The New Bonanza - Shantytown:
Just south of Greymouth a side-road from the State Highway winds inland to the West Coast’s best-known tourist attraction of Shantytown. Driving through the quiet countryside, the visitor finds it hard to believe that this was once gold rush country, that fabulous blacksand workings and cement leads, gold dredges and sluicing claims, Chinese diggers and wild colonial boys, were all found within a radius of six miles.
Gold field settlements usually went through several distinct stages, starting with the rush that usually followed another and sometimes ending just as abruptly. First a camp was knocked up. Men would sleep in tents, build rough shelters, or just lie down under the trees. Storekeepers and hotel proprietors followed very quickly, with packhorses loaded with provisions and goods for sale. The success of the field depended on the amount of gold to be won, balanced against the cost of provisions.
Phase two began when the men “set to work” and it appeared likely that the field would be maintained for a reasonable time. A period of stability began and in place of the tents and rough shelters, buildings were erected from timber; they sometimes had walls made from the trucks of punga ferns, and until iron was available the usual roof covering was a tarpaulin. This stage of a mining camp might last for a year or so, until the ground was duffered out17 and the men rushed new country and the whole process started again. These early camps were often referred to as “shantytowns”.In almost all cases, these towns eventually turned into ghost towns and their names were forgotten.
If the field was a large one and called for company mining and/or an injection of capital for expenditure, these camps progressed to phase three and be came regular townships, like Ross, and Kumara. Many of them remain to this day, but not because of the gold, which was all worked out prior to the Great War, but because of other growing industries and opportunities such as farming or saw milling.
Rutherglen’s classification was a phase two mining camp and was a true shantytown. So it was most appropriate that Shantytown has been built within a mile of an original one. Not that it was the aim of the promoters of build a replica of Rutherglen in 1866-9, rather they wanted to show the composite features of a typical shantytown on the West Coast gold fields.
To the digger or prospector, a “shanty” was usually in regard to a hotel. A grog-shanty meant the lean-to of an unlicensed seller of spirituous liquors, and these were found in all sorts of, out-of-the-way places along the mining trails.
Today’s Shantytown was the brainchild and dream of Greymouth’s watchmaker and jeweller, Albert Leonard Sutherland, known to everyone as Barney. By 1965 he was generously making his claim available to tourists as the “Marsden Sluicing and Gold Panning Co.” Two years later Barney visited Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Couldn’t something similar be built on the West Coast? The dream became a vision. When Barney returned he spoke to the local Rotary, of which he was a foundation member.
At a meeting in Greymouth in May 1968 called by the town’s public relations officer, David Lydford, to discuss the possibility of preserving vintage car and railway relics as a tourist attraction. Gentlemen in attendance at this meeting were John Melse, a ship’s electrical engineer, Ian Tibbles, a stream train buff, and Ace Boustridge, a vintage car fan. Barney Sutherland then told his fellows of his visit to the tourist park in California. The West Coast Historical and Mechanical Society was formed and Barney’s dream became a reality. The building of Shantytown began.
This gathering fuelled an enthusiasm that never waned through all the sometimes frustrat-ing months of land negotiation, bulldozing, and clearing and architectural plans voluntarily prepared for the initial 50 acres. Wisely the extremely difficult task of re-creating Rutherglen was not attempted but instead it was decided to build a ‘typical’ West Coast diggings town. Shantytown today, remains a constant success through the selfless attitudes of the West Coast people. Everyone pitched in, and a true community project and spirit arose with a healthy amount of dedication as its foundation. Scrupulous attention and the blending of contributions from every possible source, is part of the unique hallmark of Shantytown. The project took 20 months, more than 10,000 man-hours of ‘hard labour’ and 11 buildings and features were ready for opening day, 23 January 1971.
Several thousand people turnout out for this very fine occasion.12,000 postcards and first day covers with the special commemorative date-stamp passed through the Shantytown Post office. Barney took part with the courtesy title, and genuinely accorded position, as Mayor of Shantytown.
In his speech on opening day, Barney said: “Shantytown is far from finished. We are committed to continue expanding, improving and maintaining to make this a showplace that any modern tourist or old-time digger would be proud to visit”.
His contribution was quickly and justly recognised four months later when he was awarded an MBE in the Queens Birthday honour's list.
The opening ceremony was preceded by a grand wedding in the 105 year old, No Town Church. Reverend Neil Churcher of the Greymouth Union Church officiated the first shantytown wedding between Miss Michelle Henderson and Mr Dennis Gunn, of a well-known South Westland pioneering family. All participants were in authentic period costume, to the degree that Canterbury Museum was consulted on detail for the bridal party. The dressmaker, Mrs D G Winter spent five months creating the frocks and accessories. Over 5000 people attended the opening of Shantytown, and also attended the wedding!
Today, Shantytown continues to grow, and attract more visitors and tourists than ever. A school has been set up, giving New Zealand children, a living resource to take their lessons in the schoolhouse as their our founders would have done so. This is a very popular destination, and is building world-wide acclaim, delivering the overseas dollars to Westland.
