WEST COAST GOLDFIELDS JUBILEE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 June 1913, Page 3

WEST COAST GOLDFIELDS JUBILEE

PIONEERS’, REMINISCENCES

OF THE ROARING ’SIXTIES

“Youth pauses, laughs and flips away. —Ah, God, if youth could only stay.’

The Westland Goldfields Jubilee Committee' has issued a circular setting out the arrangements so far made and also containing a short biographical sketch of a number of the pioneers. It is desired to make this list as cmnplete as possible and for this purpose any information sent to the Editor of the ‘Greymouth Evening Star’’ will be duly forwarded on to the Secretary. We take the following from the first bulletin: —

Henry S. Castle, now of Reefton, arrived in Hokitika in November, 1864. He was a passanger by the p.s. Nelson (Cap' tain Leech). The late Mr Fraser, of Ahaura, and the late Mr M. Cassius were among his fellow passengers. J. G. Hindmarsh, also of Reefton, first landed in Hokitika in February, 1867, and proceeded to Greymouth, where he settled. In 1881 this worthy colonist proceeded to Reefton, where he has since made his home. Mr Hindmarsh has donated several copies of his work “Tales of the Golden West under Aorangi,” to the Jubilee Committee.

John Ritchie, a resident of Fern Flat, Central Buller, arrived at Hokitika from Auckland in April, 1865. He was a passenger by the schoner “Rosella.”. He is looking forward with interest to a big rally of the Old Brigade at Jubilee time. Edward Hines, Wanganui, was on the Coast in 1864. He arrived at Hokitika by the fore-and-aft cutter “Triumph.” Mr Hines found ferrying very profitable and then started a business, but the lure of prospecting called him into the country.

J. Ivess, Ohakune East, is well known throughout the Dominion. He represented Inangahua on the Nelson Provincial Council prior to the abolition of the Provinces. He has a warm snot in his heart for the pioneers of the West Coast goldfields.

W. D. St. G. Douglas, Dunedin, was in Hokitika in the early sixties, and mentions Albert Roberts, of Ashburton, formerly of the 8.N.Z.. and Thomas Jacobs, of Christchurch, who was the Hokitika agent of Cobb’s coaches, as contemporaries of the old days, who are also interested in the Jubilee celebrations.

Peter Drummond. Wellington, reached Hokitika in 1865, and three years later went to Ross, where he remained till 1872.

W. T. Willsheed, Linwood. came from Auckland, to Hokitika in 1855. He went to the Left Hand branch of the, Waimea, and later opened the Auckland Lead, getting a prospecting claim. Worked at Blake’s Terrace, Lamplongh, etc., till 1873.

John T. Gordon, Auckland, was on the Coast from 1865 to 1869. First went to tiic Totara and was afterwards on the Auckland Lead, Ho Ho, and Waimea—at the latter place during Burgees and Sullivan’s visit.

F. Pi rani, another well known press man. now of Feilding, arrived in Hokitika in 1867. Ho also sends the name of Mr Millar, sen., Palmerston North, as another of the West Coast pioneers. R. P. Wells, Timaru. took nine days to cross from Christchurch to the Waimea rush in 1865. The party he travelled with had great hardships by the way. On. the way they came across a lonely mnn with a broken leg, depending upon passers-by for food. The following day Sergt. Beattie brought up a party of men to carry the injured man to Hokitika. Mr Wells was the first prospector on the Kanieri. but when his mates came on the field they got nothing satisfactory and abandoned the Eight days Inter the lucky prospector came along, and the Kanieri rush started in full swing. Mr Wells spent fourteen week's on the Coast, and was unlucky on every field he visited. Hence his early departure hack to Canterbury.

A. W. Ensor, Winchester, was a cattle dealer' in 1867, supplying stock to Mt Mark Sprot, which were sold at Arahnra. Mr Ensor believes he and Sir .Walter Buchanan are the only surviving represem * a lives of the pioneer cattle dealers to the Coast.

Hugh Bruce, Lawrence, and Job a Scott, Waitahnna. have sent their names through the Gabriel’s Gully Pioneers’ Association as ex-West Coasters of tke early days.

