that had been made in the contents of my flask.

We grew communicative, and my friend's tongue was unloosed. Grasping my arm mysteriously, and enjoining silence, he said : " Friend, what I say to you now must not be told to any man, Maori or European, or I shall be killed." And then he told his story, which was substantially as follows : — Some years before, when the Thames goldfields was in a flourishing condition, he had discovered gold in a creek in a distant part of the King Country. The presence of gold in the locality was known to many other natives, but they kept it a profound secret lest the King Country should be over-run by the pakelias and their ancestral lands seized. Out of this creek my friend had washed during the night a small parcel of shotty, "waterworn gold, containing several ounces, which he secretly conveyed to the Thames by way of the Piako and Upper Thames. He went to the Bank of New Zealand at Grahamstown and offered it for sale. The clerk, whose experienced eye probably detected the superior quality of the gold to that obtained on the Thames, asked the chief where he got it, but the latter didn't savee. Then the clerk called in another of the bank officials, who requested the Maori to come back in half-an-hour, by which time the gold would have been cleaned, assayed, and its value ascertained.

"No fear, cockcy," remarked the guileless -A child of nature ; '-you give me the nte now, I give you the gold. Suppose you no like, Igo some other plntSe." In a few minutes he received a roll of crisp notes, and hastened to Shortland in order to conceal himself, and next morning started homewards. Were Ito tell how he invested the money, it might give a clue to identification, which is far from my present purpose. However, he made a second visit to the Thames with another ;md larger parcel of gold, which he disposed of to a

different bank. I happen to know, from information received, as they say in police parlance, that it was believed at the time that the gold had come from Ohineinuri, and some paragraphs appeared in the Thames papers referring to the supposed discovery.

But the third night's prospecting of my friend the chief very nearly proved fatal. For the purpose of panning off he had "borrowed"

a tin dish belonging to a Maori waJiine living in the settlement, which was within a comparatively short distance of his prospecting claim, and having got together a small parcel of the precious metal from the creek washing, he returned, hid his treasure in the fern a short distance from the ay hare in which he slept, restored the dish to its place, and congratulating himself on his good fortune, rolled

himself in his blanket and slept the sleep of the just.

He was awakened in the morning by a great hubbub. The old wahine had discovered that the flour which had adhered to the dish on the previous night had been washed off, that the tin was quite bright and showed scratches. " Who has been washing* my dish?" she angrily asked. A closer inspection revealed several tiny specks of gold in the crevice?, and then the excitement became worse. (Jims and tomahawks were seized, the whares were ransacked, and the surrounding country scoured, of course without any clue being obtained to the nocturnal visitor. Meanwhile, however, my friend trembled for his life, and he never visited the creek again. So long a period has elapsed since this story was narrated to mo that I can safely tell it without danger of involving anybod\ r .

liut now comes the most important point of all— the locality of the alleged goldfields. This the chief carefully pointed it out to me. Looking southward along the Pirongia range on a clear day or moonlight night, you will notice a distant spot where the range shelves down to nothing. Xear this point, and below the range, there are a number of creeks or tributaries of the Waipa, which are crossed by the inland tracks from Mokau, and to settlements off the main track, and some of these creeks are auriferous. It was bere that the chief found his gold. I tested his story some days later when he accompanied me to Alexandra, and asked him at Kopua to again indicate the locality, lie traced the Pirongia down to the some point where it shelves down to nothing, so that Kopua and Ilikuranga would form the base of a triangle with the end of the mountain as the apex.

The reader may draw his own conclusions from the above. He nriv say that the brandy had got into the chiefs head, or that he was simply imposing on a very gullible jxikehu. But then his story is not without eorroboraiion. A pakeha-Maori who lives in the King Country subsequently told me that he had picked a goodly sized nugget out of the creeks in the neighbourhood indicated. A halfcaste brought down a small parcel of gold from the same place two years ago. Some time since I inserted a short and somewhat vague paragraph in the Oissr.nvi:i: referring to this subject, but the existunce of the alleged goldfields was ridiculed by a certain land agent, who is well acquainted with the KingCountry. Months afterwards, when he had again visited the country and made inquiries on the subject, lie met me in Shorlland-street. apologised for the doubt cast on my statement, and assured me that it was true.

Before Tawhiao and his party visited England 1 questioned a chief with Avhoni I have been on terms of intimacy for many years, through a service I did him at the battle of liangiriri, as to the supposed goldfield. The conversation took place in my owii house, where I had accommodated him with a bed. I slept in another bed in tho same room, and the conversation took place at a late hour, when all the other occupants of the house had retired. He admitted that gold existed in the creeks in the locality which I described to him, said it was rough, nuggety, water- worn gold, and that it could be got easily, but the chiefs had refused to allow diggers, Maori or European, to prospect the place, lest the country should be over-run. " Can I come up there and dig!''' I asked. "My son, wait, do not be in a hurry. Wait till tho other things are settled. Then I will tell you to come,'' was the reply, and 1 knew it would have been injudicious to pursue the subject further just then.

Now, I have nothing whatever to gain personally by making these facts known. I do not own a single foot of land in the district, nor am I writing in the interest of any one who does. In fact, I believe the land is native territory. My only object is to clear up a doubt in the public mind, and to point out that Auckland has still another source of wealth whenever the Government shall succeed in unlocking the King Country for peaceful settlement and development. Whether it is Aviso, safe, or otherwise at present for European prospectors to penetrate into the district I must decline to say. It is a matter for individual j udgmont, and influenced by circumstances. Probably the Hon. John Ballance is in tho best position to give a sound opinion on the subject, and oven ho will bo in a better position to judge after he has visited the King Country.