New facilities and entertainment packages continue to grow on the list at Shantytown too. This site has been host to an ever-increasing number of filmmakers, both domestically and internationally.
Albert Leonard SUTHERLAND and his wife Gloria, at his
investiture, 1970, Wellington, New Zealand
The History of Shantytown’s Buildings
The Store;THE first stores on the goldfields were temporary affairs of canvas and rough timber from the bush. But as the various fields began to settle down and trading centre's such as Greymouth and Hokitika became established, stores were built of permanent materials and many became quite elaborate and well stocked with goods from Melbourne.
The early storekeepers who followed the rushes had to take a gamble, like the diggers themselves. It was common practice to “grubstake” prospectors, hoping to recoup when they made a strike. Most famous of the pioneer storekeepers was Rueben Waite, who brought the first parties of diggers down from Nelson in 1864. There were good profits to be made by a storekeeper with supplies at the site of a remote new field, but there were risks too if diggers suspected that a duffer had been engineered as “a storekeepers’ rush”.
The Beehive store at Shantytown dates back to 1865 when Patrick Michael Griffen, a native from Waterford, Ireland, started a store at 33 Boundary Street, Greymouth, that continues today on the same site. The following year William Cameron Smith opened a store on Mawhera Quay, called the Union. In 1880 they formed a partnership. From the beginning Griffen & Smith ran a wholesale and retail business, supplying storekeepers on the outlying gold fields by means of packhorse trains and after by horse-trams. For a time barges which were poled up the Grey River supplied the rich diggings of the Grey.
No Town Church:BY 1865 No town, 17 miles inland from Greymouth was flourishing as a properly laid out, booming gold town, not far north from present-day Stillwater. The area turned out to be rich in gold and before long the camp became a township of twenty-seven hotels and dozens of stores. It was estimated that some nine thousand diggers followed the rush. The place was called No Town. Mining continued on a small scale for many years but by 1922, No Town had become a ghost town.
A church was considered an essential addition to the township. Correspondence was entered into with Bishop Philip Viard SM, Wellington who authorised Patrick Gillin of Kamaka (upstream of Stillwater) to order all building requirements from Auckland and have them shipped to Greymouth. From there they were barged to Kamaka and then taken by sledge miles inland to No Town. Messrs Arnott and Seabrook, a building partnership in Greymouth, erected the church at a cost of £254 and the foundation priest of Greymouth, Rev. Father Emmanuel Royer, who was a frenchman, celebrated the first mass in 1866. By 1922 No Town was a ghost town and the church was disused.
The church was then shifted to Ngahere, further along the Grey Valley where it was never closed for a service until its successor was built in 1958. A great-grandson of P J Gillin, Mr E Matthews, then bought the church and kept it in excellent condition until he handed it over to Shantytown. The West Coast Master Builders adopted the project of dismantling, shifting and rebuilding the church as their contribution. The Bell has been preserved from the original Greymouth Anglican Church.
The Hotel:The number of hotels and grog-shanties it maintained often measured the prosperity and high economy of a gold field. Hokitika, for instance between the years 1865 and 1866 had 101 hotels, within a radius of 800 metres. The local residents could not have supported a tenth of that number but it gives clear indication to the population of the surrounding gold fields where thousands of diggers worked the creeks, gullies and terraces, and from time to time came to town to sell their gold and go on the spree.
Besides consuming enormous amounts of alcohol, the diggers enjoyed such amusements as billiards, skittles, quoits and horseracing along the beach. There were travelling shows, minstrels, actors, medicine men and peddlers, who made the circuit of the Australian and New Zealand gold fields. Do not forget the dancing girls! An integral part of popular hotels of the early 1860’s was the dance house. It was part of the hotel building and entrance to it was through the bar. Often a bar was erected in a corner of the dance floor as well. A violin usually supplied music. Girls were brought over from Melbourne and other places, contracts being signed before their departure.
A West Coaster had this to say: “The dance girls got £6 per week and it was their business to get partners. There were no programmes and introductions were not considered necessary. The men in moleskins, watertight boots, coloured shirts and red sashes, just strolled into the big room, took their seats on the wooden forms arranged around the room, and smoked. First class music was provided, the girls securing partners by asking the men. The MC by the way, he was the only person on whom a white shirt was tolerated – announced the dance, Caledonians, Lancers, Polka, Mazurka, Schottische, as the case may be. At the conclusion the girl marched her partner to the bar and he shouted for her. Of course, the girl only made a pretence of drinking, but the man paid for two drinks all the same, one shilling each. You can image the amount that would be spent at that rate with a room full of men, the dance going from eight to twelve every night.
“Sometimes the Publican would announce a Grand Ball, the difference between that and an ordinary dance being that the ball was kept going as long as anyone liked to stay – always an all-night affair. A lavish supper was provided free. The correct thing for the male guests was to shout champagne at £1 a bottle. When one man ordered a couple of bottles, his neighbour would go one better and call for six; a dozen was not an uncommon order. As a matter of fact, the record shout in a Waimea hotel was a dozen cases, costing £144”.
