VETERAN MINER
MR MOSES BROWN'S LIFE
EARLY DAYS AT KYEBURN DIGGINGS
FROM FARM BOY TO SUCCESSFUL MINER
Reminiscences of the early mining days at Kyeburn Diggings are retained by Mr Moses Brown. 84 year-old pioneer of Naseby, who must be one of the oldest residents of Otago still actively associated with gold mining ventures. Mr Brown went to Kyeburn Diggings in 1880, when there were hundreds of miners in the district, and he still has a claim which is being worked successfully. Mr Brown was born at Sawden, Yorkshire, in 1855, and was brought up to an agricultural life, which offered few hopes of the adventure, excitement, and success that he was later to enjoy on the mining fields of Otago. Mr Brown did not remain for long a farmer's boy and instead became a puddler at an ironworks. The puddler's job then was the hottest in existence in this world, Mr Brown says, and he can remember his cheek and arm being almost raw from the burning heat. He still has the scars to recall that job, and he often wonders how the others on the same work stood up to it, for he remembers how their arms and cheeks looked like raw beef. They seemed to feel the heat far worse than he did.
The Lure of Gold
The depression of 1880 caused the ironworks to close down, and so Mr Brown decided to seek his fortune in New Zealand, from which country stories of gold rushes were emanating. He set sail in the Coromandel early in 1880, and arrived at Port Chalmers on April 1, 1880. He travelled straight to the Kyeburn Diggings, and immediately set to work with the hundreds of other miners who were trying to wrest a fortune from the land and river bed.
Success soon came to him, and in 1884 he was able to buy out the claim of John Francis Christian for £1500. Christian had a fairly rich claim, but found difficulty in working it. On one occasion he had a quarter-acre claim just below what was known as a white drift, and in one small spot recovered 33lb of gold. When this was cleaned out they looked for more near the drift, but could not find any. The pocket seemed to have fallen out of the clouds. When Mr Brown took over the claim he introduced pipes to get the required pressure for sluicing, and he believes that he was the first man to use this method at the diggings. At that time he was employing men on 12 hour shifts at 1s an hour. Later on he and a brother and four others were engaged in dredging the Big Kyeburn, but the Great War put up the costs of labour and machinery so high that they had to cease operations. Mr Brown kept on working at the Diggings, and met with considerable success at different periods of his life. It was no uncommon thing for him to bank 50 or 60 ounces of gold at the Ranfurly Bank for a few week's work, and he is very proud of his first bank book, which he commenced in 1884. He is still supervising the working of a good claim at Kyeburn Diggings, in which his son and nephew are engaged.
Activities of the Chinese
There were about 200 Chinese working at the Diggings when Mr Brown first arrived there. They seemed to live in tribes in peculiar houses made of tussock and scrub. They worked in gangs of about five, and were very successful in their search for gold. They turned over the main line of the Kyeburn for miles, and had a way of working that was entirely their own. The river had a fall of about 40 feet to the mile, and the Chinese would shovel in at water level until they reached the river bottom. Then they would start a race to carry the water of the river into their box. Two of the gang would shovel the material into the box, one would stand on the bank and pick out the big stones, and the other two would shovel away the surplus material. They got a large quantity of gold in this way, and no one ever bothered them.
In 1881 a Mrs Young was murdered, and a Chinese was hanged for the crime. From that time on, Mr Brown said, the Chinese began to drift away from the Diggings, and soon there were very few left. Mr Brown recalled the murder of the Chinese, Chum, at Mount Buster some years ago, and related an interesting story connected with the crime. Chum was very popular with everyone in the district, Mr Brown said, and it was a big shock when it was known that he had been murdered. Just before the crime, Mr Brown had a dream that something happened to Chum and he saw him lying dead on the ground. He saw in his dream £800 worth of gold hidden in a wall of the hut under a window-sill. Then came the discovery of the crime, and Mr Brown was appointed as mining expert at the trial and washed up the claim. About a year after a diviner was going over the area, and his rod told him that there was a small quantity of gold in the wall of Chum's hut. They investigated, and discovered a hiding place under a window-sill just as Mr Brown had dreamt. The gold had been removed, however, and only a very small quantity of gold dust remained. What happened to Chum's horde will never be discovered, but it was known that he had a fair amount of gold hidden away.
"The Golden Age"
Mr Brown has vivid memories of old Naseby, when thousands of miners used to come into the town to spend their earnings and to enjoy the varied entertainment offered in the mining town. He remembers the start of the little cemetery at Kyeburn Diggings, when a man named Scarlett, who was killed in a fall of earth was buried under a crude tombstone. He remembers the school at the diggings that once accommodated 60 children but is now almost a ruin. "They were unforgettable days" Mr Brown concluded as he bade the Otago Daily Times reporter farewell, "but they were cruel, brutal times. I like to see the increased use of the machine, for it is freeing the horse and other working animals. Man was never intended to make animals work for him, nor to slaughter them for food. I look forward to the day when he will be able to exist on vegetable matter and stop slaughtering the defenceless animals. That will be the golden age, and I hope I may live to see it." -Otago Daily Times, 26/4/1939.
PERSONAL
Mr Moses Brown, aged 85 years, a well known and respected resident of Naseby, died last week. He was engaged in gold mining for many years, and met with considerable success. -Dunstan Times, 2/9/1940.
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