New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

auinbox - Dab

I shall answer both of you in the one offering. It is criminal the amount of land that the big companies can tie up - I think that they should be able to take a blanket prospecting licence but not a mining one. while the blanket prospecting licence is current that should NOT stop a weekend fossicker from taking out a small claim within the scope of the prospecting licence. The holders of the blanket prospecting licence should declare on their application the type of mining that they envisage - this would invariably be hard rock or dry mining taking up areas on the land itself and not in the rivers and any small claim that wishes to say have say a stretch of river could not be impeded from doing so by the large company with its prospecting licence.
If a large company wishes to take out a prospecting licence on a river with view to a huge dredging operation then they prospecting claim would be for the river and then I guess it is fair enough that they have the first right to claim and thus anyone else could not do so until the prospecting licence and options have expired.

Sadly New Zealand does not belong to good honest Kiwis anymore and the offshore bankers and thier big business mates hold sway, dictating moves to the government so that ordinary New Zealanders have no freedom whatsoever - thats the way I see it. Personally I think that the people of New Zealand should hold the Government to ransom and demand the return of 'Miners Right' sold at the Postshop or via the mines Department, a nominal fee and good for say five years at a dollar a year - when you buy one then it allows you to fossick on any State land or Public Estate with hand held and non mechanised methods.

auinbox - The Evans repeating rifle had a unique action - it is scarce - 15,000 only made between 1873 and I think 1879 - The Otago Early Settlers Association owns one in near new condition. They had a spiral magazine and held more cartridges than any other repeating rifle of the day - 34 cartridges fitted into the magazine - You had better track it down for me - I want it! It had a lever action design which worked along on the same principle as the famous Civil War Spencer repeating rifle but the Evans was much more delicate and prone to jamming if it got dirty. Was your great grandfather an American - it seems logical that if so he would have brought it out when he came. I think they were made in the State of Maine? I have read up on them and have always been interested in them as their magazine design was unique.

Dab - the land is something anyone can work toward getting - when I brought it I had entirely nothing worth mentioning and yet somehow after I told the farmer I would buy it everything fell into place - it is New Zealands largest have for lost gorse bushes and runaway Broom bushes! Actually it is more than a bit of a worry and I am currently struggling to keep it and swear black and blue that I am selling it...I guess I will one day. It seems a good thing to own your own patch of paradise but everything is not as it seems.

And thanks for the kind words both of you - a bit of encouragement goes a long long way.

Edited by user Thursday, 20 September 2012 11:51:49 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Awesome stuff again Sir, please dont stop. Look forward to meeting you one day. Ive had two trips down that way lately but sadly not even enough time to unpack the pan and sluice let alone catch up with some forum members. Summers coming fast though. :)

If any of you are like me then you will have once been an avid fan of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comics and therefore thoroughly familiar with my favourite character Uncle Scrooge! As those aficionados of Uncle Scrooge will know he was always desperately in love with 'Old lucky number one' - his lucky dime, the very first dime he ever got...and kept.

How many of us are like that and have kept the very first of an item that we have found or earned or bought even after you have attained far better.

The nuggets below are all 'sentimental nuggets' and each has a story to tell. The top left one was found at a favourite spot on my Uncles claim - a spot he called 'The Mint Patch' because of the mint growing in profusion along the river bank - I can still smell it! My uncle Charles thomas, came out of the river and gave me this nugget - he is long gone - he collapsed in my company about a kilometer up the river in 1978 and died in hospital four nights later - this is my 'number one dime'

The nugget second from top right is the very first nugget I found for myself nearly half a century ago - just after I picked this nugget up I found the nugget to the left of it and another six penny weight of gold so in total got around 12 grammes of gold out of the one crevice - up to that date it was the best days find I ever had.

The average size of the nuggets in this photograph is around three grammes each.

