The Dunstan, 1862.

One morning in August, 1862, Dunedin woke up to experience a fresh excitement. The Otago Daily Times announced in sensational type the arrival of Hartley and Reilly from the Dunstan Range, with 87lb. weight of gold. This news confirmed the flying rumours of the previous evening; there was no room for doubt or conjecture—the gold was deposited, and the provincial authorities had received the prospectors' claim for the reward, £2,000. The importance of the discovery lay in the fact that the locality was so far distant from the older diggings. Nothing but "Dunstan" was spoken of. Here was a discovery before which Gabriel Read's faded into insignificance—it proved such a vast area of the province to be auriferous, and the days in which the old identities had prophesied "the gold would be all scratched out" seemed to be very remote. Where was Dunstan? Very few had even heard of it—it was the Ultima Thule. The three or four squatters who had migrated there with their flocks and herds rarely visited Dunedin in those days, and they alone knew. It was described by Hartley as on the banks of the Clutha, above the Manuherekia Junction; the distance was estimated at one hundred and fifty miles from the city, and though this matter was exaggerated, it was difficult to overstate the page 186dangers and troubles of the route. But whatever the distance, and however perilous the journey, before that week had ended half the town had made up its mind to start for the Dunstan. An impetus was given to business in all articles that could in any remote way be concerned in equipping men for mining life—picks and shovels, blankets, tents, pack-saddles, provisions, &c. Old horses, whose owners had long since given them up as past work, were exhibited for sale, and sold at prices far exceeding their value in their prime; and before the week was over it was hard to find a steed at any price. But if the citizens of Dunedin felt the fever, imagine the effect of the news at the diggings at Tuapeka! Cobb's coach arrived as usual in the evening. The moon was bright; and the snow-covered ground contrasted strongly with the deep shades of the workings; bright lights were shining in the miners' dwellings; and all was still. But within an hour of the arrival of the papers the whole diggings was astir. From the vantage-ground of a barrel or a dray the news was read by the light of a bottle lantern, to attentive audiences, and in a very short space of time hundreds had made up their minds to try these "fresh fields." Some, indeed, started that night, though where this Dunstan was, save that it was "up the River^* Molyneux," they knew not. The name was heard by them for the first time that night. The season was not the most favourable for the exploration of the interior: the winter was the most severe one ever known to the European settler. The Molyneux had never been, and has never since been, seen so low—a sure proof of the severity and continuance of the frosts which retained in the vast basins that feed Lakes. Waikatipu, Wanaka, and Hawea, whose common outlet is the Molyneux, the heavy snowfalls that had whitened the landscape since May. The pastoral district of Dunstan— the whole Clutha Valley—was held by five or six squatting firms. There was not a store, except those attached to the squatters' homesteads for their own people.

There were two routes by which the Dunstan could be reached from Dunedin: one by the West Taieri, the Lammer-muir Range, and the Rock and Pillar; the other by Wai-page break

Traffic Bridge, Balclutha, Otago.

page 187kouaiti, and the Shag Valley. The former was the most favoured, being more direct and shorter; while the longer route had the advantage of being of au easier gradient. They both joined at the Maniatoto Plains. The miners of Tuapeka had served an apprenticeship to the difficulties of New Zealand, or, rather, Otago travelling; they had missed the abundance of fuel common to all Australian bush life. The want of it would be considered a hardship even in the mild climate of Australia, and its scarcity during the winter of 1862 at Tuapeka had proved the greatest privation encountered there; but it was only scarce; it was to be had at the cost of some little trouble. The region they were about to explore was absolutely treeless from the time they turned their backs on the West Taieri; and the snow lay deep on the high lands. Every one recalled with regret the memory of the rousing fires which had added so materially to their comfort when camping-out in Australia; how much more was it needed under these circumstances!

Another and greater difficulty lay ahead, which could not be foreseen. As may be imagined, when the necessary-outfit of the miner is considered—tools, blankets, clothing, billy, and frying-pan, these absolute necessities—there was little margin left for more than a week's supply of the simplest provisions when all had to be carried over a rough road. In the whole Dunstan District there were not twenty bags of flour, and no replenishment of this stock was necessary for the requirements of the few settlers' establishments until the wool-drays had taken the coming season's clip to Dun-edin, and returned with stores. The journey to Dunstan occupied pedestrians about a week, and by the time they reached Mr. Shennan's station at the Manuherekia, if indeed they held out so long, their commissariat was exhausted. Of course, many were fortunate enough to have a pack horse, and were able to lay in a larger supply; but the staff of life was very soon in demand even amongst them, and none was to be obtained. Few drays with stores accompanied the advance party of miners, nor for some time, indeed, were supplies that came up later in any proportion to the consumers; but to this I will refer again presently.

