Charleston: Its Rise and Decline/Chapter 23
Chapter XXIII.
GOLDMINING—MICA MINING—LIST OF GOLDFIELDS.
AS Mrs. Beeton naively tells us, the first step in preparing a hare for cooking, is to catch it; likewise the first step in goldmining is to locate the gold by prospecting. The usual method is by panning small quantities of dirt taken from likely-looking spots and placed in a shallow iron dish, held in the hands, from which the earth is washed out by a gentle circular motion, the water being several times renewed; the stones, etc., are removed, and the gold, if any, remains in the pan.
Land Tenure: The land tenure about Charleston was similar to that of other active gold districts, under which there was not any freehold, but only rights of occupation, governed by regulations; although later it was possible for leaseholders to acquire the freehold under certain conditions. These mining regulations were first framed in California and, it is believed, were copied from the mining laws of Cornwall. When gold was discovered in California, the territory had recently become part of the United States and, as there was no legislation existing regarding goldmining land, miners framed their own regulations and these were afterwards given statutory effect. When gold was discovered in New South Wales in 1851, by Hargreaves, who had been in California, there was no mining-land law in operation, so miners copied the California regulations which were ultimately enacted by parliament.
When gold was discovered in New Zealand, in 1856, the New South Wales regulations were adopted. These were given statutory effect in 1858 and are the basis of the present Mining Act, in virtue of which there is no private property in goldbearing land.
In Nelson Province certain areas came under the Nelson Waste Lands Act of 1862, and subsequent amendments and Acts. Charleston was one of these areas. Crown Grants to sections within the township were made during the years 1874 to 1878; to rural sections from 1880 to 1889, and, perhaps, in other years.
To secure a mining right, or “claim,” the prospector, being the holder of a miners’ right, or license to mine, “pegs off” the area allowed by regulation, by placing at each corner a peg with a notice affixed thereto, or by digging a short trench at each corner, and applies to the Warden’s Court for a right to mine it. In 1865 the area allowed was 45 feet by 41 feet, but in 1866 this was increased to 60 feet by 60 feet. If granted the area, it became his for ever, subject to annual renewal of the miners’ right, and to his working the ground continuously. If he failed in either condition it could be “jumped,” i.e., pegged off by another applicant. Occupation and residential sites were acquired in like manner, and water-rights in much the same way.
By the regulations of 1863 “any holder of a miners’ right could take possession of a claim legally forfeited by its last occupant”; and a claim was forfeited if work had been discontinued for seven days excepting in special circumstances. The regulations of 1865 provided for forfeiture if a claim were unworked for 24 hours without sufficient reason; but prohibited “jumping” without the consent of the owner or of the Warden.
Water Rights: The right to water in a stream, the right to divert a stream, or the right to an area for dam construction, was frequently of more value than a mining right, as water with sufficient “fall” was essential to mining of every description and was readily saleable.
Water was sold by the “head” or “sluicing head,” under regulations gazetted in 1865, this being a flow of 40 square inches, namely, a stream 20 inches wide and 2 inches deep, or the equivalent, e.g., 10 inches wide and 4 inches deep. The Goldfields Act of 1866 reduced this by half, and a head was thereafter only 20 square inches, viz., 20 inches wide and 1 inch deep or an equivalent. This became known as a “Government Head.” The race above the gauge was required to be dead level for 30 feet, thus regulating the velocity of the flow.
The price per head in early days was up to 55/- per week for 40 inches, but in 1882 was 45/-, and in 1905 was the same price, 45/-. Much of the water used at Charleston was from The Basin; while Gregory & Horner sold water from the upper levels of Darkie’s Creek, also from small dams on Charleston Flat. Several of these were ultimately owned by Samuel McClatchie, who, in 1888, held at least eight. A dam behind Section 333 was owned by Gardner & Sutton.
There was also a large dam, called The Reservoir, built by Haines in 1871, between Darkie’s Creek and Nile River, and a dam on town sections 205-207. Water was conducted to the field by races, flumes, and pipes, for long distances and at great expense. Considerably the largest and most important was the Argyle Company’s Race, later taken over by the Government and later still by the Buller County Council. In consequence it became known as the Government Race. (See another chapter.)
Gold Deposits: The alluvial gold of the Coast varied considerably in “sizes,” ranging from nuggets and pellets to small particles, some as fine as flour. The largest nugget found was The Roddy, unearthed near Ross in 1909. It weighed 99 oz. 12 dwt. 12 gr., and was valued at £395. To-day it would be worth over £1,000 in New Zealand currency. It is said that this lump of wealth was purchased by a hotel-keeper who, for a “draw” used it as the doorstep to his bar; and later raffled it to provide funds for a hospital. It was purchased by the Government and presented to the King for use as an inkstand. It was named The Roddy as a compliment to the Hon. Roderick McKenzie, a popular Westcoaster and then Minister of Mines. A plaster cast of it was shown at the Centennial Exhibition at Wellington.
Much of the gold on the Coast was coarse and nuggety, being caught by logs or other obstructions placed athwart tailraces, behind which it could settle; by ripple-bars on tables, by 
From right—two boys (Masters Norris), two girls (Misses Walsh), man (without coat or waistcoat), Mr. Wm. Norris.
W. Norris at right of group, and his son at centre.
A parliamentary return of 1877 refers to “the ruby sand of Charleston” and states “this sand is found in granite, and the gold it contains is heavier and of better quality than that of cement.” It also refers to the “goldbearing black sand of the Back Lead.” Most of the flats around Charleston were of a brown “cement,” an oxidised iron-sand, which lay in seams or strata of varying thickness, hardness, and richness. Some was barren. Too hard to be disintegrated by hydraulic sluicing, it was crushed by batteries with varying numbers of stampers, according to the power available. All streams are natural sluices and their channels natural tail-races; some of these after working unceasingly for centuries, left large deposits of gold behind their rocks and other natural ripplebars. In many places great finds were made in dead watercourses where, thousands of years before, waterfalls had “rolled down their golden sands” while eddies caught and retained them.
