How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
He did not mention that his skill was as a carver. He had never sold pounamu. He would not sell pounamu. For one could not put a price upon a treasure, just as one could not purchase mana, and one could not make a bargain with a god. Gold was not a treasure—this Tauwhare knew. Gold was like all capital in that it had no memory: its drift was always onward, away from the past (I.3.163).
Te Rau thinks of the greenstone he mines as something that is entirely different/outside of the world of commerce; it's sacred, not something that is (or should be) be used to create wealth. Gold has to do with money and capital, which, according to him, drive modern life forward but neglect history and the past. Hmm, probably not surprising that an indigenous resident of Hokitika might want to take a stand about certain things being sacred/not up for grabs while a bunch of foreigners come in trying to get rich off their gold, huh?
Quote #5
'Gold,' she whispered. 'It's gold. Up and down the corset-bones, and in the lining, and all the way about.' Her dark eyes were searching his face, pleading with him. 'Gold,' she said. 'I don't know how it got there. It was there when I woke up—sewn in' (I.7.6).
This is the moment when Anna realized that her dress was filled with gold—gold that we later found out was stolen from Crosbie Wells, sewn into Lydia Wells's dresses, shipped under Lauderback's name to blackmail him, rerouted by Crosbie Wells when he figured out what Carver and Lydia were up to, shipwrecked with the Titania when it went down, and then sold to Anna when she bought Lydia's dresses from the Titania's salvage sale. And then Quee discovered it and started stealing it/melting it down while Anna was stoned out of her mind. As you can see, this particular example of wealth was put to a lot of different purposes …
Quote #6
'Recently I heard a politician speak who called the gold a moral scourge. It is true that on the diggings I have seen much degradation but there was degradation prior to the strike as well. I fancy that it is the thought of men like me becoming rich that has most politicos afraid' (II.9.30).
Crosbie Wells wrote these words in a letter to his brother. It sounds like he believes that some men were afraid of the democratizing function of gold—that is, of its potential to elevate men of low breeding to wealth (and status) instantly.