The Golden Nugget Hotel at Shantytown has traditional mirrors behind the bar but a licence only on special occasions. This Hotel took almost 1,300 hours to build, has veranda posts from the Greymouth Dominion Hotel with iron and framework from the defunct Dobson state coal mine. The swing doors of the New River Hotel, Dungaville, no longer in existence, do duty again and part of the hotel bar saw service in the Greymouth Courthouse.
The Bank:THE Shantytown bank is built in the style of the early banks of the Otago and West Coast goldfields, and contains a smelting room with a furnace, ingot moulds, bullion scales and other such accessories. Also of note is a bank manager’s desk that was fashioned from the first log cut at the Nybery family sawmill, Ruru in the vicinity of Lake Brunner.
George Ogilvie Preshaw opened an agency for the Bank of New South Wales at Greymouth in the early rush days and has left a vivid account of his experiences as a gold-buyer in this book, Banking Under Difficulties, first publish in 1888. He was sent over from Australia to the short-lived Wakamarina diggings in Marlborough and shortly afterwards was told to report to the new rush to the West Coast. He sailed for the Grey River and arrived on 7 November 1864.
“Christmas Day. I was busy all day buying gold. A short time after I got to bed (my saddlebags being under my head and revolver by my side), three drunken men rushed in; one came to me, took my hat from over my eyes an said to the other, “By gad, it’s the banker; suppose we give him a crack over the head with a stick?” and off they went into the bar….I knew perfectly well should any scrimmage take place and the report of a pistol be heard, there were so many maniacs about, that without enquiring why or wherefore, but ‘eager for the fray’ they would rush in and I would stand a very poor show.
“Still, I had to protect myself and the bank property as far as I could and this I was determined to do. I turned with my face to the door and took out my revolver, which I always kept in good order, and waited. They had drinks in the bar and away they went, I did not se any more of them. My idea, if they had shown up again, was to challenge the first man at the doorway; and he had he attempted to advance – fire! I knew I could depend on my revolver and unless the mob tore down the tent, I was good for six of them”.
The Eagle Press:The printing works equipped with the help of the Greymouth Evening Star is a popular feature of Shantytown. The Star, and its morning contemporary the Grey River Argus, now closed, both started in 1867 and both gave excellent coverage of the gold rush years.
Pride and place goes to a 160-year-old printing press called the Columbian, but better known as an Eagle Press. It was built by George Clymer in 1837 and is the oldest of its type in existence. The Columbian was invented in 1813 in Philadelphia and Clymer later shifted to England where his press was a great success. There are thought to be only three left in the United States, all built after 1849 and only one in working condition.
It is an impressive piece of machinery. An American Eagle gives the press its more colloquial name, perches on the main counterbalance lever with outstretched wings perches and an open beak. The weight is adjustable by sliding along the lever. He holds in his talons a flight of Jove’s thunderbolts representing war, and an olive branch of peace and the horn of plenty. A lump of lead would have sufficed but George Clymer was a man who liked things to be done properly. This alliance between ornamentation and utility is characteristic of the press.
Shantytown’s Eagle press was brought to New Zealand by the Auckland Star in 1931, and after the Napier earthquake, was bought by the Napier Daily Telegraph and used as a proof-press for thirty years. It is still in working condition.
The Bootmaker:EARLY bootmakers were called “snobs”. They not only repaired boots and shoes but made them to measure as well. This was an important trade on the gold fields where the wear-and-tear on shoe leather was high. The usual footwear if the digger was the heavy Blucher boot or near knee-high Wellingtons. Some prospectors, when their boots gave out, resorted to Maori sandals made of flax – they rarely lasted more than a day or two, so blades of flax were carried to make replacements. The bootmaker was an expert on leather and in demand for he repair of harness and saddles, besides the making of early leather and canvas sluicing-hose and similar work required by a mining community. The shop at Shantytown is fitted with nineteenth century bootmaking appliances and on occasions a tradesman can be watched working.
The Barber:BARBERS of the gold rush days had to be versatile: he not only cut scraggy hair and matted beards and shaved with a cut-throat razor, he also drew teeth, and wrote and read letters for people could not read or write. Some barbers advertised baths, with hot and cold water; many used their premises as public reading-rooms where Australian and English papers could be read. The Shantytown barbershop has an old-time chair, and equipment and packaged goods of the early days. The mirror and pictures on the wall all add to the atmosphere.
Greenstone (Pounamu):AT the Shantytown hall, once a country school, the West Coast Gem and Mineral Club maintains displays and a souvenir shop. Field trips are often made to collect specimens, especially Greenstone, or nephrite for which the West Coast has long been famous.
According to Maori lore, the Arahura River, seventeen miles to the south, is the true home of pounamu, or Greenstone, and long journeys were made from other parts of New Zealand to obtain this prized jade. When the hydraulic sluicing claims were working, a supply of Greenstone was derived from the terrace gravels cut down by the hoses; today material for the two Greenstone factories at Hokitika comes from mountain debris airlifted from high up in Olderog’s Creek on the Arahura River.
