RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1926, Page 23

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

CAPTAIN TRESIDDER. (By J. McCOMBIE.) Away back in the late sixties, experienced hand steel miners on the New Zealand goldfields were few and far between, and large numbers of Cornish miners were imported to supply the deficiency. This meant that most of our quartz mines were vtaffed and managed by Cornish men, and they were all commonly called "Cousin Jacks." My first introduction to Tresidder came about in the following way: The editor of a certain daily paper asked mc to visit, examine, and report upon a deposit of rich gold bearing ore that had just been exposed to view in the Nebraska mine, of which Tresidder was then the manager. When I arrived at the mine the office clerk told mc that the manager would he found in the main adit level, and he supplied mc with a candle for lighting purposes After travelling along the level for some distance I started to whistle a tune called "O'er the Mountain Brow," because the sound always had a weird attraction for mc. Then I saw a light coming towards mc, and the next thing I knew was that the bearer of the light—a big burly man —caught mc by the collar of my coat, turned m_ round, and started to push mc out towards the level entrance. I was then convalescing after an accident which had laid mc up for several months, and I had neither" the strength j nor the inclination to resent his interference. Once outside he came face to face with mc, and then he explained that whistling was barred in the mine, and that he was the manager. For months they had offered up prayers day after day to bring about the run of rich ore that they had now in hand, and they were not going to have it whistled away by outsiders. Lapsing into Cornish vernacular he said: "I would have c to know that tha byes sing hyms every crib time, and they would take it very badly if so be they knew that you chipped in with any secular music." Furnished with a fresh supply of ' candles we resumed the trip into the mine, and, in due course, reached the face of the level where the rich ore had been brought to light. Here the lode averaged 20 inches in thickness, and the gold occurred in ribbon-like bands. Amongst the fund of etories related about Tresidder's peculiarities, I have a vivid recollection of the following:— One day, when travelling along the main level, he came to a place where a winze had been sunk to a depth of about sixty feet, and where driving north and couth on the lode was then in progress. Speaking to the miners below Tresidder sang out, "How many aye' c be down there byes V Miner: "Five on us captain." Tresidder: "Well half ay c come up here." In the overhead stopes the lode had pinched to about 15 inches in width, and upon the occasion of one of his trips through the mine, Tresidder started to negotiate the depleted stope. Here he became tightly wedged between the walls, and then he started ito roar for help. Responding to his call, one of the miners sang out: "What's the matter with you captain?" Tresidder: "I be fichered you, and I can't get either back or forth. Bring gad and. hammer to cut I out." During one day shift, a miner came to the office and told the manager that he wanted a stick of timber the length of the two-foot rule, three spans of his hand, two widths of his thumb and a chaw ay ter hacker. Tresidder: "Hodge 'c' don t know b from a bull's foot, and it bain'; no good to we for 'c' to come out ere with a rigmarole story about the length of timber." Later on when Tresidder was leaving the mine, pricr to taking a trip Home, the staff decided to give him a dinner, and invitations were sen., out to all the leading lights of the place. During the day preceding the dinner, Tresidder had imbibed more than the -.sual number of drinks, and when he took his seat at the table he was pretty well stunned. Responding to the toast of his health, he managed to scramble onto his feet and said: "Mr. Shairman and shentlemen, when • I knowed what the byes were going to give I a fend hoff, I went to my friend Johnny Wishart, here, and I asked le write out a bit of a speech for-1,-and he give it to mc all right. Well, I carried it about in m° weskit pOcket, and every now and again I used ter con it hover until I got it hoff by heart, but, shentlemen, I forgot every bloomin word of it. Now I feel like Daniel in the lions' den. When he saw the lions a champin- of their jaws in anticipation of comin' events, he said to hisself, 'If there's any after dinner speaking to-night, it ain't going to be done ity jne,*"- : ■'-'•" - -_^.