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D.H.Macarthur arrived in Nelson, N.Z. in 1856. There is a Mr Macarthur on the “China” which sailed from Gravesend, 4 Sep 1855 and arrived in Nelson 4 Jan 1856. George Denton in his journal describes the voyage of the China 1856
From his obituary in the Feilding Star, Macarthur’s early days are described;
“During the first two years he worked a farm near Collingwood…. he worked as a miner at Collingwood, Deep Creek (Marlborough), at the Dunstan (Otago), and on the Six Mile (Waimea) in Westland and also on Maori Gully (up the Arnold) on the Nelson South West goldfields where he was moderately successful.”
Panning for gold. ca 1863, London; Working Men's
Educational Union. Ref D-010-010
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand,
Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
Collingwood (originally called Aorere or Gibbstown) was New Zealand’s first gold rush. It began in April 1857 and peaked in 1858 with 4000 diggers. It was a rough canvas town with no official goldfields legislation, and the roads to the diggings were often channels of mud. The end of the rush came in the winter of 1859, with severe flooding and a fire in which every store and hotel in the town was destroyed.
Otago is the South Island’s most well known gold rush, beginning with Gabriel’s Gully in 1861 and the Dunstan in August 1862 and later Arrowtown and the Shotover River. Otago gold transformed Dunedin from a village into the first city of N.Z. with miners arriving from Australia and California.
Gold-mining village in Central Otago, probably Hartley & Riley's Dunstan diggings on the Clutha. ?1862
Painting has been attributed to William Mathew Hodgkins.Ref A-253-035
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand,
Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
The gold rush at Deep Creek, Marlborough, began April 1864 and six months. In 3 days in May 1864, 2000 miners arrived bringing the population to 4,500. By the 1870’s Deep Creek was mostly abandoned although some mining for quartz continued into the 20th century. The main settlement was Canvastown near Havelock.
The Six Mile goldfield was opened in Jan 1865 and was the first of the big rushes on the West Coast. From there Macarthur went to Maori Gully, inland from Greymouth in the Arnold Valley. The rush here lasted from Aug 1865 until 1867 and he was present on the West Coast / Grey River goldfields at the time of an infamous murder.
This was probably the murder of George Dobson, a surveying engineer, on 28 May 1866, who was mistaken for a gold buyer as he traversed the Arnold Valley inland from Greymouth. The gang responsible consisted of Richard Burgess, Thomas Kelly, Philip Levy and Joseph Sullivan, they had also committed crimes on the goldfields of Australia and Otago. From the West Coast they stopped at Canvastown enroute to Picton. Levy went to Deep Creek where he learnt that four men ( Felix Mathieu, John Kempthorne, James Dudley, and James de Pontius) were planning a trip to the West Coast carrying a considerable quantity of gold and money to finance a new business. They would be traveling via the Maungatapu track to Nelson, but unknown to Levy, they had arranged for another store-keeper to follow and bring the horse back.
This led to the early discovery that the four were missing after they were ambushed, robbed and murdered on 12 June 1866. The gang also murdered James Battle who witnessed them travelling on the track to Nelson. A search party was raised 18 June and found evidence of foul play. The gang were already suspects, having been recognized in Nelson and were arrested 19 June. Another search for the bodies began on 25 June in heavy rain and a £400 reward was offered for the recovery of the bodies. Up to 100 people mostly from the Deep Creek settlement took part in the search, with a special ruling invoked protecting their diggings from claim jumping for the duration of the search. Sullivan confessed to being an accomplice and the bodies were found 29 June. Sullivan was taken to the West Coast to give evidence about the death of George Dobson, where he narrowly escaped being lynched on arrival in Hokitika. He received a life sentence and was deported in 1874 but the other three were hanged on 5 Oct 1866. There is a memorial to the five murdered men at the Wakapuaka Cemetery, Nelson.
By 1872 Macarthur is back in the Collingwood district (Waikaramumu) where he takes out several gold mining leases.
Collingwood c1870 Ref PA1-q-034-3
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand,
Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
In 1874 he is appointed sub-agent to the Manchester Block settlement. The appointment was made from London and it is interesting to speculate how this came about;
Did he already know A.W.F and C.H.J Halcombe who had arrived in N.Z. in 1860? Christopher Halcombe was living at Aorere near Collingwood.
Did he finally use his “letters of introduction to several influential residents” he had brought out with him?
Did his aunt, Elizabeth McLean, living at Monks Kirby near the home of the Earl of Denbigh, promote the merits of her nephew to Colonel Feilding and his father, The Earl?
Or there is a family story about a romantic attachment between his sister, Elizabeth Macarthur, and Colonel Feilding, which, because of the difference in their social positions could not continue. Elizabeth was presented with a carriage clock and promises of undying love as long as the clock should tick. There was also a piece of Victorian jewellery contained intertwined hair engraved with initials and a mid 1860's date. Elizabeth arrived in Feilding c1878. W.H.A. Feilding visited N.Z. in 1871, 1874 and finally in 1894. He had married Charlotte Leighton in 1893 and died in Bangkok in 1895. Elizabeth died, unmarried, in Feilding in 1898.
Sources;
Johnson M. Gold in a Tin Dish
Volume 1 –The History of the Wakamarina Goldfield
Nelson; Nikau Press, 1992.
May P.R. The West Coast Gold Rushes
Pegasus Press 1962 (2nd edition 1967).
New Zealand’s Heritage, Sydney; Hamlyn House, 1971.
The Feilding Star 27 May 1892
The Myers Family History -Macarthur 1856-1875
Cathy Clarke, Wellington, New Zealand
email: catherine.clarke@clear.net.nz
Last updated: 9 Oct 2009