Relics Of Goldmining Days Uncovered By Sea

Press, Volume C, Issue 29459, 10 March 1961, Page 19

Relics Of Goldmining Days Uncovered By Sea

/From Ow» Own Reporter)

GREYMOUTH. Mar. 9. | The rough seas* which were recently experienced on the Coast of the South ’island encroached on an area just north of the Fox river, about midway between Greymouth and Westport. Among the articles subsequently found on the beach by children and adults were coins of the 1860’s, women's high lace-up boots, rusty axeheads, and empty bottles of all shapes and sizes. Between Brighton, on the north side of the mouth of the Fox river, and a point about two miles and a half along the beach, which was known as St. Milda, the first horse-drawn tram in New Zealand ran. Its passengers were mostly patrons of the several small hotel cabarets which were dotted along the beach frontage, and they travelled in order to enjoy jthe variety of performance given in the different “pubs” by the young women, who had been brought from Australia as entertainers. The high lace-up boots

may have some connexion with these high kicking women, but it is certain that the bottles are relics of the drinking days 100 years ago. At that time there was a population in . the area of 6000. The hotels were abandoned at the end of the gold rush days, and those that were not demolished were left to fall to pieces. In the meantime the sea has encroached a great deal, and when it is rough it exposes the Baltic timber piles of the hotels, which appear to be in a remarkably fine state of preservation. When the sea calms down again, sand covers up the remains of the old inns. The spot is now known as Woodpecker Bay and is a very popular picnic resort, where there are a number of residences and baches owned by persons on the West Coast and in Canterbury. Herrings may be caught by the ton, while there is also a plentiful supply of snapper and crayfish.