THE OVENS Diggings

THE OVENS.

To the Editors of the Sydney Morning Herald.

GENTLEMEN-As you seem to have no chronicler of events here, my epistle may not be unacceptable. No doubt you have heard, ere this reaches you, of these diggings, and the great success that has been attendant on several parties working here at the first .outset. It is certainly sufficient to set the world agog, when parties, by digging holes 8 by 16 for a month, suddenly find themselves in possession of £500 to £1000 and £1500. Were it not for the water, the wealth that could be amassed here is. almost beyond belief ; but, as it is, with no means of diverting the stream, the diggers are compelled to seek the drier places, hold very cheap at first, but now are found to yield their 4 to 20 ounces a claim. That claims are sunk without finding anything, I admit ; but if yon get where the metal is, it will amply repay for all mischance’s. In commencing these claims, a shaft is sunk about 12 to 15 feet ; then tunnel- ling ensues among the washing stuff, until the granite rock is arrived at a foot of which pays well for the working. In many of these holes the gold can be seen at the bottom, and -on the top of the rock reddish golden streaks are visible. Night and day these holes are worked by some, who, favoured by fortune, the thoughts of Morpheus seem driven away. That there is plenty of gold is not to be denied, and that they will prove the best summer diggings in the colony I feel assured. The whole country is of a granite formation, the rock appearing all about, near and upon the surface five miles from 'the present diggings ; talcose and schistose rocks are found, also slate tilted to a perpendicular position, cropping out of the side of the ranges, with a due north and south course ; and the riverlets, fed by never-failing springs, having a general course of east and west. There are about 1200 souls here; 600 licenses have already been taken out, but many are postponing getting their licenses till the middle of the month.
I am, &c, R. W. J.

PRECIOUS GEMS.-To the Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.-Gentlemen-Will you permit me, through your columns, to call the attention of the gold seekers at the Ovens to the strong probability of their finding precious gems among the gold washing at that place. A parcel of the Ovens gold purchased by me to-day contained the true ruby, sapphire, and garnet, of course very small ; if they had been larger I suppose the diggers would have discarded them ; I have not seen gold from any locality that had so many small and rare stones among it as that from the Ovens.-
I remain, gentlemen, yours,
THOMAS HALE.

GOLD AT NEWTOWN.-In our yesterday's issue appeared a paragraph stating in effect that although the first idea of the discovery of a gold field at Newtown had been abandoned, cold was being brought into Sydney for sale. With regard to the latter part of this statement we must say, as far as we have been able to learn, it applies only to Mr. Richards, of Newtown, whose children were the first discoverers of the gold in Mr. Capper's paddock, and certainly small quantities of gold said to be obtained by these children have been sold to a jeweller in the city. The whole quantity has been about l8 or 20 penny- weights. But after a week or two this paddock was deserted by the juvenile diggers, and the Newtown diggings were considered as much a hoax as those of the " Bark Huts." From the information we received, we thought it advisable to make further inquiry, and, under instructions, a gentleman upon whom we can rely went to Newtown, and inspected the locality in which the gold is said to be found-a paddock at the back of Blackstone's Inn. The paddock is very small, little more than one entire water-hole the earth is a very stiff red clay, it is on the premises of a Mr. Knight, whose family, we believe, have been the only diggers, and their gains since Friday night have been certainly upwards of au ounce if what they exhibited was a bona fide production. It is only fair to say that the producers of the gold had been Mr. Knight's children only, two little girls, but for the last two days they said the father had dug the soil out of the waterholes into tubs for them to wash at their leisure. Our informant tells us he washed several pans of earth from the waterhole, and obtained one small nugget and several small grains of gold, which, with what he purchased from the little girl, who represented it to be her morning's earnings, amounted to l8 grains. About one third of this he obtained himself. The gold is of the ver}' best quality. Indeed this is one of the presumptions against its being a natural deposit, as we have never had any gold from the New South Wales fields, either to the north, south, or west, so pure. It is also necessary to mention that the gold is water-worn, and bears no evidence of any matrix which could induce the belief that it was native in the locality, while the elevated position of that locality seems to forbid the idea that is could be the detritus of formations in which gold may be situated in the interior. Geologists would certainly pronounce it an impossibility for gold to be found in this locality ; but so eccentric have been the gyrations of the precious metal in this colony that it is difficult to determine steadfastly against facts which the eye reveals. If a hoax has been practised, and we are by no means certain it has not, it is most reprehensible.-Herald, Nov. 25.


The Maitland Mercury
December 1852
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/