DESTITUTION AT JACKSON'S BAY.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 1588, 9 December 1867, Page 3

DESTITUTION AT JACKSON'S BAY.

[From the " West Coast Times," Dec. 6.] By tbe Okarita mail which arrived in town yesterday we have received most distressing intelligence that embodies a tale of suffering, starvation, and death endured by the miners of the Jackson's Bay district, and when we inform our readers that a woman and two .little children are amongst the unfortunates, who in that out-of-the-way locality are cut off from communication with the settled portions of the coast by the next to impassable condition of the intervening strip of country, we are sure that the liveliest sympathy will be excited, and immediate steps taken to extend that relief the desperate condition of the poor creatures so imperatively demands. Intimation of a great scarcity of provisions existing at the Southern goldfields was received in town in October, and led to tbe steamer Tasmanian Maid, loaded with all kinds of necessaries, being despatched to Okarita, from which port she was to extend her trip to Bruce and Jackson's Bays. She, however, got no further than Bruce Bay, and there landed twelve tons of provisions, and as accounts subsequently received from Jackson's Bay contradicted previous reports of the destitute condition of the miners there, public anxiety, which. had been very much excited in their behalf, was allayed. It appears, however, they were then in a very sad state, as the miners who started from the Bay on the 19th ult. state that there was then only seven pounds of flour left to support ten men, a woman, and two children. Mr W. Friend, one of the party, supplied our Okarita correspondent with the following particulars of the drowning of three men in the Arawata or Jackson's river, and the wretched condition of the bay community. He says that at the beginning of last November sixteen persons were located there, of whom twelve were living on> the beach about one mile north of the above river, and three to the southward of it. One of the latter, named _larsden, kept a small store, which, however, had been~long destitute "of" provisions ; in fact during the previous two- months the men, women, and children mainly subsisted on s, diet of fern sprouts flavoured by a little flour; in lieu of tea or coffee they drank an infusion prepared from a peculiar weed that abounds there. As the men wereworking on payable ground they clung j to the place, expecting that a steamer would call in, Marsden having informed them that he had sent a letter to Hokitika stating their condition, and he. .therefore felt certain that the Alhambra would touch at the bay on her way to Melbourne. Day after day passed and no steamer appeared, to the Bitter disappointment of the poor creatures who, by that time, were reduced j to. a most lamentable plight, being nearly naked and terribly attenuated. | lYom November 6 to November 10 Qgmmunication with the store had Hen suspended,! but on the latter date the diggers north of the river observed & signal fire burning on the south side, and fearful that something dreadful had happened they all hurried down to the riverside. The rough canoe which served as a ferry-boat lay on the north shore, and although the weather was very rough, and the river much Bwolien by a freshet, two miners, named Thomas Friend and James volunteered to paddle across, to'ascertain the meaning of the signal They found that Marsden and his companions, Timothy Barrett and James -kaggy, were nearly mad with hunger, and wanted to join the others on the north side; but as the canoe would only carry four men, it was agreed that Barrett should remain behind until the next morning. The others then proceeded to cross the river, but when within fifty yards of the north bank the canoe was caught by an eddy, and heeled over, and shipped a little water. This must have alarmed Marsden, as he suddenly jumped overboard, and by so doing capsized the canoe. Although an, excellent swimmer he seemed unable to strike out, and was hurried into the surf and drowned. Of the other three men "Walsh alone attempted to gain the shore, and, after a desperate struggle, arrived within rjeach of the onlookers, who joined hands and waded some distance into the river. They dragged him out more dead than alive, and almost insane from exhaustion and excitement. Buggy and Friend being unable to swim clung to the canoe, and were carried nearly a mile out to sea Before those on shore loßt sight ol them. They were never seen alive

! again, but about ten o'clock that night the canoe, containing the body of Buggy, was washed upon the beach i about half a mile north of the river, and next morning the remains of poor Friend were cast up at no great distance from the same spot. The bodies were buried on the following day, and the graves fenced in, and diligent search made for Maraden's body up to tbe 19th ult ; it, however, never appeared. Mr Friend, the deceased man's brother, and four others, then started for Okarita, leaving behind them five diggers, and Mr and Mrs Howard and two children. , The five remained behind to finish a paddock they were sinking, and then purposed leaving for Okarita. Friend and his mates arrived there on the 2nd inst., utterly worn out, having been fourteen days traversing the beach. There is thus every probability that by this time Howard and his family are alone left at Jackson's Bay, and of course entirely unprovided with provisions, excepting the wretched substitute afforded by fern sprouts. "Would so unnutritious a diet sustain life ? We shudder to ask the question, and hope that a steamer will be despatched without an hour's delay to ascertain their fate. They are almost certain to be found at the bay, as, to quote Mr Friend's words, "nothing short of a miracle would bring them safe overland." They are living about two miles north of Jackson's Bay anchorage. We understand that Mr Marsden leaves a widow and four children in Auckland, where once he carried on business as an auctioneer. He also practised as law agent at Okarita. He is supposed to have " planted " thirty ounces of gold in his hut or store, although nothing of value was found in it save a watch, a £1 note, and some orders and cheques amounting to £100. This property was taken possession of by a miner, named Dan Eyan, to be delivered to the authorities when he reached Okarita. James Buggy was a native of Kilkenny, and is described as about twenty-four years of age, and unmarried. Thomas Friend was a native of Limerick, and aged twenty-three years ; he also died single.