Mr. Keddell, the officer commanding the escort, was nominated Commissioner in charge, and he proceeded to the West Taieri en route for Dunstan on the Saturday page 188following the report of the discovery. Mr. Hartley accompanied the Commissioner and the party of mounted police up to the Dunstan. A number of miners were then occupying the eastern bank of the river, and some had commenced operations on the spot where the prospectors got the gold. On the whole the miners were dissatisfied, and openly expressed themselves so in unmistakable terms. This class of working was unknown to the majority. Alluvial workings on the shallows or bars of rivers were understood by the old California diggers, but nothing of this kind had been found in Australia, where for the most part the Otago miners had served their apprenticeship. They crowded round the prospector and Commissioner, and expressed very plainly their disbelief in the former's statement. Hartley was a fine type of the American gold-seeker, and the excitement of the crowd had no effect on his nerves: a timid man in his place might have provoked unpleasant consequences. The men were disgusted, fatigued with the toilsome journey, and disappointed at finding the country so different to former experience of a "rush." Here were no prospectors' shafts or paddocks,—nothing to indicate a claim from which such a large quantity of gold had been extracted; but Hartley, in a few words, explained the mode of working, and his self-possession, and evident truthfulness prevented further trouble. Some of the men were very violent of speech, proposing—though these suggestions chiefly emanated from individuals at a distance in the crowd—to "throw him in the river," and "give him fifty lashes."

On returning to the mouth of the gorge, where the township of Clyde now stands, there was a further demonstration of the same kind, but no unpleasant result occurred. Work was commenced at once, but for some days by no other means than the tin dish. Timber was not to be had, and to illustrate its scarcity I may mention one anecdote well known to many who were amongst the early arrivals there. At Sherman's Station the head shepherd was a married man, and had then one little child, a girl of a few weeks old, and her cradle was improvised out of a JDKZ gin-case. This piece of furniture took the eye of one of the miners, who was in the house making some purchase of food or what not, and he immediately bid the page 189sum of £5 for the cradle. The little occupant was quickly hoisted out, and the property changed hands at this unusual figure, and I never heard that the lucky purchaser repented his bargain. At any spot bebween Clyde and Cromwell thai; winter, where the low waters of the river exposed any sandy beach, gold could be obtained in considerable quantities; even with a tin dish the men washed fairly good returns, but with the aid of a cradle many ounces of gold were obtained for a day's work. The great difficulty was the want of timber to make the cradles, and many strange means were resorted to to supply this want. One adventurous miner, whose ideas of meum and luum were not in accordance with generally received opinions on the subject, abstracted the door from one of the outbuildings of the Mount Ida station and carried it over the Raggedy Range on his back to Duns tan, followed by the irate manager, revolver in hand; but the chase had been determined on too late, and the thief and the stolen property were lost in the crowd by the time that the proprietor arrived in the young township.

The weather was for some time very favourable to the miners. Time was everything; the first warm winds and rains of spring, it was generally believed, and rightly, would raise the level of the river. The most favourable spots for mining, as I have stated, were the shallow bars, or beaches. On these beaches the margin of the river would shift a fool or more for every inch of change in the level of the water. At Hartley's Beach there were very soon some dozen parties in active operation. At this spot, now obliterated with shingle and boulders, was the most extensive bar or beach. The miners, knowing the importance of "making hay while the sun shines," strained every effort to obtain the auriferous "dirt" and stack it on their claims, leaving the washing-up and "cradling" to be done when to get more dirt was impossible. The "regulations" under which these claims were worked were those in force at Tuapeka, i.e., the claims were marked out as ordinary alluvial claims. These regulations were very unsuitable to the new condition of affairs, and were speedily amended. On this flat beach, every night the river would recede some feet, owing to the cold air of the night checking the supply of the lakes, while the heat of the day caused the river to rise slightly, page 190and thus the river boundary of the claims would be always shifting. As the prospectors' beach was known to be highly auriferous, there was a daily struggle between the original owners of the claims and other parties, who, when any ground was uncovered below their pegs, marked it out. This boundary was always debatable ground; it was always imperatively necessary that claims should be "pegged out," and this rule was of necessity "more honoured in the breach than in the observance." Pegs were not to be had, unless imported, and when introduced stood a great chance of helping to boil a neighbour's "billy."—Quoted in Vincent Pyke's "History of Gold Discoveries in Otago."