Greenstone is occasionally found among the gravels on the beaches nearby, and large or small pebbles occur in the creek-beds, particularly after flash floods have disturbed the boulders. In accessible places the great heaps of tailings left by the sluices are sometimes turned over by bulldozer operators looking for this elusive stone.
The Gold Claim:A gold panning and sluicing claim, open to visitors, is a few minutes walk from Shantytown through beautiful surrounding bush, with some evidence of century-old gold workings along the way. The claim was begun by Albert L Sutherland and was one of the reasons for the siting of the town. New chums are taught how to pan for gold and are assured of finding at least some “colour” to take home in the small phial provided. The claim is working virgin ground and washdirt for panning is obtained from a terrace face.
A small hydraulic nozzle, called a Monitor in California and known as a Giant in New Zealand, is operating at the terrace. Tailrace and headrace are paved with square wooden blocks set with spaces between them to trap the gold. The water supply to feed the nozzle comes from a dam on a higher part of the terrace. Giant nozzles, which worked on the big sluicing claims in the past, operated with pressures of up to two hundred pounds a square inch and had orifices of up to ten inches in diameter. During demonstrations visitors are able to work the nozzle and watch the rush of water and gravel down the sluice – a very photogenic sight.
Near the panning tubs is an old miner’s hut, now restored and used as a small museum.
The Tramway:A bush tramway is being extended from Shantytown to the Chinese diggings some three-quarters of a mile up Infant’s Creek, where a station is being erected. The steam locomotive used on the line was built in 1897 by Sharp, Stewart and Co of Glasgow and spent all her working life at the Kaitangata coalmine in Otago. She is a 0-6-0-side tank model fitted with balloon funnel and weighs nearly twenty-five tons. Besides an enclosed wooden passenger car, an open carriage will also be used to give visitors a full view of the virgin bush through which the line passes.
“Stablemates” arrived a couple of years later. One is a 20 ton Climax 1203, assembled in 1913 by the Climax Manufacturing Co of Pennsylvania and used on various North Island areas in 1968. The other a Heisler 1494 is a 14 ton locomotive and was worked not far from Shantytown at Camerons. The Midland Sawmilling Co operating it for seven years from 1924 but the engine was just a little too heavy for their track and it was sold to the New Forest Sawmilling Co at Ngahere in 1931 where it was in service until 1959. Both these locomotives were specifically designed to haul heavy loads at slow speeds over the rough, steep tracks that were adequate for sawmilling sites. A fourth locomotive, petrol driven, was also worked at Camerons and is of special interest because it is the best remaining example left of the many built at the 113 year old Greymouth Dispatch Foundry. All of these locomotives are housed in the massive shed, 70 ft by 40 ft that was once the workshop for the now closed, Blackball Mine.
In His Own Words
EXTRACT from the book The Story of Shantytown, written by W F Heinz, printed by Pegasus Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1972.
Foreword by A L Sutherland, MBE:Shantytown is to me a dream come true. The idea really started with a visit I made to a similar place in California, called Knottsberry Farm. It seemed exactly what was wanted on our own West Coast, and by the time I got home most of the outline plan was clear in my mind. Translating it into reality was another matter. The Dobson coal mine near Greymouth had just closed and the economy of the region was at a low ebb, but, ironically enough, it was because of this that the then Minister of Mines, Tom Shand, offered to make building material and other equipment available without charge, which was one of the things that helped to get Shantytown under way. Another turning point was when local Rotarians adopted it as a project, for this encouraged the support of other organisations and developed into a tremendous voluntary effort in the real West Coast tradition.
I am glad that Bill Heinz has written this book, not just to explain the background to Shantytown but to show what an astonishing range of goldfield history is placed into the surrounding district. It will add fresh interest and meaning for all who visit Shantytown.
Finally, let me say, as a retired watchmaker by trade, what great pleasure both Shantytown and this book have given me by putting the clock back to a golden age.
Greymouth, September 1972
West Coast Minerals:THE following extracts from the West Coast times, gives us an insight and chronological order on how naturals minerals led to employment and commerce. Creating livlihoods for the men and women for a time of one of New Zealand’s richest eras.
September 1877At the 31st March last there were 5328 European miners and 817 Chinese working in Westland.
June 1878A rush set in on Saturday to a place called Back Creek, about a mile and half from the Woodstock gold workings. A considerable number of men are on the ground.
March 1882The Woodstock road presented a lively appearance yesterday as groups of miners and vehicles were seen wending their way towards the new field. For about half a mile on either side of the road near the prospector’s claim business areas have been marked out and in some cases, building has already commenced.
June 1884A rush took place yesterday to Tucker’s Flat, near Kaniere, between one and two hundred men being on the ground. The prospector is a miner named Hutchison.
November 1885At Duffer’s Creek, south of Ross, the various parties of Chinese, who are working in the bed of the creek, appear to be doing well. They are as usual, reticent about their affairs, but their purchases in Ross seem to betoken very profitable work.
