CHAPTER I. Early settlers...
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HISTORY
OF THE
EARLY GOLD DISCOVERIES IN OTAGO.
CHAPTER I.
Early Settlers. --Exodus. --Maori Goldfinders. ---The Matau. --Mr. Archibald's Expedition. --The Fortifications. --Mr. Ligar's Discovery. --Tuturau. --His Honor's Comment. --Popular Feeling. --Petition to the Provincial Council. --Reward Offered.
THE French proverb --"Man proposes, but God disposes" -- has never, perhaps, been more strikingly exemplified than in the history of Otago. The gallant company of pioneers -- "The Pilgrim Fathers," as they are sometimes not inaptly designated--who landed at the Heads in 1848 from the John Wickliffe and the Philip Laing, under the leadership of Captain Cargill, and the pastoral charge of the Rev. Thomas Burns, made the brave venture (and a very brave venture indeed it was in those days) of expatriating themselves from their native land, with the sole purpose of founding a settlement where they might worship freely, and freely dwell, after the manner of their forefathers. The Association, of which these voyagers were the first outcome, was an offset, if I may so phrase it, of the Free Church movement in Scotland. Peace and security were the chief objects they sought when they went out from the country of their birth to seek a home and an abiding place in the remote and savage wildernesses of the Pacific. We may be quite sure that no expectation of possible Goldfields was in their minds when they sailed away
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from home and friends. There is ample evidence in the records of those early days to show that such an event as the discovery of gold was not only very far from their thoughts, but that it would have been exceedingly distasteful to them if they had foreseen it. But all unwittingly they alighted on a golden country--a circumstance which some of "the Identity"--a phrase first brought into use by Mr. Edward Cargill--still profess to regard in the light of a calamity.
It happened, however, that within three years of their arrival the wonderful story came slowly over the sea that, in the neighbouring colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, gold had been discovered in abundance. A number of the young men of the "Settlement," as Otago was then termed, being suddenly seized by the auri sacra fames, made their way across to the new Dorado, heedless of many admonitory shakings of the head, and much excellent advice lavished upon them by their elders. Most of these venturers returned, after a while, to New Zealand. I cannot learn of any of them that they came back bearing sheaves with them. But they certainly acquired some knowledge of goldmining; and from their temporary exodus, and subsequent return to the "flesh-pots" of Otago, may be traced, in part, the subsequent events which I propose to narrate.
Something also is undoubtedly traceable to information gathered from the Natives by the early settlers. That the Maoris were aware of the occurrence of gold, before the arrival of European colonists, is a tolerably well established fact. When making inquiries on this subject in 1862, I was informed by Mr. Palmer, an old whaler, then resident at East Taieri, that, many years previous to the settlement of Otago, he was told by a native chief, whose name he gave as "Tuawaik," but which I suspect was really Tewaewae, that "plenty ferro" or yellow stone, such as that of which the watch-seals of the white men were made, and which had attracted the old chiefs attention, was to be found on the river beaches inland, and that the Matau or Molyneux River was the place where it principally occurred.
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To avoid confusion, I may say here that "Matau," "Molyneux," and "Clutha" are diverse names for the same river. The Maoris call it "Matau "--a name still retained for one of its branches at Inch Clutha; Captain Cook placed it on his chart as the "Molyneux," so named after one of his officers; and finally Mr. J. T. Thomson, when chief surveyor, dubbed it "Clutha."
Other Natives freely made similar statements when they observed the value that the new-comers seemed to place upon golden coins and ornaments. One party of settlers made an effort to verify these statements in 1852, and started up the Molyneux to attempt the discovery of El Dorado. The chief promoter of this expedition was Mr. Thomas Archibald, formerly a resident at the Pomahaka, who was good enough to acquaint me with the circumstances under which it took place, in a letter dated 29th September, 1862. From this letter I make the following extract:--
"Nearly all the Maori residents at the Molyneux at the time of our excursion were strangers, having been only a few years in the place. There were only a man and a woman who knew the country between the mouth of the river and the lakes. The man, Raki Raki (sic), had resided on the Wakatipu Lake, but had left many years ago. He left a brother, who had two wives, behind; and who, he said, were the only Maoris in the interior. He told me he once picked up a piece of 'simon' 1(gold) about the size of a small potato on the banks of the Molyneux, but did not know its value, and he threw it into the river. They told us they had seen the small simon on the sides of the river, where their canoes had been lying. On seeing a small sample of gold (which, I think, Mr. Meredith brought down from Tasmania, about the beginning of 1852), the natives were the more convinced we should find it in the sands of the Molyneux. As some of us were on the eve of starting for Australia, we thought we would give the river a trial first, more especially as we had the services of a Californian miner, who had left a whaling vessel in the Bay. We made a party of five, and started up the river in March, 1852, in a whale boat which I brought from Dunedin. We prospected the bars and the banks of the river, as far as a creek now named the Beaumont. As none of us knew
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anything about gold-seeking except the American, and getting nothing more than the colour, we resolved to return after having nearly a three weeks' cruise; the more so as the river seemed a succession of rapids, which it was difficult to get the boat through. If our Californian miner had been the practical hand he represented himself to be, I have no doubt we would have been successful in getting a good prospect."
Mr. Archibald, the writer of the above letter, was subsequently, and for a brief space, an officer of the Goldfields Department at Roxburgh, then known as the Teviot.
Gold was found by the settlers in many parts of the Province; but the facts were either suppressed, as being considered likely to lead to mischievous results, or neglected as of trivial import.
In an article which appeared whilst these papers were going through the press, Mr. James Mclndoe states that "the first indication of the existence of gold was communicated to Captain Cargill by northern squatters who were on the search for grazing country, and was as follows:--
'Good wood, 27th October, 1851.
