GROWTH AND PROGRESS
and its near workings, not including the “floating population” nor the many scattered about the more remote and inaccessible parts of the wide goldfield. Mr. A. D. Dobson estimated that at Charleston in the late ’sixties, “within a radius of three miles, about 12,000 men were gold digging.”
The quantity of gold collected in the early years upon the West Coast was enormous, but the harvest lasted for a short time only. Mr. C. E. Haughton, in a report to the Colonial Secretary, on 16th July, 1872, said: “It is impossible to state with any accuracy the total quantity of gold produced in one year”; and added “it may fairly be conjectured that a considerable quantity is smuggled out of the Colony in order to evade high duty; whilst among alluvial miners especially, a practice of hoarding their gold is very prevalent; with the idea, no doubt, in many cases, of shipping it quietly away without troubling H.M. Customs.”
The amount won was considerably greater than returns show. In early times much bartering was done with masters of ships—the ships also purchased gold and, in all, took away more gold than cash or drafts—much gold was used also in the production of jewellery and ornaments.
The greater number of sections within the township were, at first, held under the “Business License” system. A regulation of 31st July, 1865, under the Goldfields Act of 1862, provided that: “Every person engaged in trade or business shall obtain from the Warden a Business License.”
The annual fee was £10 (Nelson Gazette, 1863) but, it is believed, was later reduced to £5. This gave the licensee the right to occupy an area of half a square chain, with a frontage of 33 feet and a depth of 66 feet. Holders were required to peg their sites at each corner, with pegs two inches square and 1 foot high. They could build on only 27 feet of the frontage, leaving a space of at least 6 feet between buildings. This regulation applied to Charleston from 1866 onwards; but the issue from 1874 to 1878, of Crown Grant titles to a large proportion of town sections, relieved the grantees of the necessity of holding Business Licenses and, it is believed, of leaving spaces between buildings.
A practice that Charleston had in common with other gold-
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