D. L. Cochrane, of Waikumete, Auckland, who reached Hokitika in December, 1865, records In’s intention of being present at the celebrations. He mentions tin- names of several other “sixty-fivers” resident about Auckland, who will also make the pilgrimage. Hokitika will be a veritable “Mecca” in January, 1914. John Valentine, Waikouaiti, was at the start of the Kanieri rush and did well, and hail a like pleasant experience at Auckland Lead which was easily worked. Then departed for Melbourne. Mr Valepiine was also at the Dunstan rush, and enjoyed the Clyde Jubilee very much last November. When camped at Kanieri was living close to Kelly,’ Sullivan and Levy, and can still picture Kelly with moleskin trousers, sash and blue shirt to make up the appearance of a miner. This worthy pioneer also remembers the morning the gang robbed the police tent of all the revolvers! William Lind, Caversham, is now 72, but he has lively recollections of the goldfields about Hokitika, having worked at the Blue Spur, Big Paddock, Kanieri and Woodstock, Also worked up the Grey Valley as far a« Moonlight. The late .Tamos Reynolds, of Hokitika, was an old mate, and Mr James Renton was at some of the rushes with Mr’ Lind.

John Drennan, Outram, came to Hokitika by the Alhambra in 1867, w?ien the town was largely calico houses. The weather was very wet at the time, and swagging it was not easy when the luck was out. Stranded boats marked the entrance to the port. Daniel Keir, Wellington, came to Hokitika in his youth in 1867, and left seven years later. Hopes to visit the old place in January, after an absence of 40 years. Alec Heron, o flnvercargill, will he well known to many of the present generation. He landed in Hokitika in 1865, and grew up with the place. He afterwards joined the public service.

W. McK. Thomson, Timaru, arrived in Hokitika in 1866, coming from Otago. He arrived by the, John Bullock, which was towed in by the tug Samson. Mrs Thom son arrived from Melbourne by the Alhambra in 1865.

Henry Walton, Waikanae, was in Hoki-' tika in the very early times, having arrived by the “Oak” which was stranded, and of which “old friend Thatcher” used

to sing about. Mr Walton and his mate built the Union Hotel, the first boarded place in Hokitika. Mr Walton was at Gabriel’s Gully also, so he is doubly u pioneer of the goldfields. T. J. Pearce, Caversham, was an old Rossfte. Before that he had also been at Gabriel’s and Dunstan rushes. He is now past the allotted span, and enjoyed the Jubilee festivities in Otago. <l. P. Gore Martin, now of Hastings, was one of the first bank officials on the Coast, travelling from West Wanganui southwards, and visiting every mining centre opened prior to 1857, when Mr Martin left for Thomas goldfield. He knew Hokitika when it would have been an easy ihatter to count the houses and number the residents.

G. E. Langrish, Timaru, was one of the four who opened up Blue Spur. Mr J Kellett kept a store there. The other mates were Lark, Passmore and Cunningham. Afterwards Mr Lark kept the Three Mile hotel. Later had a claim on Scandinavian Terrace; J. and Jim Fraser, Bob the Baker, and Tom Hopley had the adjoining ground. Next went to the Caledonian rush at the Buller, and joined a party of Germans who opened German Terrace. Got one ounce to the set of timber at the face of the terrace. Was at the Kumara rush also. Left by the Wild Wave the first trip she made to Hokitika.

R. Ferguson, Sydenham, arrived in Hokitika, May, 1865, and worked at Ross and Hunt's Beach. Then resided for years at Hokitika, and hopes to visjt the old spot again. Thomas Taylor, now of Waikanui, reached the Coast in 1866, and visited the various “rushes.” He pitched the sixth tent on Jones’ Creek, the start of the “rush” from which Ross took'its rise. A. 11. Clark, Waihi, is a very old identity. Between 1862 and 1864, he was sailing out of Nelson to the Buller in the schooner Gipsy (Captain McCann). Reuben Waite and Blake were the Buller storekeepers then, and the boat used to haul up on the bank to discharge cargo. After the Wa’kamarina rush lie left Nelson in the “Dove” for Hokitika, thirty passengers at B 6 10s per head. Made a remarkably quick passage of 50 hours’ sailing straight in over, the bar, along with other boats which had been waiting in some instances for weeks for a chance to enter. The “rush” news was not favorable, so went boating on the Grey, carrying coal from a local seam up the river. Mr R. Batty was the manager of the mine, and lived on the Cobden side of the river. The freight on the coal was 2i)s a ton, and as it was possible to average five trips a week good money could be made, but those were not "eight hour days.” Next tried his hick on the goldfields of the Grey Valley, visiting all the discoveries. Then attempted to prospect the Karamea country but had no luck, and returned to the Grey after a hazardous, trying trip of three weeks during which tucker ran out, and the party of three lived on pigeons and eels. The party were “hard-up” when they struck payable gold up Pile Creek, a branch of the New River. After, drifted to the Thames- when the rich gold find- was made there. Mr Clark is still hale and hearty nt 69, and “can hold up his end at a game of bowls,” so the local fraternity must look to their laurels.