July 1889The Mont d’Or Company, Ross, has brought the Greenland Company property plant, &c., for £6600 cash.
August 1900Satisfactory progress is being made on the construction of the Humphrey’s Company race to the Arahura River. 80 men are employed, and the pay with contract works, is approximately £1000 per month. In all probability the water will be running through the race in from six to eight months time.
September 1909Glorious weather prevailed in Ross in Wednesday (8th) for the official ceremony in connection with the Ross Goldfields Ltd. About 2000 people were present. The undertaking upon which the Co. is about to embark is the biggest mining operation ever undertaken on the Coast. Power for this undertaking is generated at Kaniere Forks, and taken by transmission line to Hokitika, over the river, where it follows the railway line to Ross, a distance of 23 miles from the powerhouse. Two pumps, each capable of lifting 750 gallons of water a minute to a height of 330 feet are lowered into the shaft by electrically driven winches. The Co.’s office and sub-station in Weld Street has a transformer installed to supply heat and light for the office. It is hoped to install equipment to supply power and light to Hokitika at a later date. The town if Ross is now lit by some 40 lights and looks brighter probably than any town has ever looked on the West Coast.
September 1909The largest nugget of gold ever found in New Zealand has been unearthed at Ross. It weighs 99 ozs, 12 dwts, 12 grs, and was found by Mr Scott, at Messrs Sharpe and Scott’s claim at Bullock Point. It was sold to Mr James Free and Mr L Pedrazzi for £400. In 1869 a nugget weighing slightly over 90 ozs. Was found at Lyell. The Ross nugget was baptised in champagne, and with the consent of the Minister of Mines, the Hon. Roderick McKenzie, was named “The Honourable Roddy”.
October 1914A well attended meeting of miners was held in the Public Hall, Rimu on Monday evening, for the purpose of discussing the recent decrease in the price of gold, and to consider the best means of getting fair value for gold won. The best price that was being offered was 78/6 an ounce. The meeting considered the price offered by the banks was unsatisfactory, and recommended the executive of the Miners Association to urge the Government to buy the whole output of the Dominion, thus securing a profitable investment for the state and safeguarding the miners.
June 1915The Arahura dredge, the largest gold-mining machine ever erected on the West Coast, is now nearing completion, and will be ready to commence operations in three or four weeks time. There are at present six gold-dredging plants at work on the West Coast and it is quite on the cards that this number will be increased in the near future. This class of mining is now being more thoroughly developed. The introduction of powerful dredges has placed the West Coast mining on a sounder basis, and should augur well for the future permanency of the industry on the West Coast.
January 1916It is stated that very sanguine feeling exists in Ross in connection with the prospect of important quartz mining developments at Cedar Creek, on the Mt Greenland range. Extensive prospecting has been carried out for some months by a Wanganui syndicate who hold a special claim. It is reported that the results are most satisfactory and that several hundred tons of payable quartz have been stored preparatory to the erection of a crushing battery. A track is now being formed to enable the necessary machinery to be placed on the battery site.
February 1920Mr Sidney Ford, of Rimu Flat enterprise, arrived in town last night. Mr Ford is the mining engineer for the American Company which is to undertake the develop-ment of the Rimu Flat goldfield. It is the intention of the US company to place a 500 h.p dredge on the flat.
September 1921From time to time of late the heavy seas have been stripping the southern beaches and reveal rich deposits if black sand. This has been notable in the south, where the beachcombers have been having a run of luck. At Waiho, Gillespie’s, and Bruce Bay beaches particularly, some good returns have been secured. On the Bruce Bay beach one clean-up of 100 ozs of gold was secured.
Other Minerals:IN Westland, with its strong mining tradition, it was inevitable that mineral discoveries other than that of gold should be made. Each new find was greeted with enthusiasm but except for a few, like jade, serpentine and limestone, they seldom proved commercially successful. Many of the deposits were too small; some were boosted by spurious reports or simply by over-optimism.
April 1880Specimens of excellent coal may be seen at the office of the County Clerk. They were taken from a horizontal seam of coal six feet thick, which lies close to the Paringa River. Vessels of considerable size could be taken alongside it.
July 1883An excellent sample of tin was shown to us yesterday, which was obtained by a minor named Powell, while working his claim at Rimu.
October 1883A report of a very satisfactory nature was received by the County chairman yesterday from the Government analyst of the Geological Survey Department, on a sample of coal from the Kaniere coal measure. Mr Skey says it is moderately hard coal, and homogenous throughout, with white ash. The coke puffs up considerably so it is of little use as coke. The evaporative power is very high and the coal compares favourably with Grey coal generally. No effort should be spared to use this resource at our doorstep. The prospectors have a shaft down to 61 ft and a drive of 12 and 14 ft has been put in following the seam.
April 1886Mr Binns, Inspector of Mines, is expected to arrive in town today. He will visit the coal discoveries at Mt Camelback, and advise the Coal Prospecting Association as to the best means of working.
