Angie's Gold

It happened in Central Otago, at a place called Naseby where during the 1890’s it was a remote, bustling goldmining town. 

Angie was just eight years old when she found the gold nugget, after a severe rainstorm which caused the water race to burst and sluice away a large area of land. She was the first one out there hunting with her dog, Muffin, who liked nothing better than  chasing rabbits – and it was good to get away from those filthy miners.

Angie knew that the nugget was valuable, but had no idea just how much it was worth, recalling that the last stagecoach taking gold to Dunedin had been held up; two men killed and the robbers made off with the gold – they were wild times with jealousy over gold and land. Men often lost their gold gambling or buying cheap liquor! Angie had seen it all!

Her father owned the general store, selling all manner of goods to the miners; flour, shovels, nails, pick axes, knives and her mother, Sarah, helped in the store as well as doing laundry out back for the town’s two pubs.

She imagined what her father and mother would say about the nugget and guessed she wouldn’t have her treasure for long, so she decided not tell them about it yet.

‘Father?’ she asked that night at the dinner table, ‘Can anyone sell the gold they find?’

Her father peered sternly at her over the top of his spectacles, and she felt the heat as her cheeks reddened.

‘No,’ he replied, ‘to sell gold you have to own a Deed of Claim that allows you to work a specific area to fossick for gold.’

Chewing on a piece of gristle, Angie realised she couldn’t keep the secret from her parents so reached into her pocket and quietly placed the gold nugget on the table.

Both parents stopped chewing and stared at the nugget, then at Angie, and back again at the nugget.

After a lengthy inquisition, Angie’s father agreed the gold was hers by right but it should be hidden for safety.

‘We could hide it in a jar of marmalade!’  Angie suggested brightly.

‘Now that’s a good idea,’ agreed her father, ‘we could display it and nobody could ever guess that gold was in there.’

Father sold clay jars of marmalade in his store and mother had a half used jar on the kitchen shelf. With the gold nugget safely inside the jar and covered with marmalade, they needed to seal the top so flies or bugs didn’t spoil the jam so used candle wax as a seal – Angie’s chin jutted out with pride at the neat job and now the marmalade would keep fresh for many years!

The jar survived a few dangers: Bad Kenny broke into the store and among other items, he stole the jar right next to Angie’s! There was the fire that burnt one end of the store and there was looting! And the time Muffin chased a rat that knocked over several jars and five were broken!

When Angie was fourteen, she boarded the stagecoach to Dunedin, where Father had arranged a job for her at a general store on the main street. Not a paying job, just lodgings and food.

Her bag (with the jar inside) was missing when she went to pick it up but saw a man making off with it down the street, so she chased him!

‘Go away!’ he growled aggressively, making it obvious that he was prepared to fight for her belongings.

There was no help at hand for Angie, so she poked him in the eye with her parasol! The pain caused him to drop the bag, cursing. Quickly she retrieved it and scampered off towards the store!

She worked happily there for three and a half years and made friends with the storekeeper’s wife, Molly. Through this friendship she negotiated the rental of a small spare room at the rear of the store.

Angie found that Dawson, the jewelry-man down the street paid a fair price for black-market gold, nuggets or dust, and when he saw her nugget, his eyes narrowed but she bargained hard and sold three quarters of her nugget, by weight, for eight hundred and fifty-three pounds!

She kept the other quarter ‘in reserve, for an emergency’.

Angie used the money and the room to set up a small factory making jam and cordials using local and imported fruits.

Her business thrived, expanded and became profitable so she had no need to cash in the last quarter of her gold nugget, which much later, she gave to her daughter, Primrose.

Together they built a new factory and named the company after her, which became famous for quality jams, cordials and specialized in marmalade.