'Sir, --Under the impression that the prompt communication of the discovery of auriferous quartz in this neighbourhood will be of importance to the Otago settlement, we beg to enclose you specimens which we have found in various localities in order that you may give all the publicity which you may think proper to the fact that gold exists in the Southern Island. Most of the specimens sent you were picked up on the property of Charles Suisted, Esq., of Goodwood. The specimen of gold dust is from his estate. We hope to have the pleasure of seeing you before we return to Wellington. In the meantime, we remain, etc.,
'C. J. PHARAZYN
' C. J. NAIRN.'
"Captain Cargill handed the specimens to Mr. David Macandrew, who, having applied the tests, reported that 'the specimens indicated gold.' The veteran captain was not very sanguine, nor was he desirous that his community should be diverted from the even tenor of their way; and the editor of the newspaper sagely cautioned the people against leaving their ordinary occupations, concluding a leader on the subject with the trite remark, 'Flour is more necessary than gold, and may be more profitable."
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The late Mr. John Hyde Harris showed me a small quantity of fine scaly gold, which he informed me was obtained in 1853 in the neighbourhood of the remarkable chert rocks, designated "the Fortifications," not far from Mount Hyde, and consequently in the vicinity of the Hindon workings. There seems to have been a vague impression existent, that there was gold in Otago, though nothing certain was discovered.
But in 1856, Mr. Charles Ligar, at that time Surveyor-General of New Zealand, and who afterwards held the same office in Victoria, fluttered the dovecotes in Corioli--otherwise Otago--by an official intimation of the actual existence of auriferous deposits. As an interesting record of the past, I reproduce his letter in its entirety:--
"Otago, 1st December, 1856.
"His Honor the Superintendent, Otago.
"Sir, --As I deem it the duty of every one in the community to increase the stock of information relative to the resources of this our adopted country, I hasten to inform your Honor that in my recent visit to the South part of the Province of Otago, I found gold very generally distributed in the gravel and sand of the Mataura River at Tuturau, and that from the geological character of the District I am of opinion that a remunerative Goldfield exists in the neighbourhood.
"I have, &c,
"CHARLES LIGAR."
If Mr. Charles Ligar had thrown dynamite, in its most diabolical form, into His Honor's office, it is questionable whether he would have created greater consternation. Captain Cargill appears to have had a very lively, and perhaps not altogether unnatural, dislike to Goldfields, "diggers," and everything connected therewith. He was not at all singular in this respect. The more solid of the early settlers were entirely with him in entertaining "holy horror and pious dread" of the discomforts and troubles attendant on a "rush," or anything calculated to distract the population from the slow but sure progress of settlement, which he and they were engaged in steadily building up,
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and which would have been endangered by any precipitate movement, such as the discovery of gold was likely to engender.
The Provincial Council assembled on December 2nd--the day following the receipt of Mr Ligar's communication, which Captain Cargill specially referred to in his opening address, in the following terms:-- "A letter from Mr. Ligar, on the existence of gold, will be laid before you for public information. It is right, however, to observe that gold has been found for years past in Auckland and Nelson, but hitherto quite unremunerative; and that in no circumstances would it be advisable to allow any searcher to go upon a run without leave of the lessee, or upon a native reserve without leave of the Natives."
Notwithstanding the Superintendent's discouraging notice of the prospect opened out by Mr. Ligar's discovery, and his deprecatory reference to the "unremunerative" character of the Nelson and Auckland fields the people of the Province seem to have been of opinion that a Goldfield would be rather a desirable thing for Otago to possess. All the more so, perhaps, because at this time the Government, failing to secure a sufficient influx of population direct from Britain, were making strenuous efforts to entice immigrants from other colonies. Besides, the reports from Nelson at all events were very satisfactory. Mr. William Fox, the Premier and Attorney-General of the colony, had stated in the House, in reply to the anxious inquiries of Mr. Stafford, that "there was no doubt as to the discovery of gold, for a sample had been sent to the Governor; and there had been a rush to the Goldfields, of some three hundred persons or more." And he thoughtfully added the assurance that--"There was as yet no reason to apprehend a breach of the peace."
The good folk of Otago, having had time to ponder over all these things, prepared a petition on the subject of a remunerative Goldfield, which was signed by 138 "inhabitants of the Province," and duly presented to the Provincial Council on November 4, 1857, by Mr. Stevenson, who then represented the East Taieri district in that body. This petition is now an historical document, and I append it in full:--
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"Unto His Honor the Superintendent and the Provincial Council of the Province of Otago.
"The Petition of the undersigned inhabitants of the Province, humbly sheweth--
"That many of the labouring population have already left this Province for the Nelson Goldfields, and many men are preparing to do so, to the serious loss and manifest injury of the Province.
"That the advantage anticipated from the Government Assisted Immigration will be neutralised, and become a source of loss, unless some attraction, such as a local remunerative Gold-field, be discovered, by which means we may hope to retain our population.
"That the existence of Gold in this Province is a well-ascertained fact; but from various causes private enterprise has not hitherto been systematically directed towards proving whether Gold exists in payable quantities.
"That your petitioners consider it to be the duty of the Provincial Government to take immediate steps towards ascertaining the Gold capabilities of this Province.
May it therefore please your Honor and the Provincial Council, immediately to offer a handsome reward, under proper conditions, for the proof of the existence of a remunerative Gold-field within this Province.
"And your petitioners will ever pray."
The petitioners, or their arguments, were successful; and the sum of £500 was voted in the Appropriation Ordinance of the year as a "Bonus for the Discovery of a Remunerative Gold-field within the Province of Otago."
