READ, THOMAS GABRIEL (1824-94). Of the early life of Read there is little to record. He was born in Tasmania in 1824, the son of Captain G. F. Read, who came to Hobart in 1816, and received a land grant which the family still holds. He was well educated, and had some facility in the writing of verse, with which he amused himself in moments of idleness. His people seem to have been well-to-do, and Read himself had town property in Hobart.

In 1849, when quite a young man, he heard of the discoveries of gold in California, and with two others secured a small schooner and went thither. Their luck was not sufficiently attractive, and they sailed from San Francisco with a varied cargo to trade amongst the islands. It is said that the vessel was wrecked at Hawaii, and that Read found his way back to Hobart about two years and a half after leaving. A brother was in the Western district of Victoria as a runholder at Lal Lal, near Buninyong. Gold had just been discovered in that district, and before long Read was on the Victorian fields - at Fryers Creek, Mount Alexander, Bendigo, and Mount Korong. He made no fortune here, either, but he enlarged his knowledge of the ways and interests of a mining population, and took his part in their affairs. The clash at Eureka took place while Read was in Victoria. Though he was not involved in it, he left Victoria with feelings of bitterness against the squatters.

He appears to have been back in Hobart for some time when rumours reached him of the discovery of gold in small quantities in the rivers of Otago. He first heard of the discoveries in the Mataura river in 1856, and thought of coming across, but the opportunity did not present itself. In 1858 Black Peter (q.v.) washed some sand in the Tokomairiro river, and showed the dust to J. T. Thomson (q.v.). Later in the year Thomson himself found traces in the Lindis river. In Jan 1861 Read took passage in the schooner Don Pedro II, which was carrying horses from Hobart to Otago. She reached Port Chalmers on 8 Feb, and proceeded to Dunedin three days later. As she lay alongside the wharf, Read watched the ship Cashmere disembarking a carriage which had been purchased in England by a son of John Jones, and he struck up an acquaintance with Jones which ripened in later months. Read lost no time in getting on the road for the Mataura, wearing a red shirt and carrying a noticeably small swag. When he arrived at Tokomairiro he encountered John Hardy (q.v.) mowing a field of Chevalier barley at his place at Helensbrook. Read was obviously an educated man, with a ripe experience, and Hardy was attracted to him. He told Read that Leatmonth, a Victorian miner, had been at Tuapeka, and had stated that he would soon have 10,000 miners on that field. Read also heard of the finds of Black Peter in the Tokomairiro river, and in the hills towards Tuapeka. Next day he left on his way to the Mataura. He walked as far as the Clutha ferry, where he had a meal and heard discouraging accounts of the prospects. After proceeding four or five miles southward, he returned to Tokomairiro. There he remained for some little time, employed by Hardy in digging a drain through a swamp. In the evenings they continued their discussion of the goldfields, which Hardy was confident would be discovered and would cure the economic depression.

On 11 Mar, just a month after his arrival in Otago, Read sailed from Dunedin for Lyttelton in the Omeo to visit the property of his cousin, John Terry Murphy, at the Cust. A fellow passenger in the cabin was John McLean (q.v.), on whose property were the Lindis diggings; and there is little doubt that Read and McLean discussed them. While he was in Canterbury the diggings were on every tongue, and many parties were being formed to go there either on foot or by steamer through Oamaru. To Read the prospect was not sufficiently enticing; and there is no evidence that he ever went to north Otago. In Canterbury he spent some time with Robert L. Higgins (q.v.), whom his cousin had sent from Victoria in 1851 to take up the Cust properties. At a later date Read sent Higgins a packet of seeds of Tasmanian forest trees collected by the botanist Dickenson, in the hope that they would help to clothe the bare hillsides of the Cust valley. After spending a month or six weeks in Canterbury Read returned to Otago. Early in May, if not before, he was back in Tokomairiro. One day John Fischer, a German, came to Helensbrook and showed Read some gold he had obtained at the Woolshed. This was the first Otago gold that he had seen. The harvest being now over, Read took Edwin Hardy with him to the Canada bush, where they found traces of gold. On 9 May Read attended a meeting at which Alexander McMaster, a candidate for the superintendency, addressed the electors of Tokomairiro. Read disliked him because he was a squatter, and joined issue with him over statements he made about the Squatters' Association of Victoria. John Lillie Gillies, who had also been on the Victorian goldfields for some years, was at the meeting, and he afterwards got into touch with Read.

