population, and occasionally heavy parcels of gold were being sold from that locality. The original prospectors there were reported as having lodged 56 lbs. weight of the precious metal in the hands of Mr Proctor to be melted. But of all the rushes which took place that year, perhaps none deserves more honourable mention than the “Auckland” rush, which was essentially a beach working, the gold being found a little above high water. Prospects ranging from 1 dwt. to 7 ozs. to the dish have been washed here, and claims were opened which yielded £100 per week per man to the lucky holders. As a matter of course, there was some poor ground, but taken collectively, the claims on this lead stood unrivalled for the richness of the deposits contained in them, and the facility with which they were worked. This rush was distant about nine miles from Hokitika northwards along the sea shore. At this rush a “wages” claim usually bore the interpretation of £8 to £10 per man per week. From one of the rich claims as high as 64 ozs. was obtained in one day, and for several weeks Bill Hyde and his mates obtained 80 to 100 ozs. per week from their claim. The names of numbers of claimholders at the Kanieri, the Auckland rush, and at the Waimea, could be given, who cleared from £500 to £600 per man in a few weeks, and the final division, in one or two instances, after some six months’ work, amounted to as much as £1500 per man. Probably some of my readers may set down many of these assertions as drawing on the imagination, but let me assure them that they are bona fide statements, of which convincing proof can be obtained by the incredulous at any moment.
Westport, Charleston, and Brighton were the next scenes of attraction. Miners flocked to each of these places towards the end of 1866 and beginning of 1867. This part of the coast was prospected by Reuben Waite and party, five or six years previous to the rush. Though diverging somewhat from the subject of this chapter, I cannot omit reference to this well-known pioneer, who may be said to be the discoverer of the Buller gold field.
Reuben Waite was on the Collingwood goldfields about the month of May 1860, distance about 70 miles from Nelson, when a party of Maoris came overland from the Buller, travelling up by the sea coast. They had in their possession a considerable parcel of gold, which they said they had obtained from some ground 20 miles up the Buller River. Reuben at once determined to make for this new country, and he and a man named Rogers chartered the ketch “Jane” at Nelson, for the sum of £50. Reuben and his mate were laughed at by the slow-going Nelsonites of those days, and were described as madmen from Victoria. They got one adventurous soul on board at Nelson, and managed to add fourteen to the number when they called at Collingwood. They also took with them ten cats, a curious notion, but not to be wondered at by any one knowing Waite and his peculiarities. They arrived at the Buller in two days, crossing the bar in safety, and selling all their goods for gold to the Maoris. The Maoris subsequently named the river north of the Buller, the Orawaiti, meaning “Come on Waite.” Very little prospecting was done by them on the occasion of this first expedition, and having sold their provisions to advantage, they returned to Nelson, after a rough trip of sixteen days,
