PETERS, EDWARD, or BLACK PETER (?-1893) was born in Bombay, India, and was an Indian or Eurasian. He came to New Zealand in the Maori about 1853, having had some experience on the goldfields of California. In March 1857 he went to Tuapeka under engagement to Davis and Bowler, and while driving a bullock sledge through the Tuapeka river found gold in the sand. He worked for six months (with John Thomson) at Evans Flat, finding nothing rich. In 1858 he found gold in the Tuapeka river, and for some years he got a little gold from the river sand at the Woolshed creek, of which he showed samples to J. T. Thomson, the chief surveyor, who considered this the best specimen he had seen. Peters made no secret of his discovery; on the contrary, he showed the gold, sold it to the storekeepers and told them where he obtained it. For a while he had a companion-Jenkins-fossicking at the Woolshed while he went farther afield. His success, modest as it was, encouraged Gabriel Read (q.v.).

In July 1861 Peters made a claim to the reward on the basis of gold discovered in the Tuapeka, Waitahuna and Tokomairiro rivers. His claim was ignored by the provincial government, but in 1885 Parliament agreed to a grant of £50 conditional on the public finding a like sum, which was done. For some years Peters lived in a cottage belonging to J. H. Jenkinson, at Port Molyneux, and subsequently, his health failing, he was cared for in the benevolent institution in Dunedin, where he died in June 1893.

Otago P.C. departmental reports, sess. xvi; Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Pyke (p); Otago Daily Times, 25 Nov, 1 Dec 1885, 24 Jun 1893.

Reference: Volume 2, page 84

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