Better times coming.
Thames goldfields showing cut down trees and small wooden buildings.
Auckland Museum, D L Mundy photograph.
Ref: PH-ALB-86
Auckland Museum, D L Mundy photograph.
Ref: PH-ALB-86
Thursday, 2 April
At Tapu Creek there has been plenty of wind and rain and although this has put a damper on the works, it has not damped the digger’s spirits,
everybody being in the best possible humour.
All the diggers seem perfectly content to wait for the better times
coming. The claims on average are all
doing well. The work in the two claims
of the Lord Nelson and the British is something enormous. Business is pretty brisk at the various stores
and hotels.
Reporting on the advent of Grahamstown at the Thames the Daily
Southern Cross swoons “this township bids fair at no distant date to outrival
Shortland Town.”
At the Warden’s Court
in the case of Smith v Ingles the defendant is fined a sum of £20 for having
been absent from his claim for 24 hours.
Ingles has a Saint called Patrick for his patron and as the Saint’s day
fell on the 17th of last month, he began his devotions early on
the 16th and continued them till noon on the 18th. The plaintiff is a Cornishman who has no such
saint in his calendar and, being one of those adventurers who are always ready
to jump a claim, he went in and jumped Ingles'.
Extensive flax dressing machinery has been built at Henderson’s Mill, but the
small parties of flax dressers from Riverhead and surrounds do not seem to have
made much headway in forwarding large supplies to Auckland and their numbers
are being gradually diminished owing to the attraction of the Thames
goldfields and the near approach of winter.
An experiment in quartz crushing by Mr Mason’s new machine in Durham Street, Auckland, leaves no question that the machine is most
effective, reducing the stone to a consistency of the finest powder. With horse power it will crush a ton of
weight of stone in the day, but it could be made twice as large to crush double
the quantity. For crushing moderate
quantities it greatly exceeds the efficiency of a berdan.
A very brilliant theatrical performance is given
at the Thames tonight at Butt’s American Theatre by the members of the Shortland
Literary Association. The ‘Ticket of
Leave’ and some local songs are the staple portion of the performance and they are
even more than usually well rendered.
The audience, a crowd of European and Maori, is the largest yet at the
Thames. The performance is for the
benefit of the Digger’s Hospital Fund. It is a decided success, and the amateurs
are repeatedly and vociferously cheered.
A splendid reception is given to Mr Mackay who is viewed by many as one
of the few right men in the right place in the province. A hearty cheer is given to him on his
entrance by the audience who all stand. A
sum of about £44 8s is raised.
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| DSC 2 April, 1868 |
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| NZH 2 April, 1868 |
Friday, 3 April
Mr Mackay goes 30 miles upriver to the Ohinemuri, accompanied by hundreds of Maori including some of the most influential chiefs in the
district, for a great meeting regarding the opening of the Upper Thames and to
discuss a question of title to old leases granted to Europeans. They are met by large numbers of other
tribes from the Upper Thames, Tauranga and Waikato. “If there is a man in New Zealand that can
open up that supposed El Dorado . . . he
is that man,” writes the Cross correspondent of Mackay. “I say supposed because I cannot
make out that anyone has ever found really payable gold above the Puriri. One man told me the other day that if he
could get a few weeks quiet working above Wood’s store that would satisfy him.”
Fly for the Thames
with sundries and 4 passengers.
Saturday, 4 April
On the ground along the Hape to Karaka, at Shalder’s machine, a man complains loudly that they will all be 'clemmed', the Lancashire term for
starved. He wants some crushing done at
the machine, but it is not in operation yet and the work cannot be done. There is sympathy for him and others
like him; without more machinery, and machinery more accessible to the outlying claims, many will be in a bad fix this winter.
At the Tweedside Claim nine men are engaged in getting
quartz ready, all quite brisk in the expectation of a favourable crushing. Two men are busy pounding away at
some quartz with a mortar and pestle. Some men are working at one of Clayton’s
small machines at the bottom of the gully in the Ben Lomond Claim. A
reporter visited this claim last week and discovered
tin in the stone. The men laughed
heartily at this but said they would have no objection to a good tin mine. This claim lost 70 tons of stone in the recent flood. It was stacked ready for roasting but the floodwaters reached it and carried it all away.
