Cardrona Hotel, Otago, Southland opening in 1863 during the Otago goldrushes - photo Chris Ball 2016 |
Goldfields of New Zealand
Gifted writer of
lyrics and music hall entertainer, Charles Thatcher wooed the audience on the
goldfields with his poetry and songs, many of them with satire . Such as the
song on the Coromandel gold find, sung in 1862 to a New Zealand audience.
The Rush to the Coromandel
The stagnant state
of Auckland now
Gives some
dissatisfaction
But there's nothing
like a good goldfield,
To cause a quick
reaction.
Quartz mining is the
subject which
The daily papers
handle,
The welfare now of
Auckland seems
To depend on
Coromandel.
IN THE AUCKLAND GOLDFIELDS COUNTRY VIEW
OF DRIVING CREEK, COROMANDEL.
Courtesy Sir George Grey Special Collections,
|
Look at the
specimens and say
What man can be a
doubter,
That this new
goldfield will turn out
A regular
out-and-outer?
The richest reefs of
Bendigo
They say can’t hold
a candle,
Unto the claims at
Driving Creek
Down there at
Coromandel.
The holders of these
wondrous claims
Shew us they are
good-hearted,
That the public may
participate
These companies are
started.
They’ve always got
just one share left,
Your tin they want
to handle,
In case the crushing
turns out queer
Down there on
Coromandel.
So many specimens
you’ll see
Are in the windows
sported,
That you begin to
have a doubt
If they are not
imported
From Bendigo or some
poor place
That cannot hold a
candle
To the wondrous
reefs
that they have struck
Down there on
Coromandel.
There’s Keven runs
about here.
His joy’s quite
effervescent,
And talks I’m told
of pitching out
His boots into the
Crescent.
He runs into the
bank with quartz
For Whitaker to
handle,
And says, “Look at
this little crumb
I’ve got from
Coromandel.’
Miners In
Radclyffe, Raymond. 1898. Wealth and Wild Cats:
travels and researches in the gold-fields of Western
Australia and New Zealand.
London: Downey & Co. p123
|
To her child, ‘Bye baby bunting’,
And tells it for a
rabbit skin
Its father’s gone
a-hunting;
But as the infant in
her arms
She’ll daily fondly
dandle,
She’ll say, ‘ Bye
baby, daddy’s gone
For gold to
Coromandel.’
But they'll go to
work and we'll
Get confirmation
stronger,
It won't do for 'em
now to sing,
'Just wait a little
longer.'
The boiler's come
and cakes of gold
Shareholders will
soon handle,
Or on the other hand
there ’ll be
A smash at
Coromandel.
Charles Thatcher
For in October 1852 the first New Zealand gold
discovery was made by "new wave"
European settlers at Driving
Creek, in the vicinity of Coromandel Harbour . Two brothers - Charles and
Frederick Ring were the discoverers -
who were never to gain the full £500 on
offer from the reward committee for being discoverers of a payable gold field
in the then Auckland Province. None of those big nuggets or great showing of
that gold coloured metal that instigated the rushes to California or Australia.
On the occasion of the sixtieth Jubilee of Thames ( founded when the Thames
Goldfields were opened) the New Zealand reporting on the first gold find at neighbouring Coromandel fifteen
years prior wrote:-
"A conference was held between Lieutenant
Governor Wynyard, Bishop Selwyn and Chief Justice Martin, representing the
Government, and the chiefs Taniwha and Hohepa Paraone, representing the
natives. It was eventually agreed:—(l) That the whole district should be placed
under the management of the Government for three years for the purpose of
searching for and working gold; (2) that the Government should pay to the
owners £1 a year for each square mile, but that if in any year more than 500
and not more than 1000 persons should be licensed by the Government to search
for gold, the payment should be £1 10s a square mile, with iv further 10s
for every additional 500 persons licensed. The area brought in under this
arrangement was 16 square miles, or 2000 acres. A further sum of 2s a month for
each person licensed was afterwards guaranteed by the Government to the
natives. " (New Zealand Herald ,29 July 1927 ,Page 17)
In Radclyffe, Raymond. 1898. Wealth and Wild Cats:
travels and researches in the gold-fields of Western Australia and New Zealand.
London: Downey & Co. p166
|
1859 John Rochfort discovered coal and gold in the Westport area, Westland. However it was gold discovered 23 May 1861 by Gabriel Read which ignited a gold rush to Otago. Confirmed shortly after by another find - that of Teviot Station owner Captain William Baldwin and Gabriel Read in Waitetuna Valley, 8 July 1861, that lured "diggers". From the goldfields of Victoria, Australia,China and elsewhere, to New Zealand to try to find their fortune.
