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Chapter VIII

Reuben Waite—The Existence of Gold Reported—The First Prospectors—£1,000 Reward for the Discovery of a Payable Goldfield—Henry Whitcombe—Death of Whitcombe.

Henry Whitcombe Apart from its importance as marking Mackay’s purchase from the natives, 1860 is also notable for the fact that this year Reuben Waite, pioneer storekeeper of the West Coast, established himself at Westport. How and why he came to do so is admirably described by Mr. Justice O’Regan, an outstanding authority on West Coast history, in an article contributed to “Te Wai Pounamu,” an earlier publication of the writer’s, wherein he states, inter alia:

“The earliest discovery of alluvial gold in New Zealand was made at Collingwood in the year 1856, and we first hear of Mr. Reuben Waite at Collingwood, where he kept a store. He was an Englishman by birth, and I have heard him say that he served his time to the trade of stonemason. He arrived first in