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IN August 1862 Dunedin
received news more startling than
any since the publication of Gabriel Read’s letter. On the 16th
of that month the Otago Daily Times announced that two men,
Hartley and Reilly, had come into Dunedin with
87 Ib. of gold. They refused to
divulge its source until the Provincial Government agreed that,
if all possible information as to the gold-bearing locality and the
means of working it were given and
13,000 ounces of gold were brought to Dunedin from the field
within three months, a reward of £2,000 would be paid to the discoverers.
The publication of the terms of
this agreement caused a bigger rush than that to Tuapeka.
Men flocked from Dunedin and the Tuapeka goldfield to the new El Dorado,
situated at the base of the
Dunstan Mountains. At
first the remoteness of the
field caused prices to
soar, the 3Vz Ib. loaf rising to 10/-,
and flour to 3/6 per Ib. Two canvas townships sprang up along the river
bank, the upper eventually becoming Clyde, and the lower
Alexandra. The melting snows of
November, causing the river
to rise, drove prospectors farther afield, and rich finds were
made in the gullies of the
surrounding mountains.
Towards the end of 1862 it was rumoured that a
number of men were secretly working a rich field in some remote
district. In November about forty
miners, under the strict discipline of William
Fox, a namesake of the statesman,
were discovered in the
Arrow
Valley by Dr. Hector, the Provincial
Geologist. Almost at
the same time as Fox established his dominion
in the Arrow, Thomas Arthur found
an extremely rich deposit at Arthur’s Point, on the Shotover
River. One of the most lucrative and romantic finds on the Shotover was
that at Maori Point, where Hakaria Haeroa and Dan Ellison were rewarded
for their efforts to rescue their dog by finding a beach so rich
that before nightfall they gathered
300 ounces of gold.
An aerial view of the Shotover River, the scene
of much mining activity.
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This sketch shows prospectors arriving at
one of the Otago fields, a scene of typical activity. Frank Nairn made
the sketch in 1863, and noted on it 'this country is covered with
rocks of mica and thin veins of white quartz running through.'
The Shotover River, from the 'Illustrated New Zealand News' (1885)
This lithograph is described as 'Dunstan
Diggings. showing Junction of the Manuherikia and Molyneux River's,'
and it was made from a sketch by R. Lysaght in 1862.
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