Gold rushes at Wangapeka, Nelson and Tuapeka, Otago in 1861 led to the evolvement in 1862 and up to modern NZ Folk Singers a song sung to the tried and true song of " Hot Cross Buns" with many variations and verses written since the beginning:
" Gold, gold,
gold - bright fine gold
Wangapeka, Tuapeka - gold, gold, gold. '
New Zealand Folk Song writes and covers a number of the various versions on their web site.
Hand in hand with the opening of goldfields and goldrushes went banks. Henry Thomson Gorrie, initially in Bank of New Zealand Branches on the West Coast, after a number of years in 1883 finished a term as Manager of Lawrence Branch, returning to private interests in Auckland. ( Tuapeka Times 22 Sep 1883, P 2 )
Hand in hand with the opening of goldfields and goldrushes went banks. Henry Thomson Gorrie, initially in Bank of New Zealand Branches on the West Coast, after a number of years in 1883 finished a term as Manager of Lawrence Branch, returning to private interests in Auckland. ( Tuapeka Times 22 Sep 1883, P 2 )
Former Bank of New Zealand, Lawrence, Otago where H.T. Gorrie was Manager in 1883 - photo 2016 courtesy Chris Ball |
In 1864 Gold found
near Greymouth, Westland was the
beginning a four-year gold rush. The rush soon spread across the valley's of Westland.
Hand in hand with gold, gold rushes and " diggers" ( miners ) went
banks and businesses which set up to supply the " diggers" with the
necessaries of mining life - food, miners pick and shovel, cradle, pan, tent.
Charleston includes the European Hotel, and businesses of
HATCH, COLLINGS, GARDNER, SUTTON. H.T. Gorrie was agent for Bank of New Zealand
at Charleston -courtesy Early Photos by H.T. GORRIE from the BUTTLE Family
Collection in Kete West Coast
Social life of the " diggers" has been described as unique. ( Cyclopaedia NZ, 1906 p 470) Two businesses setting up to provide their needs at Hokitika in 1865 were Thomas Pole and Co ( auctioneers and commission agents ) and in 1865 Forsyth and Masters (iron mongers).
Social life of the " diggers" has been described as unique. ( Cyclopaedia NZ, 1906 p 470) Two businesses setting up to provide their needs at Hokitika in 1865 were Thomas Pole and Co ( auctioneers and commission agents ) and in 1865 Forsyth and Masters (iron mongers).
Mawhera Quay, Greymouth circa 1880s. Shows, from left to right, the
Union Bank of Australia Limited, the National Bank, Smith & Barkley,
Forsyth & Masters and the Kilgours Union Hotel. Taken b y an
unidentified photographer. Green, N H (Mr), active 1959. Mawhera Quay, Greymouth. Ref: 1/2-018201-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23018060 |
Please do not copy without having sought permission to use
Advert - West Coast Times 18 January 1868 page 4 col 3 |
Forsyth and Masters established their business firstly in Weld Street, Hokitika. Another premise
was added at Mawhera Quay, Greymouth and by 1868 was spreading across
Westland to Charleston and
eventually
further afield to Charleston and Lyell.
However fire in the nearby Melbourne Hotel, Mawhera
Quay was a set back in 1869 and again
when fire broke out in Union Bank on Mawhera Quay in 1879. In 1889 the partnership of Forsyth and Masters which by then was Robert Craig Forsyth and widowed Harriet Jane Masters
came to an agreed end. Forsyth continued on - Forsyth and McKay - and died in
1922.
Entertainer and song writer Charles Thatcher visited Hokitika - finding a busy township with numerous shops, merchants and
those selling alcohol to the thirsty " diggers". At his second concert at
Nelson, the audience was treated to songs written by Thatcher of this place, the businesses and the people.
Experiences of Hokitika
Air— "To the West."
To the West, to the West, where the diggers repair,
There's no flies about it, the
gold is all there,
And chaps who've been digging a very short while
Walk into the Bank and dispose of their pile.
Where the rain falls in torrents, and leaves such a flood,
And you sleep on the ground, and your mattress is mud;
Where a fresh in the river may come down some day,
And very near sweep Hokitika away.
Chorus—To the West,
To the West, to the West, where the ships run ashore,
Of wrecks we have witnessed two dozen or more ;
Where bush rangers congregate, as you've been told,
And simple bank clerks are deprived of their gold.
Where beef's eighteen-pence, and' where diggers devour
Rusty bacon, and bread made of vile damaged flour :
How pleasant in Nelson to get a nice rest,
'Stead of knocking it out in the Land of the West.