Higher up and along Fenian Gully is the Head Centre Claim. Mr Hugh McIlhone, the master at St Mary’s
College on the North Shore, has brought
into it and has been offered a very considerable advance on his purchase. Work here is being steadily carried on by a
good lot of men, some of whom had been a considerable time at Coromandel. Ascending the range
from Fenian Gully is Crispe’s Claim, some 800 ft above sea level. This claim is being very well worked and
preparations are being made for sluicing, some of the stuff being mullocky and
the distance to any of the machines considerable. On these diggings are a
garden consisting of some cabbages, onions and lettuce, all in good health. A vast amount of
work has been done in cutting roads - there is now a good bullock dray track
along a line of country that was hardly accessible some four months
ago.
The ss Egmont leaves for Sydney taking 1,021 oz 1 gram gold
on account of the Union Bank of Australia, and 427 oz shipped by the Bank of
Australasia. The receipt of gold in
Auckland within the past few days from the various Thames goldfield claims has
been very satisfactory.
The cutter Diamond arrives at Shortland with a full cargo of
stores but the master of the vessel runs
the bow of the cutter too high on the beach and a large portion of her cargo, consisting
of flour, sugar etc, is damaged by the flood tide filling the cabin.
Sunday, 5 April
At Auckland, the committee of the diocese of New Zealand
decide to write to England and secure the services of a clergyman for the
Thames goldfields. In all probability
the Bishop of New Zealand will bring out a clergyman with him from England to
occupy this important post of duty, and there can be little doubt that in such
a large and wealthy district as the Thames goldfield is likely to become, an
adequate stipend will be guaranteed by the members of the church there.
Monday, 6 April
Marriage
At the residence of the bride, North Shore, by the Rev Mr White, William H Cobley, Esq, of Hunt’s claim, Shortland, to Louisa Elizabeth, only daughter of the late Joseph Penman, Esq. of Islington, London – Home paper please copy.
Some beautifully marked stone is shown today by a couple of
shareholders in the Albion claim, adjoining the Monster claim, on the Karaka
stream. These men, like hundreds of
others, have been labouring diligently under the most discouraging
circumstances for over six months. They have sunk and driven some hundreds of
feet, and now their perseverance is likely to be rewarded. The stone is a whitish kind of quartz with
streaks of gold of a friable nature and evidently much water worn running
through it.
Until lately the Karaka was looked upon by many as a duffer,
but it is hoped that time will prove it is as rich as any of the other
creeks. The Great Republic Claim at the
head of the Waiotahi has 200 ton of stone ready for Stevenson’s eight stamper
steam machine. The gold from this and
many other claims up the Waiotahi and Moanataiari creeks is of very superior
quality. The value of gold appears to increase towards the centre of the range.
The little son of Mr
McCullough, of the Poverty claim, brings in a drink of water to one of the men and while waiting to return a quantity of loose earth falls on him and several
of the men. His left thigh is fractured
and he sustains head injuries. The men
escape with a few bruises.
Clyde for the Thames with 15 boxes candles, 2 ½ casks brandy, 8 cases biscuits, 5
packages merchandise, 2 cases geneva, 1 case, 1 keg dark brandy, 2 cases ale,
27 packages merchandise, 14 packages ironwork, 10 passengers.
Six Brothers for the
Thames with 1 ½ tons flour, 4 cwt sugar, 8 cwt biscuit, 2 barrels beef, 50 lb
tobacco, 1 box candles, 1 box pipes.
The sacrifice of life.
