A goldfields magistrate

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33693, 16 November 1974, Page 11

A goldfields magistrate

Joseph William Poynton was a goldfields magistrate and warden of whom it was said that he was too smart for the lawyers in mining litigation.

Poynton was bom at Kyneton, Victoria, on December 11, 1861. The family came to New Zealand when he was two. He was admitted barrister and solicitor in 1891, when he was 30, and was appointed stipendary magistrate at Invercargill in 1895, and Public Trustee in 1900.

Later, in 1914, he was superintendent to the Advances to Settlers Department.

Poynton grew up in a small mining town in Westland. He wrote of his early life:

Early life

In October, 1867, my mother, sister and myself arrived in Greymouth. I was then under six years of age. My father had first left us in Invercargill for schooling, he leaving for the West Coast rush in 1865 where he prospected at Hokitika, Darkies Terrace, Red Jacks Gully, and Italian Gully in the ensuing two years. At the time of our arrival at Greymouth the town was overrun with rats. One bit me when I was asleep, his teeth going deeply into the first joint of my big toe. My sister, when asleep, was bitten in the ear and my brother on a finger. Naturally cats were much sought after. At that time my father was digging at a place called Median’s flat, about

ten miles south-east from Greymouth, where Charlie Meehan had a store. My father and he had found this rich shallow ground the previous year. We were in Greymouth three months before leaving for the Flat. The original track to the diggings was rather roundabout. It was a blazed trail to the head of Omotumotu Creek, which left the Brunner

through the bush to the Flat In 1870, Charles Meehan left for the Palmer River rush in Queensland. He was afterwards lost in the wreck of the brig Maria off the coast of New Guinea, where he was on a prospecting trip.

The life in the heart of the primitive bush was altogether to the liking of us youngsters. There was no school and few inhabitants, everything was new and of interest.

New rush After about a year of this idyllic existence we went to a new rush at a place called the 8 Mile, it was about three miles up the creek and later was called Clifton, where a township of stores, hotels, dance houses, a police station, and a courthouse came into existence. Today, all that remains of Clifton is the cemetery on the terrace.

In 1869 the township was shifted to the top of a high terrace across the creek and renamed Dungenville, or Maori Creek.

At the 8 Mile, among the hundreds known to me, there were only two with grey in their hair. All wore beards; shaving was unknown. The miners did not wear coats and there were no white shirts about. I remember, years later, when they were introduced, a few began to wear them. Many resented this as a kind of class distinction and an attempt to “put on side.” In physique there was not, perhaps, a better class of men anywhere — some were giants. Three come to my mem-

ory; the “Infant” a gigantic Englishman, ironically so nicknamed in consequence

of his size; and the “Moa Bird” another colossus with a chest of nearly 60in. He had immense hands. They so fascinated me that I used to follow him surreptitiously to feast my eyes on them. The third was “German Harry” who, it was said, could carry half a bullock all day through the bush. Harry had a new pair of boots made by the local bootmaker one of his old ones was given to me to show other boys. It was chaffingly referred to as my “canoe,” Poynton concluded his account.

Crown witness In 1884, at the age of 23, Joseph William Poynton was still at Dungenville, for he was the principal Crown witness in a murder trial.

The body of James Gifford had been found badly battered in the bush. John Donohue was arrested and charged with murder and brought before a magtetate on January 16, 1884. The case was heard in the Supreme Court in Hokitika on March 12, the case finishing on March 14. Donohue was convicted of murder.

Poynton gave evidence about an umbrella and hat found under the body; it was this evidence which finally convicted Donohue. He was executed at the Hokitika goal on June 12, 1884.

As Poynton was admitted to the bar seven years later, it is quite passible that featuring as a witness at the trial nad a bearing on his subsequent career. There can be no doubt that he was a clever man and a quick learner.