Chorus— -To the West,
Charles Thatcher
Kawatiri (Buller )River that finds its way to the sea near Westport , Westland - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2010 |
Ten years later it
was another god rush, back over the Tasman Sea at Palmer River, Queensland
drawing "diggers " from Westland and Otago to try their luck in
another place. The thoughts of 'moving on' bought forward several songs and poetry. The following appeared in the Lake County Press 13 March 1874 P 3
Original and Select poetry.
The Digger’s Farewell.
Farewell, Otago,
stern and bold !
I leave thee now to
seek for gold In Queensland bright and free !
If to the Palmer I
should roam,
Or at Cape York should found a home,
I’ll still remember thee.
Long have I delved in the dark mine,
Where golden
treasures once did shine
In thy more palmy
days;
But now, alas ! for
us no more,
The metal glitters
on the shore
Of all thy creeks
and bays.
The Mongol came with ruthless hand,
And tore the
treasures from the land
And left all
desolate ;
And now we toil, and
toil In vain,
A scanty living to
obtain,
Whilst in the land
we wait.
Though peacefully we
yet could dwell,
If tented down some
rocky dell,
We felt ourselves
secure;
But special taxes
the first cause,
Combined with most
unstable laws,
No longer we’ll
endure.
For glorious news
comes from afar,
The rising of a golden star,
Most brilliantly is
shown ;
To tempt us from
this mountain land,
To tread the
desert’s burning sand
Within the torrid
zone.
Farewell ye lakes,
so blue and cold!
Farewell ye alpine
mountains bold,
And heights so proudly steep!
Whose snows supply
the summer rills,
To sluice no more the golden hills,
But wash the
squatters’ sheep!
Kaka
Kawerau River - Gold Mining Area - photo 2016 courtesy Chris Ball |
Excitement at Thames
on 1 August 1867 with the opening of the Thames Goldfield. " Eureka! -
Gold is found. " Hunt, White
,Cobley and Clarkson make a successful find - the Shotover. Would be "
diggers" flocked to Thames setting up tents and organising their miner's
rights. Auckland prior to the Thames goldfields opening was in a pretty
depressed state, with a lack of money and inadequate employment. News of finding gold was timely. Shortly
after the goldfields opened, this poem was published in the New Zealand Herald 14 August 1867 P 5
TIMOTHY IDIOT'S ADVENTURES AFTER THE GOLD."
TIM WHILE AT
SOMERVILLE'S CORNER , DECIDES FOR
THE
DIGGINGS.
I've nothing in
Auckland to do, or be doing,
But saunter about on
my feet, which want shoeing;
The ground is so
wet, and the water's so cold,
J will part with my tools and my watch shall
be gold
I'll be off to the Thames, I'll be after the
gold.
TIMOTHY
DISPOSES 0F HIS POSSESSIONS.
I've sold my effects, from my watch to the
cat,
With the kittens she
kittened inside of my hat,
I'll buy a few
nails, screws, and driver to screw in,
With a shovel and washer, from Newman and
Ewen,
Tab, I've sold all
my goods, and my watch has been
And I've' bought gold utensils, because I've
been told
To be off to the
Thames to be after the gold.
STARTS IN A BOAT FOB THE THAMES.
I am taking these
nails, and these screws,
to compose Small-
cases in which all the gold I'll enclose ;
On returning with
cases of nuggets to town,
On my old chum*
called loafers I will not look down,
But rather I'll
treat them as brothers I will,'
And I'll build an asylum for loafers to fill.
I've pawned my old
watch, folks tell me I'm sold!
Some call me a
duffer, but still as I'm told,
I'll be off to the Thames, and be after the
gold.
TIMOTHY SOLILOQUISES,
AND THE BOAT RUNS AGROUND.
Already I seem to be digging the ground,
As by instinct, the spot where the golds to be
found
In fancy I've made
two or three wooden crosses,
With gold filled and
buried in different places.
I'll put on a look,
disappointed, and Bad, And say,
" At the Thames there's no gold to fee
had.
" Ah! we're nearing the place now, but yes, the boat's stuck)
That's
bidding me patiently wait for my luck.
But while waiting the tide up, my arms
I'll not fold,
I'll make the small cases, and, as I was told,
I'll be off to
the aid be after the gold.
THE
COMING MAN.
Then back I return, and go first to the
pawner,
Then I'll build the
asylum at Somerville's corner,
I'll feed all the poor, and my money bestow,
To comfort and clothe all the beggars below,
I'll not p'raps, be Gov'nor, yet surely when
there,
I'll get Auckland's
sceptre, and be the Lord Mayor,
A statue mine eye
doth already behold.
