Londonderry Terrace, Skippers, Queenstown-Lakes District, Otago Region, South Island, New Zealand

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	44° 50' 40'' South , 168° 40' 50'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-44.84445,168.68058
Köppen climate type:	Cfc : Subpolar oceanic climate

Alluvial gold in gravel.

The Londonderry Terrace is directly south of the Skippers town site, with the Pleasant Terrace immediately to the south, separated by the Pleasant Creek. Londonderry was exceedingly rich, with companies hydro sluicing to get to gold bearing layers within the gravels. It was said much work was needed to get through a thick barren upper layer.

Information was found from the 1870's onwards, mainly companies who had the capital to bring water races in from long distances, and elevate gravel up the fair distance needed from the bottom of the sluicing face.

McHattie and Moore fought out a battle in the Warden and District courts in 1875, with one accusing the other of tunnelling into its claim. District and Supreme courts rarely overturned a warden's decision either because 1) the original decision was correct 2) a view the legal system needed to be supported so people had faith in it 3) a lack of knowledge about mining.

Frederick Evans forms the New Year Company in 1887, claiming 30 acres of the terrace, with a capital of 8000 pounds. At the same time, Thomas Gilbert Pearce forms the Emmeline Sluicing Company, to sluice part of the terrace, with 3000 pounds capital.

The Skippers Sluicing Company ran for a number of decades, being reconstructed as the New Skippers Sluicing Company, and a second time reverting back to the original name. Information on the company/Egbert Sainsbury years was found from 1888 to 1938. The company was owned by a group of Dunedin businessmen.

Instead of an open tail race, sludge from the hydro sluicing was sent to the Shotover River by a tunnel. This would become regularly blocked with debris. The men were nervous about entering the tunnel, considering it dangerous work, although the bravado of the miners rarely made them admit to this.

Mine manager, John Corbett, with William Low, and M. Tobin were in the tunnel clearing debris, when it suddenly gave way, and a rush of water and debris came down the tunnel washing them out onto the river. They were not noticed missing until the next day. Low and Tobin's mangled bodies were found on tailings within the river, and Corbett's body later in the afternoon nearby.

At a time when juries rubber stamped 'no-one at fault', the circumstances of the deaths were so shocking the jury found 1)personal recklessness of all concerned, 2) the deceased manager had not taken sufficient precautions and had been over confident 3) there is nothing in the mining act about this type of work, 4) strongly urged the government to enact specific regulations regarding tunnel tail races with a more frequent stringent inspection regime. The government could ignore the recommendations, and is likely never saw, or were aware of them. There was no financial or legal penalty in many cases at the time for unsafe mining work practices.



Egbert Sainsbury in the later years rented the lease from the company, working it himself for many years, then taking over ownership of the claim in 1937, when the company abandoned it. (This may have been his son who had exactly the same name). The company owned 70 acres of the terrace.

In 1891, a Melbourne syndicate calling itself the Londonderry Terrace Sluicing Company takes out 36 acres on Londonderry Terrace and partly Burkes Terrace. Water is brought in from 5 miles away, siphoned across three gullies. The syndicate consists of Sir Joseph Bartlett Davies (banker), John Moodie, William Cameron (agent), George Haskins (importer), and Charles Thorpe (manager), with the outrageous capital of 120 000 pounds. D. Miller is mine manager.

Davies is committed to trial in 1892, as chairman of the Mercantile Bank in Melbourne, for knowingly falsifying balance sheets. The official liquidator of the bank found he had used 600 000 pounds of the bank's money for his own investments, and only 100 000 pounds could be retrieved. Meanwhile Davies was on a ship to Colombo, and had to be forcibly returned to face trial. Several directors and auditors also faced trial.

A preliminary hearing in the Supreme Court committed them to trial, however the Victorian attorney general, Sir Bryan O'Loughlin, refused to sign off on the trial. The solicitor general called Isaacs got around this by imposing a grand jury, then Isaacs resigned. The jury found the men guilty, but was dismissed when one of the jury was found not to be an Australian/British citizen. A second trial was instituted, now two years after the original charge.

Davies claimed he had no knowledge of the false balance sheets. A director Thomas Bingham Muntz stated he was utterly ignorant of the transactions of the bank and was a director not an accountant. The manager, Frederick Millidge argued that if the others didn't have any clue on banking, then he should be found in the same position. The jury came back with a verdict of not guilty. (The Daily Telegraph newspaper, 1894) waxes lyrical about how this shows the legal system working. It may have more to do with rich people being able to afford the best lawyers, as how Davies could use the bank's money to invest in his own projects, with false balance sheets, and no repercussions is beyond comprehension. In 1893, the Londonderry Sluicing Company is offered for sale by the mortgagee.

In 1894, a Mr. Don was treating the tailings, but with little success.

Anyone wishing to metal detect the Londonderry Terrace should note that in 1915-1916, part of the terrace was used as a rifle range. It was also used at times for cricket matches.

Mineral List

1 valid mineral.

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Late Pleistocene 0.0117 - 0.126 Ma ID: 1328759	OIS2 (Late Pleistocene) outwash deposits Age: Pleistocene (0.0117 - 0.126 Ma) Description: Generally unweathered, well sorted, loose, sandy to bouldery gravel forming large terraces and outwash plains. Comments: Late Pleistocene river deposits. Age based on C14, U-Th dating, and stratigraphic correlation Lithology: Major:: {gravel},Minor:: {boulders, sand, silt, clay} Reference: Heron, D.W. . Geology Map of New Zealand 1:250 000. GNS Science Geological Map 1. [13]
Triassic - Permian 201.3 - 298.9 Ma ID: 1309452	Aspiring lithologic association Permian-Triassic TZIV schist Age: Phanerozoic (201.3 - 298.9 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Torlesse Supergroup Description: Pelitic and subordinate psammitic schist (TZIV); including areas and bands of greenschist or amphibolite, and minor marble, metachert and serpentinised ultramafics. Comments: Eastern Province (Rakaia Terrane) Rocks Lithology: Schist, greenschist, amphibolite, marble, metachert, ultramafic igneous rock Reference: Edbrooke, S.W., Heron, D.W., Forsyth, P.J., Jongens, R. (compilers). Geology Map of New Zealand 1:1 000 000. GNS Science Geological Map 2. [12]
Triassic - Permian 201.3 - 298.9 Ma ID: 3189657	Paleozoic-Mesozoic crystalline metamorphic rocks Age: Phanerozoic (201.3 - 298.9 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Haast Schist Comments: Caples Terrane Lithology: Metawacke; greenschist/almandine amphibolite grade metasedimentary/metavolcanic schist Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References