All that is lawful

 Part of the history of Adam Harris, the Patriarchal Miner , is the history of Saddle Hill. He was living either in Fairfield, Chain Hills or his own farm at Summerwood, on Saddle Hill itself through much of the period when a succession of Mining Companies mined the quartz for the elusive gold. Although contemporary accounts were very optimistic, the conclusion must be that all these companies failed. At the time of writing this post, the price of gold is at a high and interest in mining the quartz reef on Long Gully Station in Terawhiti, west of Wellington has been raised. The original Terawhiti gold mining project was ultimately unsuccessful too, but hope springs eternal. I wonder though, whether we will also see abandoned mining areas in Otago, such as Saddle Hill, experience a renewal of interest. My interest is to see if I can find out more about Adam's involvement in the industry.  In his life story in the Otago Witness , January 1927, Adam is reported as saying: ...

There can be few, if any, older practical miners in the Dominion than Mr Harris, who, at the age of 85, recently retired from the management of Burnwell coal mine at Saddle Hill, which he opened up in 1900 and has carried on since that date, he having purchased Auchmedden township, on which the mine was situated. The township was laid off by Mr Ogilvie, surveyor, in the early days of Otago province.  In 1852, at the age of 12, Mr Harris went to work in the Crosshouse mines at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, with his father, who, with his grandfather and great grandfather, were experienced coal and ironstone miners, and had resided many years at Annbank on the River Ayr. Leaving London by the ship Mermaid, Mr Harris arrived at Lyttelton in 1862 when he was engaged by Mr Edward Walker, manager for Holmes and Richardson, contractors for the Lyttelton-Christchurch tunnel, in which he worked for four years, having charge of a shift of face workmen most of that time. All the drilling was done by h...

This blog post examines what I have been learning about gold mining on Saddle Hill, a farming locality eighteen kilometres west of the Dunedin City Centre. It lies between Green Island and Mosgiel, both now part of an amalgamated Dunedin. My interest in this subject stems from my research into the life and times of my Great Grandfather, Adam Harris, (30 November 1841 to 26 July 1930), miner of Saddle Hill and resident of a farm, Summerwood. I had not known there was gold mining on Saddle Hill until I read a bio of Adam in the Otago Witness , A Patriarchal Miner . Here we are told Adam worked digging a shaft for a gold mine. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19270118.2.177.13 There is some difficulty substantiating this story, since in February 1881 the Saddle Hill Quartz Reef applied to sink a hole "opposite Mr Adam Harris' ground". What "Mr Adam Harris' ground" might be, a farm or a mine of some description, does make this newspaper report con...