June 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



GOLD DISCOVERIES IN NEW- ZEALAND. 511 



portance, and no attempt was made to verify the statement. It is a 

 singular fact that although the coal and limestone deposits, in the 

 vicinity of which the particles of gold had heen found, were* afterwards 

 worked by the settlers, no further auriferous indications were noticed by 

 the workers, who probably had not cared to remember the story told by 

 Captain Wakefield's party ; and it was not until fourteen years after- 

 wards that the attention of the colonists was again drawn to this locality 

 as a gold-bearing district. 



From 1842 until nearly ten years afterwards, the history of the gold 

 discoveries is very vague. A Mr. Palmer, an old settler in the Province 

 of Otago, informed Mr. Pyke, the Secretary of the Otago Gold Fields 

 Department, that many years prior to the settlement of that Province 

 in 1848, a native chief, Tuawaiki by name, had assured him that far in 

 the interior " plenty ferro" or yellow stone, similar in appearance to the 

 seals worn by the white men, could be obtained. The country of the 

 Upper Molyneux or Clutha River was also indicated by the Maori, as a 

 locality in which tkeferro could be found. It is difficult to reconcile this 

 story with the singular ignorance of the uses and value of gold enjoyed 

 by the Maoris. In every country where gold has been found to exist — 

 at any rate, in such quantities as to occasion remark — we invariably find 

 that the native inhabitants have made some use of the metal, generally, 

 if not always, as an article of crUament. The Maoris are not indifferent 

 to the adornment of their persons, and we know that in the case of the 

 " pcenamu," or green-stone, they took considerable pains to procure sub- 

 stances adapted to ornamental purposes. We are inclined to consider 

 Tuawaiki's story as somewhat legendary. 



Few persons, in speaking of the gold fields of New Zealand, possess 

 a full knowledge of their extent and importance, and still less of the 

 history of gold discoveries in this colony. It is not too much to say that 

 New Zealand, in comparison to its area, is more extensively auriferous 

 than any known gold-bearing country. From Coromandel down to the 

 mouth of the Molyneux River, or for a distance of a thousand miles, gold 

 is found in greater or less quantity, at various points. The progress ol 

 discovery has been far greater in the Middle Island, but there is every 

 reason to believe that when the alluvial plains and flats of the Thames 

 and Waikato rivers are thrown open to the researches of the gold- 

 seeker, gold fields, rivalling those of Otago, will be discovered. 



Gold is now being successfully worked in several parts of the colony. 

 At Coromandel, in the Province of Auckland ; at Massacre Bay, and in 

 the Buller Wanganui, Lyell, and Wangapeka rivers, in the Province of 

 Nelson ; at Teramakau, on the West Coast of Canterbury ; and over a 

 very considerable area of the Province of Otago. 



The year 1852 was marked by the discovery of gold almost simul- 

 taneously at opposite ends of the colony, viz., at Auckland and Otago. 

 By this time the important discoveries in California and Australia had 

 imparted an increased value to the vague statements of the Maori and 