Tuesday, 7 April
5am
Henry Hendry, after looking after his horses, goes for some
water to boil his billy at an abandoned shaft on the Karaka Creek, near Tookey’s
Flat. He sees something floating in the
water. He can’t tell what it is and
calls for another man, William Sutton, who identifies the object as the bent
back of man. Henry heads to the
Police Court to alert Constable Lipsey. The body is identified as 'Red Bill' –
real name William Mather, who went missing on the stormy evening of Sunday 29
March. The body is searched and Lipsey
finds 6s 9d in money. There is no
miner’s right or pocket book. The body
is removed for Dr Hooper to examine.
There is an extraordinary yield of gold from
the Manukau Claim (Messrs Cook and Co of Onehunga). They crush one ton of quartz today which
returns between 600 and 700 oz of gold.
An inquest is held in
the commercial room of the Shortland Hotel
before Allan Baillie, coroner, on the body of William Mather. Mather is thought to have been between 32 and 33
years of age and was one of Long Tom’s party who jumped McIssac’s claim. He lived at Tapu. Elizabeth Hughes says that
she saw him on the night of the storm, Sunday
29 March, about 8.30 or 9pm. He
was just behind Mrs Martin’s, the last wooden cottage. He said he was going up to Tookey’s Flat, to
one of his mates.
Dr Hooper’s examination of the body found it highly
decomposed. The right eye was swollen
and closed as if Mather had received a violent blow and there was an abrasion
under one arm. These injuries may have
been made by knocks in falling down the shaft. The general appearance was that of a drowned
man.
The sergeant of police says that Mr Mackay had promised
that these shafts would be filled in. These terribly dangerous places are, some of
them 120ft deep, and lie open in the tracks of anyone who might wander from the
road on a dark night. Little children
are everyday playing around them and as a dense population at the Thames is not
far off, prompt measures need to be taken. The finger is pointed at those who have so long failed to
carry out the necessary steps for the constitution of a mining board and so
left the residents of the Thames without any protection in this matter. The jury finds that William Mather was found drowned in a shaft on the Karaka flat, but how he came to be there,
there is no evidence to show. The jury
adds a rider to the effect that means should at once be taken, by whoever may
be the proper authority, to have these abandoned shafts protected
to prevent, if possible, the sacrifice of life.
William Mather, the second victim that these unprotected shafts have claimed, is today buried, the service for the dead being read by the Rev
Mr Maunsell of the Church of England, of which Mather was a member. His body will lie with others of the
unrecorded dead of the Thames goldfield in consecrated ground.
“We can make a township five or six miles long and as straggling as anyone pleases, but it would be too much waste of frontages to proclaim a place where we might ‘bury our dead out of our sight’”, notes the NZ Herald correspondent. He also writes “I most sincerely hope that this is the last death I shall have to record in this neighbourhood and from this cause."
William Mather – Red Bill – left behind a letter written to
a woman in which he called himself her “affectionate lover.” The handwriting and grammar were all good and
the writing like that of a lawyer’s clerk.
Rumours are current that Mr McNeil, the contractor for the
Panmure Bridge, and Mr McKenzie, have made an offer to the Provincial
Government to construct a wharf at the landing place at Shortland Town. It is also rumoured that Mr Frederick Ring is
seeking a concession for a tramway between Shortland Town and the
new township of Grahamstown on the Moanataiari and Waiotahi flats.
Rob Roy for Shortland with 7 tons potatoes, 11 ½
cases whiskey, 1 box tobacco, 5 cases Old Tom, 2 horses, 1 dray, 6 mining
wagons, quantity shovels, 4 tons general groceries, 3 barrels beer, 3 tons
furniture, 3 kegs beef.
Wahapu for Shortland Town with 2,000 bricks, 100 bushels lime,
10 tons bricks, 2,000 ft timber, 1 boiler, 4 cases, 10,000 shingles.
