Early Discoveries

The Australian gold finds gave the needed impetus to discovery in New Zealand. Fearful of the loss of good colonists, a group of Auckland citizens formed a ‘Reward Committee’ which, in October 1852, offered £500 to the first person who should discover ‘ a valuable gold find’ in the northern district of New Zealand. Within less than a week Charles Ring, a settler recently returned from California, claimed the reward, stating that he had obtained auriferous quartz and fine gold from the Kapanga Stream at Coromandel. His discovery was officially investigated and con­firmed, although doubts were expressed about the amount of gold available. The first sale of gold took place on llth December 1852, prices ranging from £.3/10/3 to £10 an ounce, the latter price being paid, not because of the gold’s intrinsic value, but because of its interest as the first offered from the Coromandel field. In a few months only £ 1,200 was won from this area, and the field was soon virtually deserted. It was only from the fresh stimulus of the Otago discoveries nine years later that interest in the possibilities of the Coromandel goldfield was renewed.