OLD RECOLLECTIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 July 1905, Page 4

OLD R ECOLLECTIONS

— ♦ Cl E \NED AT Til KHU-UNION OP PIONEERS AT HOKITIKA.

One party of the pioneers took from ,Ii„io 15th 'to July 31st, 1064. in getting from tho Wakumarina to the Hnnmui Saddle. On coming down the TcrcmaUau Kivor a lanw crowd was met rushing hacr but. nevertheless, the party went on to the Greenstone, a few weeks Inter padmpaliug in a big nisi, to the Horn I hence they went on to lotara at ■ houses Point, being three months on Coast without tasting Ires h meal. The first census take, m Westland ;m behalf o ft he Canterbury Provnmi.il m vcriimcnt was in I btv-l. . . , 1,1 1 }?64 there was no Maori lah . A'; Woodstock. There was one at (Irevmoutli and one at the I erema.kmi, the scene of the recent drowning ae..ideul. The Maoris deserve a mead of ~,-aise for (lie assistance given rtrangeis.it lids time, hein gever willing to share i heii potatoes or give a shake down in a whare. TT,e City of Nelson was tho nr.si scliooner to cross the bar at Hokitika.. In 1864 when Grcymoiitli was reaction, it was found a, very desolate place, and durum the first three months of a stav a Hie end of Hud year there was incessant rain.

Another earlv arrival who eiiuVe m 64 went to the Tolara. rush, from there to Waiioca. where he worked two claims, and then to Grey. Willi a party ot eight Jackson's iiav was reached, Otago being followed, and then to Rig Kay on (he boundary of Otago ami Meh I and Thcv afterwards came back to Hokitika, ami were attracted to the Duller by another re-i, later on settling around Kanien. A nearly sixtv-liver left Nelson m tlm i,ner Wallabi, and called in at Buber, where they landed on Gladstone street. On entering Grey River then called Alawhen, there were only two Cores owned I,y Blake and Rubin Wade Tim late .Mr Coates and Mrs Coates were there then. At Hokitika the Wallabi was moored to a tree on the bank. Amoimst the calico businesses there then cwre those of Ferguson and Buchanan, the latter now M.M.R; for Wairiwapa. and many others. Another sixty-fiver remembered walking about one hundred miles down the beach from above Grey to the Five Mile below Okarito, having his house on his back, and he was buried up to his nock in tho sands there. Eventually he eame hark, and started digging at Cobden, where ho struck it heavy, but found that his strike turned out to be a coffin, much to Urn disgust of those who gathered to sec what tho prospects were. An old Stafford resident came across from Canterbury in February, 1865. and on the journey over he crossed the Illinium River 24 times and the Tcrcmakau no less than 134 times. He brought a crosscut .saw, and on arrival built a sawpit somewhere near where Kortgust’s brewery at Hokitika now stands. Ho had hardly not it built before enquiries were made for timber, and he w;,s able to sell his output as quickly as it could he cut at 50'- per tOO feet. His tent was at the hack of Hudson's in Revell street, and finding it wa.s too far away from Inks, work lie decided to shift In's camp. A stranger asked him if lie was leaving and then took np the old site, next day selling it for R4O.

Another speaker said that those who had previously spoken appeared to forget that when they came to Hokitika, forty years ago they were young men. On Ids arrival in December, 1865, lie saw nothing but sands, tents on all sides, and a thick crowd of people. The first man he saw was an old AMctnrian friend, Tom Kendrick. and nothing would do hut a renewal of old friendships with a bottle of “fizz.” The only want that he saw then that specially'drew Ids attention (he was a young man then) was the absence of petticoats. There was a" lot of fine fellows in those (lavs full of daring and eourage, and well able to undergo the hardships that had to he endured in opening up a new country. He came in the old Alhambra, said another, and the day he arrived thirteen craft crossed the bar, Ihe last one unfortunately coming to grief, and being piled up on the beach. After visiting Paringa early in 1866 he came back to Hokitika, and started a firewood and pile business, opening np a tram up Hampden street, which was only done after considerable (rouble, it being one large swamp at (he t ime.

In the good old days in Revell street almost every other place was an hotel/ and these were thronged at all hours. Dance houses, in which were innumerable dance civls, specially brought over from Australia, proved of great attraction, and the scenes of a night were of a. very gay nature.

A civic authority rehialed how he and nine others purr linked an open final from the Maoris at the Bluff, and started on their perilous journey to reach Hokitika, one of their number being a doctor and another an old whaler. The latter was made captain of the party. They were throe weeks on the journey, and before arriving at Hokitika were living cm a. pannikin of flour thrown into a bucket of water. They went on hoard a small vessel in Ihe Hokitika, roadstead to get some provisions, and a.II they could allow thorn was a biscuit apiece, the sweetest morsel he find ever tasted. They negotiated the bar safely, ami people looked in astonishment on their arrival at the landing at their daring such a, journey in so small a, craft. On arrival ho found Hokitika with a. population of about 20.000, with money as plentiful as leaves in autumn, theatres, casinos, choice houses, being thronged ui’ditlv. He tried his fortune on one nr two of tlio goldfields in the district, but eventually drifted back to Hokitika., and engaged in the same business ns he was then conducting.