May 1891An important discovery of mica or talc is reported from Paringa. Messrs Oliver and Pennington have met with what promises to be a lode of this valuable mineral. It is said to be only seven miles from the mouth of the Paringa River, to which place it can be easily conveyed and then shipped.
August 1891The discovery of a silver lode, seven feet thick is reported from the Waikukupa, near Okarito.
October 1894An important copper discovery is reported from Kokatahi. A few weeks ago, Mr Staines, County Chairman, got a party together to prospect the upper reaches of the river. Yesterday Mr Dignan, one of the party, came to town with specimens of copper and manganese, found in a lode eight feet thick. No estimate of its value can be formed until an assay19 is completed.
The Pounamu Belt:Among the most interesting features of the geology of the area covered by the Hokitika Sheet are the Pounamu formations. These remarkable magnesium sills on their various exposures throughout Westland are said to contain almost every known metal, except tin, and even within the Hokitika Sheet the mineral range is enormous. The discovery of the mineral nephrite, more popularly known as “Greenstone” or the pounamu and tangiwai of the Maoris, is of scientific and popular interest and of economic value.
It was found in large segretations in one place only, namely at the head of Griffin Creek, high up on the Griffin Range. Though sometimes of fine, dark translucent character, it is more often impure, but undoubtedly many tons of fair quality could be obtained from this are. There seems no reason why other areas containing this valuable mineral should not be found in the still little explored part of the belt running from the Razorback Ridge toward McArthur Crags. Other minerals such as rubies and copper-ores, evidences of both have been seen, cannot be ruled out, as to being discovered in this part of the belt.
Silver And Diamonds:Early in 1876 the reported discovery of a silver mine at Mount Rangitoto, near Ross, in the Totara district, caused a sensation in Hokitika and elsewhere. It was said that a rich lode of silver had been struck by some lucky prospectors, that a small quantity had been forwarded to Melbourne for assay, and that the reports received were of the most glowing character. The prospectors were James Palmer, James Bevan and Edwin Kenway. There were four distinct reefs exposed on the prospectors’ ground within a distance of three or four hundred yards, and there were indications of copper on the same lease. The great hopes entertained of the Mount Rangitoto silver mine were sadly not realised. A Company was formed with a nominal capital of £30,000, £19,500 of that was subscribed in shares of £5 each. The balance being apportioned to the original prospectors. The capital was used in prospecting the ground and developing the mine, and funds dried up fast. The original lode was lost, though several other lodes were found, but carrying more lead and less silver. Bevan, one of the original promoters, failed to raise capital in England for further development of the mine, and 500 acres of freehold land, a crushing plant and smelting apparatus, were all that remained of the first silver mine venture on the West Coast.
Then came a report of the discovery of a diamond, believed to have been picked up at the foot of Mount Cook. The story ran that Mr Blake, of Greymouth, purchased it for £1, and that he afterward refused £100 from a jeweller in Melbourne. Like a snowball, its “value” increased until it was described in the newspapers at £7,000. Excitement grew and there were predictions that diamond-mines would eclipse the gold mines of the West Coast. It was later found that the value of the diamond had been greatly overstated, and many doubted whether it had ever been anywhere near Mount Cook.
In the south, in the Hollyford valley, there is reputed to be a rich ruby mine. Worked by a party of three, the venture ended when one of the miners was murdered by the other two. The villains, so the story goes, then steamed from Martin’s Bay to London where they presumably led a high life on their ill-gotten riches.
Whitebait
1922: 47,000 lbs valued at £2000.
1923: 71,680 lbs valued at £3500.
1924: 52,650 lbs valued at £2363.
1925: 94,595 lbs (about 42 tons) valued at £8904, the greatest season on record. Factories and Christchurch markets are glutted.
1927:Whitebait catches declining. Marine Dept. enquiry into limiting whitebait season. No finality reached.
2001: Whitebait in North Island stores ranges from $99.00 per kilo to $130.00 per kilo.
West Coast of the South Island - New Zealand:Shantytown, as a reminder of the gold days, has been built close to the old mining camp of Diamond Gully, later called Rutherglen. The goldfield was situated in the watersheds of Saltwater Creek and the New River, and both these streams, although a few miles apart, enter a long lagoon bordering the sea-beach. Gold was found down to low-water mark on the sea-beaches, and the discovery makes an interesting story.
In 1864 alluvial gold was found at a place called Diamond Gully12 but the returns could not have been economical and the area was soon abandoned. It was not realised that the beaches of the West Coast shoreline and the back terraces contained buried blacksand leads13 of great wealth. As it was impossible, in most cases to trek inland through the dense, spectacular and lush rain forests on the Coast, the beaches were traversed widely by the unsuspecting population, who were walking across the gold all the time! To travel inland was best done by following rivers and creeks off the beaches. The beaches were your modern day motorway.