Mrs«M. Quigley, of Linwood, arrived in Hokitika in November, 1856, with Mr and Mrs Hyman Marks, of Christchurch. Mrs Quigley was next at Charleston, and went to Addison’s Flat at the first of the rush, and afterwards resided at Westport, where the name of the late Mr Quighy is well known. Mrs Quigley returned to Christchurch about three years ago, on the death of her husband. Geo. Hunter, now of Timaru, is an Otago as well as a Westland pioneer. He v.'orke dat Ross when on the Coasb ; dso at Red Jacks, Waimea. He met Jie Burgess gang and recalls incidents of their career, including the murder of Dobson, the surveyor, and the gold robbery from No Town, when the banker was' stuck up and relieved of the gold lie had purchased.

John Parsons, now oi Christchurch, was on the West Coast in the sixties, and he is hopeful of making the trip over for the Jubilee.

Charles Holloway, of Nelson, is another of the old pioneers, having been on the Coast in 18b6. il. McNef, of Murchison, was a very early arrival on the Coast. He arrived at Greymouth in July, 1864, in the steamer Nelson (Captain Heifer), the boat be! .g chartered by Reuben Waite. That was the Nelson’s first trip. The only white man on the Coast then below the Buller river was a man named Hunt. Mr McNee asks for the whereabouts of John and Thomas Ryan, Michael Clansey, Patsy Burke, Daniel Kenough (all South of Ireland men), John Peters (North of Ireland), and Amos Taylor, a Philadelphia Quaker known as “Yankee Bill.”

C. D. Lightbrand, Wellington, lays claim to being one of the first nativeborn gold miners in New Zealand. He was born on the Collingwood goldfield in 1860, and is the son of G. W. W. Lightbrand who discovered the first payable gold in New Zealand in 1856. Mr Lightbrand (pater) was. the first Commissioner appointed by the miners at Collingwood It was he who, in that capacity, drew up the first mining regulations that form the ,basis of the present day New Zealand mining regulations. In 1866 the gentleman became the first Warden appointed for Grey district by the Nelson Provincial Government. Referring to mining, Mr Lightbrand writes interestingly as follows: “Seeing the important part the gold industry has played in the development and general progress of this Dominion, 1. think that fitting due prominence should In given to its early history, and more especially pay fitting tribute to the memory of its pioneers. The future possibilities of the gold industry of New Zealand, I believe, are great, and so far the country is only scratched. It requires capital tr develop its latent resources, and to put to work efficient plant and open Up the rich stores now dormant, both in the alluvial and reefing. I have seen some of the steam shovels at work on the Panama Cana], and was there struck with the value that machine would be to work the hard, rough, iron-bound wash on the West Coast —cheaper and much more efficient than bucket dredges.” Mrs R. McPherson (widow of Robert McPherson) and her daughter Helen, now Mrs W. Fraser, of Christchurch, are interesting themselves in the forthcoming celebration. The late Mr McPherson was a cordial manufacturer in Hokitika in 1868.

James Burrell, of. Nelson, records his early association with the West Coast as far back as 1865, and hopes to renew his acquaintance with the district at Jubilee time. Charles Patterson, Wellington, was one of the early arrivals at Greenstone Creek

in 1854. He also visited the rushes at Kanieri, Tucker Flat, Waimea and Three Mile, and several places in the Grey district. He was married at Greymouth.

