The Romany of a Gold Claim.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3227, 11 June 1889, Page 3

The Romany of a Gold Claim.

The history of one of the Ballarat claims, called the Blacksmith's Claim, because its first owner belonged to that craft, as related in Cassell'a Picturesque Australasia for April, reads like a page of romance, The blacksmith, with a party of eight, all ] novices, sank the shaft in so irregular and unworkmanlike a manner that it was absolutely at the risk of hip life that a man made the descent to i tho bottom. Without opening a ragalar drive, they washed all the stuff within reach, and, after realising L 12,000, offered it for sale; but 60 wet and rotten was tho ground, so badly sunk the shaft, that at u'rst no purchaser could be found, At last a , party of ten rlucked up courage, and bought all right and title to the Volaiin and tools for L 77. They ' 9 entered into possession at noon ono Saturday, and long before the sua Bet , had in the ! - possession L2OOO worth ,jA gold. ' '"'ng day and night ! jfy spells . Monday, they raised this to LIO,OOO. Then, after tho usual manner of lucky diggers, they left this mino of wealth and went on a spree for a week. Their tenants made good use of the timo at (heir disposal; they opened up two drives, and, before the week was out, were the happy possessors of LH.ioO—all taken out of the olaim, The other party then returned and, after a week's work, during which they realised L9OOO, they sold out to a storekeeper for LI 00, who put in a gang to work in shares, and these, laboring in desultory fashion for a fortnight, took out LSOOO. At tho end of that time one of the party, an old hand from Van Diemen's Land, undermined the props, and noxt morning, on refcwg to work, the men found tho whole of the workings had fallen in/ The rest of the party appeared to have taken this misfortune yery calmly, and to have completely abandoned the claim, for no mention is mado of their further proceedinys; but it is related how tho .author ol the mischief coolly marked Mat a claim 21 feet square on the top the ruin, and, working with a hired party sunk a shaft straight as a die for the gutter. The liist tuMul of wash-dirt they raised turned out 401bs weight of cold, and the next two averaged lOlbs each; and, us Ballarat gold was, and is, superior to any other at all times, fetching at least £4 an ounce, those three bucketfuls were worth £2BBO to their , fortunate possessor. Altogether, out of that Bmall aroa, hardly larger than a good sized room, was taken in a few weeks gold worth nearly £60,000.