Gold in beach blacksand was considered unusual but it had been found and worked along the coast of northern California. A small group of young men who had Californian mining experience, arrived at Hokitika in September of 1865 with one hundredweight of gold. They were very careful not to disclose the whereabouts of the area from which the gold had been won, but they returned three months later with another 58 pounds of gold. Like any intelligent persons they group ‘cashed up’ and immediately left for Melbourne, clearing £7,830. At today’s prices their gold would be worth well over $340,000. A lovely sum of money which took only nine months to accumulate. The news caused a sensation and a rush set in along the beaches.
This rush was referred to as the Saltwater Rush, and brought several thousand prospectors to the area. A mining camp was established at themouth of Saltwater Creek, later renamed Paroa. This was the first time the value of the West Coast black ironsand was recognised and soon men were working the beaches from Karamea in the north to the Haast River in the south, a distance of over 320 kilometres. At Five Mile Beach, south of Okarito and not far from Franz Josef glacier, the first prospectors in 1866 reported that the sand was not black but yellow with gold! A gold buyer, arrived a few weeks later with £2000, but did not have enough money to buy all the gold that was offered.
Along the beaches bordering Saltwater Creek excitement was intense as further discoveries were made. Before long stores were built, two dance houses, and seven hotels - named Boatman’s Arms, Bridge, Eureka, Boatman’s Club, Shamrock, Manuherikia and Paroa; of these only the Paroa Hotel remains today.
An observer, Samuel Voisey wrote: “The beach leads yielded a richer harvest for light labour than any other goldfield in New Zealand and possibly Australia for very little stripping of grey sand was needed to uncover the layer of black sand. In some instances the leads were widely distributed over the whole claim14 and in others confined to a lead not many inches in depth and not many in width, but containing as much gold dust as sand”.
“In 1866, I was a short distance from Nelson and McKenzie’s claim where it was reputed to average a pound weight of gold to the foot of ground. In fact, I saw them feeding their sluice carefully with eight or nine scoops of sand from their heap, then they would wash their top mat out. It was certainly very rich, as the mat looked like a sheet of gold”.
Old and abandoned diggings, soon gained fresh vitality when gold was found in the German, Brighton and Morris gullies close by. In the back terraces, right to the borders of present-day Shantytown, buried gold leads were found and tunnelling began. Before the end of 1866 excitement rose to fever pitch when the “cement leads” were discovered. These were black sand deposits in which the magnetic ironsand had oxidised into a rusty mass and become hard, like iron; but were so rich in gold that many of the claim holders made their fortune in a very short period.
Some miners had been prospecting inland, early in 1866, towards the old diggings of Diamond Gully, when they found the first of the cement leads. They were limited in size but far richer than beach leads. Some prospectors in November 1866 washed eight loads of sand for a return of four pounds’ of gold.
Miners were looking for ways to break down the rock-like sand. The first methods used were the building of large kilns in bakers’-oven fashion, with a fire underneath. Soon the line of kilns could follow the course of the cement leads. In 1868 crushing machines worked by waterwheels to break up the leads superseded the kilns. By the end of 1868 all the rich leads were practically worked out, although a few leads on the coast gave work for miners for quite a few more years. The diggers were again on the move, prospecting the creeks and gullies in the upper part of the New River.
Rutherglen:BY 1867 Rutherglen was an important mining camp with a limited population but a large number of men were working within a four-mile radius. It had to compete with the Saltwater Creek settlement, which was close to the town of Greymouth.
On 19 January 1867 the Grey River Argus published this description: “Where is Rutherglen? What sort of place is it? Is it, as its name suggests, a village of thatched cottages…? No. It is a collection of stores, hotels, and dwellings of wood, calico, and iron, put together without much of any regard for architecture. Rutherglen is a place well worth visiting. A good many stores are springing up, also butchers, bakers, a blacksmith, and last but not least a snob. The hotels, thirteen in number, keep up the amusements with dancing and billiards. By way of enterprise a part has been formed for bringing in a line of tramway from the Saltwater, which when completed will be of great benefit for passengers and the unfortunate horses as the track just now is a quagmire, having thirteen horses packing three or four times a day”.
Another article was published in the Argus, on 6 April 1867, giving this detailed picture of Rutherglen: “The appearance of the little township of Rutherglen as you emerge from the forest is really pleasing. It is situated at the head of Diamond Gully, the single street composing the town running athwart. My first impression on entering the township was one of surprise at the really fine spacious stores and hotels, and the air of active business, which pervaded the place.
“Goods are packed in all directions and it was picturesque sight to watch the packhorse trains plodding through the bush or climbing the steep sides of the terraces. The street of Rutherglen is about a couple of hundred yards in length; having a good fall, it is free from the mud and waterholes, which are generally pervading characteristics of diggings town street.
“The principal buildings are Hamilton’s, Boyle, Hanlon, Rogers, Hogan, Roshville, Satch, Blair’s Murphy, Brunetti, Scanlan, Sullivan, Butler, Killalty, Williams, James, Millican, Wagstaff and Engbert. There is a new agency and reading room belonging to Mr Barnett; also other means of amusement are supplied by two dancing rooms and a large billiard room containing two tables; and last but not least a barber, who will shave you, sell you a paper, lend you a book, write you a letter, and supply you with excellent ginger beer.
