Kōrero: Gold and gold mining

Sluice and cradle, Kapanga Stream

Sluice and cradle, Kapanga Stream

This engraving from about 1852 shows men working the first find of gold in New Zealand. The diggers in the foreground are working a cradle – one man shovels gravel into it, while the other two tip in buckets of water and rock the cradle. The sluice box in the background has a constant supply of water entering along the wooden fluming, and all the men have to do is to shovel the gold-bearing gravel into the box.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: E-372-f-034-2
Wood engraving after a watercolour by Charles Heaphy

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Te tuhi tohutoro mō tēnei whārangi:

Carl Walrond, 'Gold and gold mining - Methods of mining', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/artwork/8620/sluice-and-cradle-kapanga-stream (accessed 29 March 2024)

He kōrero nā Carl Walrond, i tāngia i te 12 Jun 2006