although it was midwinter, Dunedin with its comfortable housing and certain supplies was deserted for the upland houseless region of Tuapeka with its lack of any provision for domestic comfort, save a little manuka scrub for a fire and a chance wild pig or stray sheep, to catch which entailed no little difficulty.
On the 24th June, 1861, the Tuapeka goldfields were proclaimed by the Provincial Government. The news was spread abroad over New Zealand, Australia, and onward to Britain. If Dunedin was deserted by its "old identity" male inhabitants, it was not long before their places were filled up a hundredfold. So rapidly did the news spread, and so attractive and reliable was it considered, that within three months from the date of the proclamation diggers were landing in Dunedin from the neighbouring colonies, sometimes at the rate of over one thousand a day. These came principally from the Victorian goldfields.
The conditions of the town were quite out of joint with the altered times. Dwellings, stores, offices, wharves, magistrates, police, light, water, fuel, provender, carriage, all were in short supply, with a daily increasing demand, and from whence was the demand to be supplied?
Habitations for the crowds did not exist. Sleeping room on a hotel floor without a mattress, at half-a-crown a night, was counted a luxury. The floors of the churches were proposed to be utilized, but the great relief was under calico. The tents with which the diggers came provided were soon set up on vacant sections, street lines, reserves, at the rear of premises, anywhere and everywhere were they pitched, and a new and varied population was in possession waiting for opportunities for themselves and their belongings to be conveyed to their destinations, or until their other plans were matured. To the credit of the crowds be it stated that their conduct throughout was worthy of the honesty and intelligence a genuine gold digger is known to possess. With a nominal police protection the life and property of the deserted females were as safe as in more settled times.
The more noteworthy events which occurred in the early digging days having special reference to Dunedin, may be briefly enumerated before alluding to civic affairs.
