Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/94

68 this time with a double allowance of cash entrusted me by the bank. An incident is here worth relating, as showing how fortunate some of the miners were in these early days on the Five Mile Beach at Okarito. I accosted a party of four who were paddocking goodly looking wash, by asking them if they had any gold to sell. They simultaneously dropped their shovels, and after consulting together, one of the party inquired, “How much money have you, mate?” Thinking I was possessed of enough to buy any single parcel of gold on the field, I replied:—“As much as you require.” But in this I was mistaken, for on reaching their tent I was presented with a couple of “billies,” both nearly brim full of the finest gold dust, which they told me was the result of six weeks’ work. When it was weighed I found I was a hundred pounds or two short of the amount required to purchase the lot. This story I told to George Harper, the purser of the steamer “Bruce,” and you may be sure he made the most of it, in the interests of Mr Greer, the owner of the steamer. The story soon appeared in the West Coast Times, and the least the owners of the boat might have done was to have presented me with a free passage on my next trip, in place of charging the excessive passage rate then current of £5 for twelve hours’ steaming; as the paragraph was doubtless the means of creating a crowded passenger list, including one or two bankers, who went down to open agencies at Okarito. And a right roaring trade in gold-buying they subsequently did. Having cleaned the second parcel of gold better than the first, I made a proposition to Mr Harrold to have it melted, in order to obtain a higher price, to which he assented. Straight to Mr Proctor’s I went. He had started as gold-melter on the west side of Revell Street. But in this establishment I gained a new experience to anything I had before witnessed in Melbourne or Dunedin in company with the gold-melters. The gold was divided into three pots, two of which broke in the process of melting, the precious metal flowing all over the bottom of the furnace. The best was made of the misfortune, and the valuable and invaluable ingredients of the furnace—the gold and ashes—were gathered up, pounded in the mortar, and re-melted. Upon handing it to the bank, to my great astonishment and disgust, I received a purchase ticket, which showed a loss of about £25 on my purchase. To think that I had taken all this trouble and risk, of wandering to Okarito and back; that I had made a satisfactory purchase and sale; and that the gold should lose ten per cent, in melting. It was nonsense! “I have not had fair play with this gold,” I remarked to the bank manager: “You should allow me 6d. an ounce extra to make up my loss.” After a little hesitation, and explanation about exceeding instructions, he agreed to make the extra allowance. Just at that moment in came Mr Proctor’s son, who acquainted us that his father had found a piece of gold between the bricks of the furnace. We hurried over, and to my great delight, a lump of melted gold, the size of my hand, was produced and handed me, which completely turned the scale, making my trip one of profit, instead of loss. I may add that I held the canny banker to his extra “saxpences,” which he paid under protest.

Any one who had the good fortune to get a claim on the Five Mile Beach at Okarito in the end of 1865, or in January or February 1866, was safe for a “rich patch.” The