“I had not been long in Rutherglen before I found that the majority of the inhabitants and business people hailed from the land of shamrocks and pretty women, and right good-hearted fellows they were too. Let me here warn all visitors to Rutherglen, they must have good heads or else they will find the glowing hospitality of their hosts rather trying to weak constitutions. It is no use trying to escape: they will be friends with you and that friendship must be cemented by a “Dhrink me Bhoy”. I had one encounter with a grey-headed old Paddy who had long passed the seventh heaven of intoxication and whose predominant idea was shouting for all hands. I was compelled to take a drop and had come difficulty in getting away”.
Within two years of the printing of the above article, Rutherglen was in decline. New discoveries were attracting men away to the creeks and gullies of the New River, the closest being Fushia Creek that was rushed in February 1869. Marsden, three miles away, superseded Rutherglen as the supply centre of the goldfield.
The diggers were now in alluvial country of course gold, and were working with cradles and sluice-boxes. In 1869, hydraulic sluicing commenced, a Californian invention by which the miners were able with powerful jets of water to bring down whole terrace faces to wash through the gold-saving boxes.
From the Grey District Almanac of 1874 it is clear that Rutherglen was declining for it lists only two stores (Hamilton and Co and J. Hughes), two butchers, and two hotels, names unknown. Paroa (formally Saltwater) was not much better; in place of the seven hotels of 1867 only two remained, also one dairyman, one baker and one store. Marsden on the other hand had five hotels, four butchers, four shoemakers, four stores, two dairymen, two sawyers, one contractor and one gardener. Even Maori Creek, later called Dungaville, six miles distant from Rutherglen boasted seven hotels, two bakers, one nurseryman, one barber, two bootmakers, two stores and two butchers. At that time there were two thousand men working the gullies of the upper New River.
Item from the Grey River Argus of 1875: “RAFFLE. Having decided to go to England, Adam Irving, the proprietor of the Junction Hotel, Paroa, commonly known as the Saltwater, has arranged an art union, with his hostelry, stock, together with two garden crops, stabling byres, and livestock, as the prize; the whole is valued at £800…Tickets sell at £1”.
The Welshman’s Rush:IN June 1867 a group led by a Welshman named Fred Owens was prospecting up Saltwater Creek from Diamond Gully when, a few miles away, they found payable gold. They returned to Saltwater to register the customary larger prospector’s claim and when the news got out they were followed back to the site by a great horde of diggers and storekeepers.
In no time a mining camp was established, and named Welshman’s. The field turned out to be small and could not possibly maintain the many diggers who rushed it. Owens was a lucky man, for the rough-and-ready penalties for leading a duffer rush were severe as was thought of this rush.
The goldfield consisted of two parts: Upper Welshman’s on the terraces and Lower Welshman’s on the alluvial flats where in earlier times a large stream had deposited gold along its bed. The field was successfully worked for a year or so, supporting a population of around four hundred persons.
By the early 1870s the field was abandoned and was then taken over by a large number of Chinese who worked the remaining ground for many years, so thoroughly that now it would be difficult to find even a few grains of gold.
Chinese Diggers:DURING the Australian gold rushes many men left their jobs for the independent life of the diggings and a chance to make a fortune. The Australian pastoralists, to obtain more labouring persons, brought in indentured Chinese; but many of them, in turn, after a time, drifted to the goldfields.
In 1866 small parties of Chinese began crossing the Tasman to New Zealand, until they numbered a thousand or so on the Otago diggings. By 1868 they were arriving on the West Coast and one of the largest parties to arrive was a group of four hundred who came from Dunedin in 1874 in the steamer Alhambra. They settled in three communities: at Rutherglen and Marsden, at Greenstone and Kumara, and at Shellback and Caledonian creeks in the Moonlight district. The census of 1880 showed the number of Chinese in Westland was 1260. The next year restrictive legislation was passed to limit the number of “Chinamen” entering the country.
The Chinese worked what was generally considered to be poor ground, though sometimes it turned out to be extremely rich. Diggers regarded their appearance on a field as a sign that the place was nearly worked out. Chinese gold workings are easily identified by the way the tailings and boulders and stones are stacked, not in disorderly heaps as left by European miners but in neat flat-top piles that look like miniature terraces. They did not like working underground and preferred to make deep cuttings rather than tunnels.
It was said of the Chinese that one could always tell if they were on good gold for they would forsake their rice diet for poultry. Their aim was to make enough money to go back to China and live comfortably for the rest of their lives, and this many of them did. Sometimes others from the same village came out to take their places. The Chinese on the West Coast diggings were watched over, directed, and financed by the Chinese merchants, who had businesses in Greymouth and Hokitika and branches at the various goldfields.
In the Rutherglen and Marsden district hundreds of Chinese worked on the terraces quite close to today’s Shantytown. They continued for many years on the terraces bordering Yankee Creek, and also along the creeks in the lower part of the New River. There were still nearly fifty working in this neighbourhood in 1909.
