The first definite result of these activities was that Charles Ring, in 1852, located auriferous quartz at Kapanga Creek, Coromandel, and applied for the reward of £500 which had been offered by a group of Auckland men for the discovery of payable gold. About a hundred men rushed the field, Colonel Wynyard, who was then Lieutenant-Governor, having made arrangements with the Maoris to permit the search for gold on their lands. Operations, however, did not meet with immediate success, and many miners left to follow rushes which occurred at Collingwood, in 1857, where William Lightband had discovered rich alluvial deposits, the first in New Zealand, and at Tuapeka (Lawrence), Otago, where in 1861 Gabriel Read made known to Major Richardson, then Superintendent of that Province, that, “for ten hours’ work with a butcher’s knife and a pan, he was enabled to collect 7 ozs. of gold.” As soon as the news of this fabulous find became generally known a mighty rush set in, thousands upon thousands of gold miners swarming all over Otago, and winning from 1861 to 1863 gold to the value of almost £5,000,000.
This great discovery, together with the fact that as early as 1857 gold to the value of £40,000 had been won in Auckland and Nelson, forced the Provincial Government to