Edited by user Tuesday, 25 September 2012 6:50:25 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

NUGGY - you keep anything you have either until you see me and we will negotiate OR bloody well start collecting again. It is a heartbreak when the world turns to custard - happened to me a few times - looked forward to kids and too many miscarriages until finally it happened, fell heaps big time in love and when she had all she said goodbye, gold mining partners dying - Uncle and nephew, my shed broken into the every tool in it plus some sentimental things I had stolen and some broken.

Sometimes lifes a shit sandwich and its always lunchtime - start again and be assured that the second collection will be better than the first. I knew a guy who had terminal cancer - he was still at auctions three weeks before the Grim Reaper came calling.

Guns - did you say guns - if you ever see a Stevens Favourite with the extractor coming up the left side of the action instead of up the middle of the action and with a five digit serial number the let me know as they predate the three digit numbered guns - those crazy yanks.

I was just sorting old ammo now and rushed upstairs to show my son a couple of packets of sealed .22WRA ammo I have - the same ammo is selling at over $120 US in the US of A. I am interested in all that stuff - in fact it is the two packets of ammo labeled .22 Automatic on page ten (10) of this thread.

Edited by user Tuesday, 25 September 2012 9:25:30 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks guys,
Yeah auinbox, the photos are the worst loss for sure. Dredge motor and pump were stored under the house too, only done one seasons work. Only the second brand new pump motor I ever had.

Cheers Lammerlaw, I'm pretty much over it these days aye, it was a long time ago. I have had a small share of really good luck too.
Eventually I got a sense of freedom from not having heaps of possessions too. Those days are gone too now lol ,as to move house would now be impossible without a hiab truck. I have totally lost the urge to collect somehow though, and would rather help others find stuff for their collections. I still pick up the odd thing at garage sales etc, but just if I think someone would like it.
I hope to get down your way this summer to see my old mum in Oamaru, so will try to hook up for a chat, a detect, and to murder a few bunnies, perhaps a brown lemonade or 2.
Will bring some old goodies with me. Later NUGGY

Postscript - - -The gelly and primers under the house, some exploding fuse, the well over a thousand rounds of centre fire and shotgun ammo, a brick of .22 and four tins of IMR 4895. The 50 cal rounds, and a couple of tank rounds etc all went up, and I wasn't even there to see it, that may well be the saddest part.
Must have been quite a show when it all went up, I know a lot of it would have just burnt, but I bet there were quite a few good bangs, 2 lpg cylinders and a fire extinguisher also blew. The massive amount of shredded brass in the ashes will amaze some future metal detectorist one day.

Edited by user Tuesday, 25 September 2012 11:26:54 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Good to hear from you Graham, was starting to get worried. Its a bit out of character for you to be as quiet as you have been! Must have been hard at work with the GIB.

I am still alive Matt and sort of finished the Gib board - only this last week in fact...Some good advice is never to do today what you can do tomorrow and when tomorrow comes dont worry about starting it and going by that philosophy things tend not to get done around here but the Gib work has actually got done - taken 22 months to do four rooms.
Work is the curse of the drinking class.

NUGGY - you and I would get along just famously - I still have 25 pounds or so of blasting powder and a fair bit of other stuff - I puilled an HE/Incendiary projectile apart the other day to a)see how it worked and to b) render it safe.

My favourite toy is one of those explosive detonator boxes dated Nobels Patent 1895 - It is hte same as Wylie Coyote uses to try his best to blow up Roadrunner! The reason he doesnt just go and buy KFC is because he is like us and loves anything that goes bang - and I am as deaf as a post because I blew myself up years ago and also twice blinded myself temporarily and now wear glasses due to pyrotechnic misadventures - I used to make touch powder and one of my favourite books even to this day is a copy of 'Chemists Receipts' dated in the 1880s with the recipes for every type of explosive up to that date as well as a spectacular number of fireworks.

Nuggy, that purple paint you mentioned may have involved potassium iodide-we used to paint it on toilet seats at school.

haha always love your posts graham..great reading and some good old learning in there to....reading your stuff reminds me of sitting in Jeff fathers kitchen drinking coffee.
Books everywhere along side the rocks and the good old stories coming out.....a wealth of knowledge..