95 
About 3000 diggers set to work. On the Kapanga River to- 
wards North the “Coolahan Diggings ” promised favourable results, 
and likewise the “Waiau Diggings’'’, a short distance from the former, 
on the Matawai Creek, a tributary of the Waiau River which flows 
southwards into the Coromandel Harbour. The ore produced was 
sold in Auckland by public auction. Rut when the taxes were 
to be paid there were only about 50 diggers who took licenses. 
These also, however, were not able to subsist under the heavy 
taxes demanded; and as moreover nothing at all was heard of any 
encouraging results on a grand scale, and more and more difficul- 
ties arose, on the part of the natives, the whole enterprise died out 
after about 6 months. The simple verdict was, that the gold mines 
were too poor, and the promised reward was withheld from the dis- 
coverer. The uii ole produce upon the first New Zealand goldfield 
up to the time when the enterprise was given up was computed 
at £ 1200 in gold value, and the largest nugget found was a sphe- 
roidal piece of quartz of the size of an egg which contained gold 
equivalent to about £10. 
Despite various trials and movements in later years, and al- 
though the natives brought from time to time small quantities of 
gold to Auckland for sale, no serious trial was ever afterwards made 
upon the Coromandel goldfield ; and the natives at last denied the 
Europeans even the right to make experiments. 
Such was the state of affairs when in June, 1859, I visited the 
goldfield in company of Mr. Ch. Ileaphy, the late gold commis- 
sioner. — What the traveller observes on entering Coromandel Har- 
bour and examining its shores does in no way correspond with 
what a geologist expects of a gold region. The Coromandel Penin- 
sula consists mainly of a mountain ridge , running nearly North and 
South, the mountains having a bold serrated outline and varying in 
height from 1000 to 1600 feet. The most noteworthy point is 
Castle Hill (1610 feet high) a rocky peak resembling the ruin of 
a castle. The valleys between the spurs given off laterally by this 
main or dividing range are of the character of ravines or gorges, 
occupied by mere mountain streams; the flats or alluvial tracts at 
