THE TECHNOLOGIST. [June 1, 1864. 



514 HISTORY OF THE 



been found in payable quantities not far from tbe deserted diggings of 

 Motueka. Tbe new discovery was made by a storekeeper in Nelson, 

 wbo, in company witb a man wbo bad bad some experience in gold 

 mining in Australia, visited Aorere to prospect for gold, induced thereto 

 by a reward of 500L, wbicb tbe Nelson merchants had offered for tbe 

 discovery of a payable gold field. Tbe two adventurers found gold 

 readily in most of the gullies and places tbat they tested, and some three 

 or four ounces were brought back to Nelson. The discovery having been 

 made known, a considerable number of persons flocked to tbe place, and 

 a systematic search took place, which was attended witb considerable 

 success. The population rapidly increased, and witbin three or four 

 months of the discovery, about 1,000 persons were working on the spot. 

 A township sprung up, and in an incredibly short space of time, sbops, 

 stores, and hotels were erected, and a Custom House established. But 

 during the summer months no provision had been made for tbe ensuing 

 winter. There were no roads, and tbe communication with Nelson was 

 uufrecpient and tedious. When winter arrived, it found the miners 

 utterly unprovided against its severities, and great distress ensued. 

 Numbers left, and a temporary falling off in the yield of gold caused a 

 partial rush from the place, and although fair average returns continued 

 to be made, the population never again reached its former number. 

 Some estimate may be formed of the extent and value of these diggings 

 from the fact that up to the 1st October, 1858, 16,473 ounces of 

 gold, the produce of this gold field, passed through the Custom House. 



The richest diggings on the Aorere gold field were on the Slate 

 Eiver, a stream which takes its rise in the Anatoki range, and afterwards 

 falls into the Aorere. On each side of tbe river are bigh precipitous 

 banks, composed of slate, quaitz, and granite rocks, 400 or 500 feet 

 high, and mostly clothed with dense forest to the water's edge. The 

 river bed was filled with huge boulders, lying on the top of ridges of 

 slate, which run across the river, and it was in these ridges or crevices, 

 in yellow gravel, tbat tbe heaviest gold was found. The cases of 

 individual success were numerous and brilliant, some lucky miners 

 getting as much as a pound weight per day. The gold was traced up 

 into the Anatoki or Snowy range, and heavy nuggets found. 



In the latter part of 1857, the Provincial Government of Otago, in- 

 fluenced by the rumour of the existence of gold, offered a reward of 500Z. 

 for the discovery of a payable gold field. It is curious to note what the 

 idea of a " payable " gold field was. The conditions of the reward were 

 to the following effect : — One moiety of the reward to be paid when a 

 quantity of gold exceeding 100 oz. should have been brought to Dunedin 

 or exported from the Province within any one year, and the balance of 

 the reward to be paid when 500 oz. should have been exported. Singu- 

 larly enough, this reward had hardly been announced, when Mr. R. 

 Gillies, Sub-Assistant Surveyor, wrote stating that he and party had 

 found gold in a creek running between the Waikioi and Makerewa bush, 