With a bust of me,
Timothy Idiot, in gold
. Around which there
throng, crowds of young, and of
"This is
he!" hear them shout," who his property sold,
Who went down to the
Thames, and came up with the gold."
{To it continued next mail.)
Whether Timothy of the poetry, was successful , has not been uncovered in research.
It has been said that gold on the Thames Goldfields helped Auckland out of the 1860's Depression and that Auckland was built on the goldfields profits. Thames Goldfields proved not to be alluvial but ' hard rock mining' instead. Instead of panning and sluicing it was buildings, stampers, batteries, noise, steam, big pumps and water races to bring the water to help crush the rock to extract the gold.
Water Race being constructed on Kauaeranga River near Thames for goldfield early 1870s Photo taken by HT Gorrie courtesy from Gwen Buttle photo album. Please do not copy - seek permission to use |
Sixty
years in 1927 later, when Thames was celebrating a 60th Jubilee, it was a new era. The stampers and batteries were silent - a part of the past New Zealand history. The following
song - " My own New Zealand Home written locally and sung at the welcoming ceremony.
In Weston, Fred ( Compiler).
July 1927. Thames Goldfields:
A History from Proclamation Times to 1927.
Thames: Thames Star.
|
It was said that Jessie Stewart ( nee Murray ) who was taught music by Mrs Payne also sung at the event along with others.
FOOTNOTE: Ruby Ring , grand daughter of Charles Ring, ' digger' and discover of gold married Alan Rutherford Gorrie, son of William Gorrie Junr. William Gorrie Jnr and his brother Henry Thomson Gorrie were both at Thames Goldfield in the early years of its opening. Henry Thomson or HT was a clerk at the Bank of New Zealand, Thames, with a hobby of photography. He was for a time agent and manager for the Bank of New Zealand at Charleston, Lyell, and Lawrence on the goldfields of Westland and Otago, before returning to Auckland and later being involved on the North Island gold fields again. Robert Craig Forsyth and William Moses Forsyth ( Forsyth and Masters ) were brothers of Christine Watson Forsyth and brothers -in-law of her husband Andrew Stewart and of their other sister Mary's husband William Pole. Jessie Stewart ( nee Murray ) was daughter of Thomas Leitch Murray and Sophie Hooper Murray nee Holmden ( who resided at Thames 1868 - 1893 - twenty five years)
In all an interlinking and intertwining of these families in the part of the past New Zealand history via occupation, community, family and friends.
For songs from the Goldfields of California:
-
For songs from the
Goldfields of Australia:-
FOOTNOTE: Ruby Ring , grand daughter of Charles Ring, ' digger' and discover of gold married Alan Rutherford Gorrie, son of William Gorrie Junr. William Gorrie Jnr and his brother Henry Thomson Gorrie were both at Thames Goldfield in the early years of its opening. Henry Thomson or HT was a clerk at the Bank of New Zealand, Thames, with a hobby of photography. He was for a time agent and manager for the Bank of New Zealand at Charleston, Lyell, and Lawrence on the goldfields of Westland and Otago, before returning to Auckland and later being involved on the North Island gold fields again. Robert Craig Forsyth and William Moses Forsyth ( Forsyth and Masters ) were brothers of Christine Watson Forsyth and brothers -in-law of her husband Andrew Stewart and of their other sister Mary's husband William Pole. Jessie Stewart ( nee Murray ) was daughter of Thomas Leitch Murray and Sophie Hooper Murray nee Holmden ( who resided at Thames 1868 - 1893 - twenty five years)
In all an interlinking and intertwining of these families in the part of the past New Zealand history via occupation, community, family and friends.
Reference Source:
- Bailey, Rona & Roth , Herbert. 1967. Shanties By the Way. Christchurch: Whitcombe & Tombs.
- Cyclopaedia NZ , 1906, Nelson Marlborough & Westland Districts, Christchurch
- De La Mare, A.J. 2000. Wakatipu's Golden Days. Queenstown.
- Miller, F.W.G. 1949. Golden Days of Lake Country. Otago Centennial Historical Publications.
- Nolan, Tony. 1977. Historic Gold Trails of the Coromandel. Wellington: AH & AW Reed Ltd.
- Radclyffe, Raymond. 1898. Wealth and Wild Cats: travels and researches in the gold-fields of Western Australia and New Zealand. London: Downey & Co.
- Stevan, Eldred- Grigg. 2011. Diggers, Hatters & Whores. Auckland: Random House New Zealand Ltd.
- Weston, Fred ( Compiler). July 1927. Thames Goldfields: A History from Proclamation Times to 1927. Thames: Thames Star.
- New Zealand Folk Song
- Trove Newspapers National Library Australia
- Papers Past National Library New Zealand