According to Read's statement and Pyke's book (1887), it was due to the enthusiasm of John Hardy, who was a member of the Provincial Council, that Read eventually undertook a serious expedition. Hardy was the one man who firmly believed that payable gold would be found and that Read was the man to find it. "There are riches yet to come from the wool," he said, "but I am afraid that they may come too late for many. What we want is a good goldfield, and we all believe it is somewhere about here. I believe if you would only try you are the man to get it." They discussed raising a subscription to equip Read, but the enthusiasm of the settlers was as limited as their resources; Hardy was the only one who backed his belief in this direction. The superintendency election was held, and Read walked into Dunedin before 24 May bearing the results of the polling in Tokomairiro. Major Richardson was elected, and Read, who had been struck by the Superintendent's views on the welfare of the province, made a point of calling upon him. Richardson remarked that Strode had reported rather despondently about the Lindis. Read said he had practically decided to give up the search, as he was not very sanguine, but that Hardy seemed to think he would discover a field. Richardson asked him on his way back to distribute some papers to settlers who had supported his candidature, and warned him that if he did go prospecting he should not take dogs with him or get foul of the runholders, who were touchy about prospecting on their land. When Read got back to Tokomairiro Hardy was still sanguine, and offered to send his son Edwin with him if he would go prospecting. Mrs Hardy baked him some bread, and eventually they set off. Proceeding to Peter Robertson's to ascertain where Black Peter had been working, Read went up the river to a place where James Smith's cattle had broken down the banks. Here, with spade, tin dish, and butcher's knife, he set to work, and before long he had about seven ounces of clean gold. That night he spent at Munro's, and next day started on his return to Tokomairiro. About 10 a.m. on Sunday, 2 Jun, he reached Helensbrook, and displayed his gold on the table of the sitting room. On the strength of that expedition Read felt justified in announcing to the Superintendent the discovery of a payable goldfield. He wrote on 4 Jun that he had been 10 days on the exploration, and had travelled 35 miles inland, examining the ravines and gullies of the Tuapeka and Waitahuna. From the outset he took an entirely unselfish attitude, and Hardy advised him as to the wording of the letter. "Although being able to work secretly for a time would greatly benefit me," he wrote, "I feel it my duty to impart these facts. These communications are made in confidence that my secret is safe with Major Richardson, but if a disclosure is of any benefit to the public interest you are at liberty to treat this as a public communication to the Superintendent. ... At all events, I leave myself as a client under your Honor's patronage, convinced that by so doing I take the most certain course to ensure the benefit to which I may some day be considered entitled for this important discovery." He advised Richardson that if the field proved to be a good one the flow of population must go through Waihola and Tokomairiro, and not through Oamaru. A young man named Brooks, who worked for Hardy, was sent into Dunedin with the letter, and with an order from Hardy for an outfit of shovels, picks, and gum-boots for three men. While waiting for the outfit, Hardy and Read rode out towards Tuapeka, and Hardy had the satisfaction of seeing a little gold washed at the Woolshed. The equipment arrived by the next schooner and the expedition was fitted out at Helensbrook, tools, tent, and tucker for some months being loaded on a bullock dray to be driven by Hardy's eldest son, Thomas. The miners were Read, Edwin Hardy, and Brooks. They went out by way of Adams Flat, over Mount Stuart, and down to the Waitahuna, then up to Peter Robertson's, and finally reached the Tuapeka gully. Next day the dray left for Tokomairiro, and the miners, carrying their equipment, tramped up the gully to the spot where Read had found gold. They pitched their tent, made a sod chimney and a bed of ferns, and turned in. On 11 Jun Read paid a visit to Peter Robertson, to whom he showed a handful of gold. A fortnight later the rush began. In a single day 1,000 men arrived on the field.