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| DSC 7 April, 1868 |
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| In 1865 the Tamaki River was bridged at Panmure, improving access between Auckland and Howick. The bridge was 176 metres long and 6 metres wide, made with stones from Melbourne and iron from Sydney
Reference: B-078-018
Watercolour by W. S. Hatton
|
Wednesday, 8 April
A landing wharf is now urgently needed at the Thames. When
the Superintendent of Auckland visited for the first time in October, this was
the first thing represented to him as absolutely necessary. The only place available for landing will
soon be useless due to the shelving of the sand which is pushed into the channel
and will not be easily repaired. Since
October the place has grown with prodigious rapidity, the tonnage has greatly
increased and the general trade to and from the Thames forms a considerable part
of the business done in the province. It is now confirmed that Mr McNeil, favourably known was the contractor for the wharf extension, Panmure Bridge, and other well known works, has made an offer to the Provincial Government to build a wharf at Shortland Town provided that the government will guarantee him the receipt of the tolls under stipulation and for a term mutually agreed to. Mr McNeil has made a survey of the coast line between
Shortland Town and Tapu to ascertain the most convenient and
central position for a wharf. The only place at which a wharf could be constructed beside deep water –
unless by carrying over a mud flat extending beyond the beach, an iron road or
a stone foundation which could only be effected at an immense cost – is at
Shortland Town. In front of the land
flat right away from Shortland Town to beyond the Kuranui is one vast deposit
of tidal mud extending from 30 to 40 chains outwards to the gulf when the tide
is out. It is not improbable that
the town may extend southward as well as north, but the deep water at the
confluence of the gulf, channel and creek would seem to be the most favourable
place for a wharf.
There are great expectations around Shalder’s machine on the
road up the Hape to Karaka. Although the
battery is not yet at work all hands are busily engaged in making ready for a
start in the near future. In Shalder’s machine there is no stamper proper, the
quartz being smashed or crushed by a blow from a hammer. A stamper is an upright shaft of greater or
less weight according to the power applied, with a lift of some six inches, and
giving a blow in the same way of the monkey of a pile driving machine. This is
the sort of crushing power applied to the quartz in all the batteries at the
Thames. All the stuff not sufficiently
reduced is carried back to another portion of the machine - it is at this
precise point that all the machinery at the Thames has failed. The common 'jumper' – a heavy dolly at the
end of a long pole – will crush quartz but the saving of the gold is diffilcult. Mr Shalder’s
machinery has great simplicity to recommend it, but will it succeed in saving
the gold? If successful Mr Shalder’s
machine will beat the common stamper out of the field, being cheaper, quite as
effective and having a four horsepower engine which will do as
much work as a 10 horsepower engine on the common revolving stamper.
A large number of claims have had crushings and in a few
cases the yield has been truly wonderful.
A great number of rich pieces have been picked up after the recent flood. The Little Angel, formerly the
Ayrshire Claim, on the Moanataiari, has had crushed at the Caledonian berdan
150 lb of quartz which has realised 144 oz of gold. Messrs Middleton, Creagh and Davidson
purchased this claim about three weeks ago and they have already received
magnificent interest for their money.
The monthly crushing of quartz from Tookey’s claim at Goodall's machine
has given 256 oz gold.
At Auckland Gavin B
Shanks, who has been for several years a farmer at Kaukapakapa, Kaipara, is today taken in charge by the police as
being a dangerous lunatic. Mr Shanks had
been at Shortland Town for some weeks, and on coming up on Monday night it was
found necessary to prevent him from being at large.
Richard Casey is in Queen Street, Auckland, today in the company
of two Thames men who point out to him a man who they say is Somerscale, an
informant who had several people prosecuted for sly grog selling at the Thames
recently. Casey at once rushes at the
supposed informer, giving him a severe kick from behind, and then a blow to the
eye. Casey’s friends, have, however,
made a mistake, as the man struck is named Sewell and has never been at the
Thames in his life. Casey is taken into
custody for "committing an assault under rather peculiar circumstances."
***********************************************************************************************************************
Source
Papers Past
© Meghan Hawkes / First year on the Thames Goldfield 2017 - 2018
Please credit Meghan Hawkes/ First year on the Thames Goldfield 2017 - 2018 when re-using information from this blog.
Please credit Meghan Hawkes/ First year on the Thames Goldfield 2017 - 2018 when re-using information from this blog.
