June 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



GOLD DISCOVERIES IN NEW ZEALAND. 517 



to the fact, and immediate measures were taken for developing the 

 district and for the preservation of order. Of the results of this pub- 

 licity much need not be said, as all who then lived in New Zealand will 

 remember the excitement created, and the commotion into which the 

 colony was thrown. The purpose of this article is more particularly to 

 trace the more important discoveries of gold which have from time to 

 time been made in various parts of New Zealand. Following rapidly on 

 the discoveries of Gabriel Read came several others of minor note, and 

 in the early part of 1 862 discoveries of gold were made on the Waipori 

 River and its tributaries, and those of Mount Highlay and Shag River. 

 But in August of that year a discovery was made public surpassing in 

 importance even that by Gabriel Read. Two men, named James 

 Hartley and David Reilly, both of whom had worked for gold in Cali- 

 fornia, and one of whom, Hartley, was a most intelligent American, and 

 of great experience in gold mining, set out in the month of February 

 on a prospecting tour up the Molyneux River. It appears that they 

 were led to this expedition by the striking resemblance the country of 

 the Upper Clutha (or Molyneux) bore to the gold-bearing districts of 

 California and British Columbia. Their expedition was a hazardous one. 

 The country was difficult to traverse, desolate, and inhabited only by a 

 few shepherds, living miles apart from each other. The prospectors had 

 to use the double precaution of providing a sufficient stock of supplies 

 for the expedition, and of not taking with them such a quantity as 

 would rouse the suspicions of men who like themselves were on the 

 look-out for fresh diggings. However, they started, and amidst hardships 

 and difficulties of no common kind they penetrated the country of the 

 Upper Molyneux. And richly were they rewarded. They found gold 

 literally paving the bed of the river, and without trouble and ■with the 

 simplest apparatus they obtained a golden harvest. " We had nothing 

 to do," said Hartley, " but to set the cradle at the edge of the river and 

 keep it going from morning to night, as one could get dirt to feed the 

 cradle as fast as the other could wash it. Several times did their pro- 

 visions run out, and they had to resort to many ingenious shifts to 

 conceal their rendezvous and occupation. One of the party would set 

 off perhaps to a distance of fifty, sixty, or one hundred miles for pro- 

 visions, leaving his partner to go on collecting the precious wash-dirt. 

 These men paid several vessels to Dunedin and other places in order to 

 sell gold and purchase horses and provisions, but at last various signs of 

 their being " watched " induced'them to return to Dunedin and endeavour 

 to sell their secret to the Government. In the early part of August ' 

 these men deposited in the Treasury at Dunedin, a bag of gold con- 

 taining 87 pounds weight. They declined to inform the gold receiver 

 whence such a splendid haul had been obtained, and led him to imagine 

 it came from a quite a different locality to its true origin. Of course the 

 gold receiver mentioned the matter to some one else, and some one else 

 to the newspapers, and the public of Dunedin were on the following 

 morning startled from their propriety by the announcement in the largest 



