Chapter X.
BRIGHTON.
BRIGHTON, which it is said was once called Bright Town, was the nearest town southward of Charleston, and was a popular visiting place for Charlestonians, as many of the residents of the two towns were related. It was originally known as Fox’s River, being near to that stream, the Potikohua, where gold was discovered by William Fox in October, 1866—the same Fox who had opened up the Arrow River diggings at Wakatipu.
Woodpecker Bay nearby was named after the first vessel to enter it, the P.S. Woodpecker in 1866.
The first part to be worked was Welshman’s Terrace, so called because discovered by a party of three Welshmen.
Dawson’s Terrace, some miles north of Fox River, carried a “beach lead” about 1,100 feet above sea level, and is claimed to be the highest point mined upon the Coast. The main deposit of gold was found, however, at a height of about 150 feet.
The Provincial Superintendent in his address to Council on 22nd January, 1867, said: “The rapid formation of the new town called Brighton has been remarkable even in the annals of goldfields. In less than a fortnight a street longer than Bridge Street, Nelson, has been formed with houses both sides, and seven vessels were lying in a river not so large as the Maitai.”
Mr. Kynnersley reported that, at Brighton, for a fortnight there was a large crowd of men outside his tent from daylight to dark. “I used to give them,” he said, “three minutes each but even then persons used to declare that they
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