100 
it allured a good many others to follow his example. Fresh gullies 
and creeks were discovered , yielding better returns ; and when the 
encouraging fact became known that three men, working on the 
Slate river, a tributary of the Aorere, had obtained one hundred 
ounces of gold in seven weeks, the diggings might be said to promise 
hopefully. 1 The number of diggers increased from day to day , and 
it was estimated that on the 1 st of May 1857 there were no less 
than one thousand men at work upon the Aorere diggings. On 
the mouth of the river arose the fast thriving little town of Colling- 
wood. As the winter approached, the expense of transporting pro- 
visions from the port of Collingwood (owing to the want of roads) 
became greater; and as the floods in the rivers at this period des- 
troyed the dams and other works of the diggers , many of these 
became disheartened and left the place, and although many re- 
mained throughout the winter , earning good wages , and others 
returned in the spring, the diggings have never regained their former 
population. 
When I visited the gold-field, in August 1859, there were in 
all only about 250 diggers at work. Although the work is fre- 
quently interrupted by the overflowing of the rivers, and although 
much time is lost in the difficult transportation of provisions, 2 
the average gain of a digger at that time was nevertheless com- 
puted at 12 shillings per day. But such pay, although sure 
and permanent, seems after all too small to allure a larger num- 
ber of men to engage in the laborious work of gold digging. 
What caused the headlong rush of thousands of persons to other 
gold-fields was less the certainty of a reward for their labour to 
all than the enormous, lottery -like gains of some lucky individuals. 
Such prominent cases of good luck, however, never occurred upon 
the Nelson goldfields; they consequently continued to be only scan- 
tily worked , and yielded a comparatively small , although permanent 
produce, which they will continue to yield for a long series of years 
to come. The largest piece of gold (which was found in the Rocky 
1 D. L. Bailey, Nelson Directory. 1859. p. 19. 
2 Pack-oxen were used for transportation. 
