of undesirables, did not make public the story of the discovery, and strange to say, it was not until seven years later that the news leaked out, and when it did, thousands of fortune hunters poured over this pass to Westland, the new El Dorado.
By way of an interlude, and in an endeavour to tell this story in its chronological sequence it must be noted that in the year 1858 there came the first persistent whispers that gold was existent on the West Coast. So much was this so that on April 17th of that year the Nelson Examiner, then one of the foremost and best informed papers in the colony, announced the discovery of gold at the Buller, in the south-west portion of the Nelson Province, stating that: “A West Coast Chief, Tarapuhi, and his brother, Tainui, returned to Canterbury with G. W. H. Lee, who had taken up the first run on the West Coast, in the Grey district. They brought specimens of small scaly gold with them, stating that it had been brought down in great quantities from a hill called Whakapoi, on the north bank of the Buller River, and that it could be found in abundance.” In the latter part of the year 1858 James Mackay and Major John Lockett did a considerable amount of exploration between the head waters of the Takaka, Karamea (Mackay), and Wangaro Rivers, and discovered Mount Lockett, Mount Peel and the Diamond Lakes.
