Page:Discovery of the West Coast Gold-Fields Waite 1869.pdf/19

 expedition. In the month of January, 1865, I supplied a party with provisions to prospect up the Grey River. The party consisted of white men and Maoris. Amongst them was one well known on the Collingwood gold-fields, named George Cundy. After an absence of about two months, they came down with a very fair prospect of heavy gold, consisting of several good-sized pieces of gold got from a creek which they named Maori Creek, and one nugget weighing 22 ozs. 12 dwts. Now several parties had been up the Grey previously, but had not succeeded in getting anything like a payable prospect. These men who brought down this heavy gold I had confidence in; they were men whom I had known for years, and I felt satisfied that if there was any gold to be found, they would not leave a stone unturned but they would find it. The Grey district was then very quiet, there being only my store at the landing, and Blake's store near the lagoon. But the news of the nugget soon got spread, and the people began to come in fast from the other diggings. There was no conveyance up the Grey, except by the Maori canoes and Batty's coal boats. Gradually, however, we got quite a small fleet of boats, which were kept flying to and fro between the Nelson and Canterbury sides of the river; and a good deal of money they made, charging 1s. 6d. each passenger, and sometimes taking a dozen in about a quarter of an hour.

The Maoris who had hitherto been averse to persons building on their land, began to see the value of letting it. When I first went to the Grey, they let me an acre of ground on condition that I would let no one else build on it, as they would not allow another store to be put up there, although repeated offers were made to them. But when the great rush came, they asked me if they should let it. I told them to do so by all means, as it would bring them in money; then of course I had the chance of letting mine. One day there was a perfect rush for Maori ground, and any amount of speculation in it. Some people made a very good thing with it.

From this time we may say that the Grey district, formerly pronounced useless, has proved to be a first-class gold-field. This is an example of a good diggings being left for a long time unworked, through the inexperience of men who pretend to go prospecting. Several parties, as I before observed, had been up this river for what they chose to call prospecting, and this is a proof of how much faith is to be placed in the opinions and experience of those sort of people, many of whom call themselves practical diggers. There are others, again, who, as soon as they hear of gold being found, are off to the spot directly, and if the gold-field should not turn out any good, are the first to create a disturbance for the sole purpose of robbery. The towns on the West Coast are crowded with these ruffians, though luckily they are getting to be pretty well known now in spite of their shipping about from place to place. They generally assume various garbs,