On 28 Jun Hardy, now a member of the provincial executive, announced from the ministerial benches in the Provincial Council the discoveries made by Read, in whose company he had prospected country "about 31 miles long by five broad, and in every hole they had sunk they had found the precious metal." On the same day the Superintendent transmitted to the Council a message stating that the prospects indicated the existence of gold in large quantities and easily obtainable, and that the reports would necessitate the adoption of immediate measures for the administration of the field. He asked to be invested with unusual powers. The Council responded generously, thus enabling the Superintendent to make adequate provision for the arrival of the "New Iniquity." Even before 24 Jun the field had been called "Gabriel's Gully." Read's party of three in 14 days obtained 112 oz of gold. In Dec 1861 there were 27,163 people in Otago, as compared with 12,700 a year earlier. Read had no desire to participate in the wealth at hand. Once the field became known, his main concern was to place at the disposal of the miners the experience he had gained in California and Victoria. He left the working of his claim to Hardy and Brooks, and spent his time showing new arrivals round. The first essential was some means of controlling affairs on the field. On 7 Jul a meeting was called at which J. L. Gillies presided. Gillies spoke very warmly of the unselfish manner in which Read had made his secret public for the benefit of the province. Read gave a long address to the miners, most of whom were amateurs, advising them of the experience on other fields, how to go about their work, and how to govern themselves. He urged them to have small claims so as to give everyone a chance, and to select from amongst themselves a committee of responsible men. He was elected one of the committee, of which Gillies was chairman, and he was asked to act as umpire for the settlement of disputes. A small news-sheet was published on the field by Thomas Birch (q.v.), and Read contributed a leading article to one of its early issues. He used his experience to protect the miners. As the banks offered only a low price for gold in the early days, he sent a parcel on his own account for assay at the Sydney mint. The report showed the miners what they ought to get for their dust, but Read had to bear the cost of the experiment. He imported a large quantity of seeds from Tasmania, which he presented to the Superintendent in the hope that they would be usefully distributed in the province. Read was also keenly interested in the moral welfare of the new community and took steps, with J. L. Gillies, to provide for Sunday services. The first two services were taken by Gillies himself, and thereafter clergymen from different churches in Otago took turns to visit the fields. For this purpose Read contributed £50 from his own pocket. He had deep religious convictions, by which he was prompted in most of the relations of life.

Having seen the first field established, Read lost no time in continuing his explorations. Receiving a regular salary from the government, he started on 18 Jul, with the Superintendent and Captain Baldwin, and by following up the river discovered the Waitahuna field. In Sep Read made explorations west of the Molyneux, finding a little gold in the Waipahi and Pomahaka. He tried the headwaters of the Waipori, and the sources of the Waitahuna and the Tuapeka, and then went south to the Umbrella range. Writing to the Superintendent on 6 Nov, he said: "After I had the pleasure of seeing you in the front ranks fighting nobly for the cause of humanity, a fortnight had not elapsed from that time when I became the sole possessor of a secret which provided a panacea for the evils which were impending over the province. I believe in the daily interposition of an over-ruling Providence. I felt I had been His agent and took the course which has led to the present results." He declared himself unqualified to prosecute his searches further, and asked to be relieved of further duties. Read had neglected many opportunities to make his own fortune, and the Superintendent suggested to the Council on 4 Nov that "such recognition of Mr Read's services should be made as would be an honour to the province and a fitting reward for such disinterested and generous service." When the Council was asked to vote £500 J. L. Gillies proposed that the amount should be £1,000. The higher sum was rejected, but the £500 was agreed to without division. In May 1862 Richardson again brought the matter before the Council. A further sum of £500 was then voted. Meanwhile Hardy had recommended certain measures with a view to settling the miners as permanent residents of the province.

Read left Otago, spent some time in the North Island, and probably visited Cust again. He states in his recollections that he prospected the likely-looking sandbanks of "the noble rivers of the Wairarapa." He later returned to Hobart. Edwin Hardy says that he was in Otago early in 1864, when he entertained the All England cricket team at a champagne supper. He is said also to have visited the New Zealand Exhibition (1865), when he was awarded a bronze medal "as the first person to give practical value to the discovery of gold in Otago." At a later date he appears to have married. His recollections were partly written in 1887 and partly later. His last years he spent in an institution at Sandy Bay, near Hobart, and he died there on 31 Oct 1894.

It was at the instance of Pyke that Read started to write his recollections, the first part being produced probably in 1886. This appears in Pyke's book on gold discoveries in Otago, the balance being preserved in the Dunedin Public Library.

Family information from G. F. Read; T. G. Read, op. cit.; E. Hardy in Otago Witness, Sep 1929; Otago P.C. Proc.; McIndoe; Acland; Pyke (p); Otago Daily Times, 17 Oct 1930 (p); Hobart Mercury, 1, 5 Nov 1894.

Reference: Volume 2, page 106

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