Yesterday afternoon two men went to the Treasury in Dunedin and deposited a bag of gold weighing eighty-seven pounds.
They declined to say where they had obtained this rich parcel, but stated that there was room for plenty more men where they had been working.
The names of the two men are Hartley and Simmons.
Although the owners refused to state where they had obtained their gold, we believe that it is from the neighborhood of Mount Watkins, near Waikouaiti.
It will be remembered that there have been reports of a party of men with a packhorse coming into Waikouaiti occasionally at night, and always leaving before morning.
It is believed that these two men belong that party, that they are old Californian miners, and that they first went to Waikouaiti about ten weeks ago.
Many people have suspected that they were doing well, but nobody has yet succeeded in tracing them out.
It is to be hoped they will not leave town without indicating the spot. They will then have fair claim to a reward; otherwise they are sure to be tracked out.
August 19: After some negociations an arrangement was come to yesterday between the Provincial Government and the discoverers of the new gold field, and the prospectors made the following statement: -We started on a prospecting trip about the 1st of February last, crossing the Molyneux at Oliver's, and striking it again about twenty miles above Pinkerton's.
We here obtained sufficient prospects from the banks of the river to justify us in believing that we should find rich diggings higher up the streams, or as soon as we came to a favourable place.
About twelve or fifteen miles below the junction of the Manuherikia we first obtained payable prospects.
The rich part of the river where we obtained the gold is between the Manuherikia and Upper Clutha Valleys. The best way to get there is to take the Shag Valley Road from Waikouaiti to the Manuherikia Valley, but persons on foot or horseback can go by the West Taieri, Campbell Thompson's and Valpy's.
This is the way we came down, and is much the shortest.
The conditions agreed to between the Provincial Government and Messrs. Hartley and Reilly, the discoverers, are, that they are to receive a reward of 2,000, on receipt in three months of 16000 oz. of gold, the produce of the locality.
The men are to give every possible information as to the gold-producing spots, and explain the mode of working - one or both men to go with a Government party, and point out the locality.
The men state that they were tracked and discovered by a Victorian miner to the very spot where they were getting their richest yields on one of the river bars, but so ignorant was he of the system of working that they succeeded by doleful statements of disappointment, and by saying they were only just "making Tucker" to disarm the suspicions of the man, and he left them without suspecting the richness of the place.
The men state that the ordinary system of mining by Victorian miners is no good.
There is plenty of bush and available timber.
Messrs. Hartley and Reilly found gold wherever they tried - in fact one of them says "an old woman could scratch more gold out with her fingers than all the miners on the Province could get elsewhere!"
August 20: The utmost excitement prevailed in Dunedin yesterday on the subject of the new gold field.
Knots of men were gathered at the corners of the streets discussing the subject, and the various stores and outfitting shops in the town were crowded with purchasers, procuring outfits of the new rush.
It is very probable that a rush, unprecedented in the mining annals of this colony will take place to the new diggings, and when the news reaches Melbourne, a large influx of population may be anticipated. The results of the new discovery have already been made manifest in the rise in value of many articles.
Horses and pack saddles have risen in price about 50 per cent, in fact the latter are fetching three or four times the price asked a few days ago.
The spirits of the mercantile community have been proportionately raised, as the anticipated rush of population holds out hopes of a thriving and profitable trade in the ensuing season.
August 21: We question if the excitement which prevails in Dunedin was equalled even by that which was occasioned by Gabriel Read's discoveries.
The whole population, since the public announcement of Hartley and Reilly's discoveries, have been in a perfect ferment.
Yesterday, the streets of Dunedin presented a scene of continuous activity, and it was evident from the conversations heard on every side, and the unwonted bustle prevailing, that the Hartley diggings were the subject of the deepest interest to everybody.
Already a large number of people have set out for the new Dorado; the Samson and Lady Barkly steamers took above one hundred miners yesterday, and numbers have gone via West Taieri.
As might have been expected, numbers of men have left their ordinary occupations, smitten with the general gold fever, and wages, as a natural consequence, are on the rise.
The Lombard, bound for Auckland, not only was deserted by many of her passengers at Port Chalmers, but the crew also left the vessel.
It is not difficult to foresee what will be the effect produced in Victoria and other parts of the Australian colonies when the news reaches there.
• Christopher Reilly was incorrectly named as Simmons in the original article.