A goldfield is not, as the uninitiated might assume, an area of so many square miles over which a golden rain has fallen in past ages, leaving the whole equally gilded. Some parts are barren, some rich; but even the latter are not just spots here and there without trace of order; the gold runs in lines or belts, called “leads.”
There were at Charleston several main leads, besides lesser ones:—The Back Lead, from Nile River along the plateau of Darkie’s Terrace to a point a little south of Candlelight. The Town Lead, parallel with the coastline southward from Second Bay for about two miles. It was only a few hundred yards in width. This was the richest of the leads, but was soon worked out. The Flat Lead, on Charleston Flat. The Deep Lead, adjacent to the old Buller Road on Nile Hill. Other leads ran along Sardine Creek, Butcher’s Gully, Argyle Gully, and at the back of Little Beach; the latter worked by Mouat & Harper.
What was the origin of these leads? Well, gold is not fed into the middle of a river but is brought into it by some side-stream, or is washed out of the gravels forming the riverbanks, and is thrown on to the beaches at either side. When gold settles on a line of beach or shelving bank, it forms a “lead” of pay-wash. Similar leads are formed along ocean beaches by the tide. Countless ages ago Nature worked in the the same way as to-day, and some of the leads and gravels, and the beaches formed then and since, are the goldfields of our day.
The old deposits were preserved: (a) Usually because a protective covering of later sandstones or clays or gravels was laid above them; or by the channels being filled up. (b) Because the ocean beach was sinking and its lead being constantly covered with more and more sand, thus protecting the “beach lead.” (c) Because, but more rarely, the lead was part of a tract affected by faulting, and it and its surroundings dropped some hundreds of feet and were covered with later deposits. The leads of former ages, preserved in some manner such as in (a), (b), or (c), are the deep leads of our times, the protected covers of which vary from a few feet to hundreds of feet in thickness; and above the first protecting cover may be more recent leads having no connection with the deeper ones. The West Coast leads were formed mainly as in (a) and (b).
All Charleston workings were surface-workings, none being underground mines, though there were short drives on the deeper leads, and a few hydraulic elevators. At Charleston the black-sand layers are overlain by marine material only, and the cover does not usually exceed 10 or 15 feet. At least six of these layers lie from 450 to 600 feet above sea level, and are locally called “500 foot levels.”
Much of the Charleston gold was coated with an oxide of iron, making the process of amalgamation difficult. This was termed “rusty gold,” and tables using copper plates for catchments secured only a small proportion. The loss thus sustained was proved by the Dublin City Company which sent five tons of cement to Melbourne to be treated by the “chlorine process.” The test, it is said, showed £5 of gold to the ton, whereas the company was saving with plates and cloths only 10/- per ton.
As stated in another chapter, Timothy Linahan and party were the first to find gold in The Basin, in 1866. The party was: T. Linahan, W. Casey, D. Shine, C. O’Driscoll, S. Sheehan, and Daniel Dennehy. Dennehy and O’Driscoll left the party before it struck rich gold, and walked to Greymouth, taking with them the first parcel of gold that left Charleston for sale. Dennehy had previously been a passenger to Brighton on the first trip of the P.S. Woodpecker to what is now known as Woodpecker Bay, but instead of remaining there pushed overland to Charleston and joined Linahan. He returned from Greymouth to Addison’s Flat rush in 1867, where he opened a store. His son, Frank, now of Barrytown, is believed to have been the first boy born in that town. He returned to Charleston about 1870, and became landlord of the Pioneer and Royal Hotels.
The establishment of goldfields upon the South-West Coast was not favoured by the Provincial Council of Canterbury, in which province Westland was until 1873. In 1863, Reuben Waite suggested to the Superintendent that a reward be offered for the discovery of a payable goldfield in the Grey district. Four months after, he tells, he received a reply deprecating the suggestion and stating that “the discovery of a goldfield in that part of the country would be of no benefit to Canterbury.”
Early in 1874 the press of that province expressed the opinions that the West Coast was “the best place for locating a central convict settlement”; and that if, after all, a goldfield were to be “forced upon Canterbury without the consent, and contrary to the expressed desire of the settlers,” they must submit to Fate.
MICA MINING.
Mica was plentiful about Charleston, and had been reported by Mr. Loveridge in 1878. In later years when the supply of gold had dwindled, a mica mine was opened close to the sea edge, a little south of Constant Bay. Occasionally, as in other parts of the district, garnets were found in the deposits. Several of the streams around Charleston contained what was known as “ruby sand.” This mine is still working.
LIST OF GOLDFIELDS.
The dates of the main South-West Goldfields were: Westland Province, in Teremakau River, by —. Day, 1st January, 1863. Nelson Province, at Collingwood, October, 1856. Motueka—1856. “The Old Diggings,” later known as “Berlin’s,” by F. Millington, an employee of John Rochfort, 8th August, 1859. Waimangaroa—1862. Havelock—1862. Lyell—November, 1863. Wakamarina—April, 1864. Hokitika—end of 1864 or early in 1865. Greymouth—1865. Okarito—November, 1865. Westport (Buller)—1866. Charleston—August, 1866. Fox River (Brighton), 1866. Welshman’s Terrace (Brighton)—November, 1866. Inangahua River, originally called Thackeray River, about 1866. Addison’s Flat—May, 1867. Caledonian Creek—June, 1867. Mokihinui—September, 1867. Howard—1874. Kumara—1875-1876. Croninville, 1878. Barrytown—1878.