Joseph O’Brien, Riccarton, was an early arrival in Hokitika, being a. “sixty-fiver.” He lived here till a, few years ago, when, along with his family, he settled in Christchurch. Mr and Mrs O’Brien purpose being present at the Jubilee festivities. Thomas, Dennett, formerly well known in the Kanieri and Kumara districts, but now of The Port, Nelson, supplies tiie names of Henry Griffiths and Christopher Manthieff, who, like himself, were on the Coast in 1865. G. P. Graham, of Bainham, was a mate of the late Air Mackley’s, of the Grey Valley. They left Collingwood at the beginning of March, 1861, for the Grey river with the intention of finding a track over the Ahaura Saddle. They went up the river in canoes, apd had eight Maoris with them, six of whom were women. The journey by the river occupied three days, and finally they camped at the junction The natives caught woodhen, which were very plentiful. Rain came on and snow fell heavily On the mountains, and the river rose in high flood. The party were forced to return, and lashed two canoes together to make the trip. They made the journey on Good Friday, and travelled so swiftly on the flooded waters that they reached Greymouth in two Hours, Then they began a long tramp back to Collingwood. It occupied seven weeks, during which they had to live on what they could catch in the way of native game and fish. The fare was plentiful, and the party arrived back safe and corr pulent. John Pearson, of Timaru, made the journey from Otago to the Coast in the “City of Dunedin.” He was on the Three Mile and Kanieri, and also at the Grey and Brighton. He will be a visitor for the . re-union of pioneers in January next.

James Hastings, Wanganui, is a native born West Coaster, having first seen the light of day at Hokitika in 1867. Ho and other friends will make the journey to the Coast for the Jubilee.

Charles Yates, of Woolston, was here in tiie sixties, and is “very glad to be alive and still pretty active.” He was at Nobles and the rough and tumble of other early rushes. When working at Red Jacks, they drew their tucker supplies from No Town. He was >up the Little Grey prospecting when he heard of the black sand rush at Cobden. T. A. H. Field, Nelson, was on the Coast as a small boy in 1867, when h& lived at Hokitika. He removed soon afterwards to Westport. Mr Field wishes, the Jubilee every success. John .Worthington, now of South Dunedin, was on the Coast in the early sixties, being a sailor of the old school. He saw a deal of pioneer work afloaWand ashore in such places as Okarito. Bruce Bay, Charleston, etc. Mr Worthington also did his share of gold seeking, track cutting, etc. Amoks Wilby, Wellington, arrived at Dunedin in September, 1853, and came Hokitika in 1865. Mr Wilby was man’ied at Greymouth, and his first son, now residing at Reefton, was born at-Huther-glen. George Belaud, of Sodden, was one of the early pioneers who cmne to the’Coast in the sixties, and went to the Greenstone along with .s«ine mates.who came over with him from German Kill diggings. All the mates have passed away, but Mr Behind, who is now. 82, looks forward to viJting the Coast. He calls down a blessing on “Dick” Seddon for the latter’s forethought in providing the pension for the pioneers of New Zealand. Mr and Mrs S. and C. Pascoe, of Ash-, hurst, were here in the sixties. Mr Pascoe came to Hokitika in 1865, travelling by the Titania from Dunedin. The ship was wrecked the following trip. Was at the Three Mile Beach, Woodstock, ana Ross rushes, and went back to Victoria in 1366. Was then married and along with wife returned to* Ross, the same year. The couple are arranging to make tfie trip to the Coast for the Jubilee.

S. C. Betty, of Inchbonnie, left Christchurch with two mates (Long and Gardner) at the end of November, 1864. They leached Greenstone two days before Christmas, the journey having occupied seventeen days to come down the Taremakau river from the Hurunui Saddle, owing to floods. Tfife prospects discovered at Greenstone were not considered payable, so the party went south and up the Hokitika river. It took two days cutting tracks to reach what is now Kanieri (then caile dthe Five MHe). They came across a man prospecting there, called German Fred, but lie was an Austrian. The three males followed up all the principal rushes on the Coast. Tiie name of Robert Ledlie, of Blue Spur, Lawrence, has been supplied as an old pioneer; also George Boyd, of Greymouth. John Ritchie, the well known settler of Bruce Bay, landed in Hokitika from Dunedin in September, 1855, and his wife about a year later.

Henry Hyams, who lately removed to Timaru, arrived in Hokitika in May, 1865, and his wife the year following. Another old pioneer to send in his name is John Ccgan, of Paterson, Maniototo. He was at the Buller rushes in the sixties.