A MAN OF MANY PARTS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10473, 31 December 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

A MAN OF MANY PARTS

THE LATE MR, W. F. CRAWFORD

EARLY LIFE OF GISBORNE’S

FIRST MAYOR

BUSHMAN, STOREMAN, MINER, 13K.EWER, FHOTOOIIA I’ll ICR.

/In respect of the la to Mr. AV. F. Crawford, tlio first Mayor of Gisborne, grey hairs gave a chastened appearance to unbounded mirthfulncss. Tall, broad-shouldered, studious and, withal, genial his. Iriends were legion and oi' enemies ho had none. Public spirited to a degree, he found time mid the heavy worries associated with business lilc in the early days of Gisborne to put his shoulder”to any wheel which was intended to be rolled in the direction of progress. If any mooted project were likely, in his opinion, to be helpful, it at once had his enthusiastic hacking. libs early participation in civiff affairs was, therefore, only natural. A Tipperary lad, on December 17, 1803, at the age of 19, he rode away from his father’s home on a smart pony to tiie Temple-more railway station to leave by train for Dublin en route to Auckland, New Zealand. “Wild boys,’ lie wrote in his memoirs, “ran after the tram, whacking it with their sticks for having the audacity to steal away with their young friend. The ‘Statesman,’ of 700 tons, a, Dutch-built vessel, hut lively and dry as a. cork, got away from Gravesend as the Christinas chimes were pealing from many a steeple in the Grand Old City. Our staunch old ship after five months of plugging through it landed us on the Auckland wharf on the sth May, 1864. The post office was up Princess Street and it was a struggle for us now chums to> get up Shortland Crescent for our lottery. Wo were accommodated in an emigration barracks where the lato post office was, and ''ere offered various employments—farm hands, bushmen, substitutes for soldiers av tlie front, for the Maori war was raging at this time. Jn fact, the news of the Gate Pah disaster arrived about that time in Auckland. Queen Street ran up a gully and was in a fearful moss of mud and scoria cut up by the commissariat carts ploughing through with two horses to a six luuulred.wieight load. The barracks of scoria buildings stood on the hill, now converted into a handsome park, and another similar ' block erected by Walter Graham on the foreshore were tlie first buildings of masonry and .slate roofs. Thoro were weather hoarded and shingled single-story buildings at any level up and down Queen Street, out of which the ti tree had boon often cleared away for fuel.

TRY-OUT IN THE BUSH.

“The yellow lizard of good luck, although a terror to the Maoris, crept up my leg in the Domain at Auckland, making me think it was a land of reptiles. Was it to lie a welcome visit? .Tt became known to a Mr. Robert 'Cushman, working a kauri bush at Awitu, near the South Maniikau Head, that four young new chums were available, in fact anxious, to attack the glorious primeval forest. We became at once engaged and were placed in charge of Captain Ogden of the ‘Mystery’ lying at the Onehunga wharf. With our bundles on the shoulder no boys could he holder, and we were off to Onehunga in the morning.

“Mr. Bob Cushman, our boss, being a judge of muscle and fine swinging arms, took two of us down a gully with an axe each and introduced lis to a lordly kauri about three !eet in diameter. ' My sympathies were all aroused for the quiet, harmless, goodlooking tree and I felt a pang in being ordered to put a scarf on one side whilst tov mate was set at the other. He left *u.«, and a couple of hours’ indiscriminate chopping took place until his return to see how wo got on. ‘God bless my soul’ (or words to that effect), ho said, ‘it reminds me of a hare biting into a turnip.’ After repeated lessons, emphasised, by words of infinite tenderness, wo cleared away what lie called the matchwood blisters we had raised around the venerable stem of the sturdy and rnneh-to-he-pitied monarch, shedding large tears of kauri gum worth £2O a. ton. Towards nightfall we saw symptoms of the tree staggering and managed, by scrambling through the Imsh to get on the opposite side to that on which ho lell with an angry crash that did not -surprise us.

“Dow n the gully he plunged naturally, for we never expected him to go up the bill. Bnt Mr. Caslunnn ■did and lie commenced family devotions over the event when lie came to see the result. We pointed out -that if lie had determined to- go i p hill we -would have Ven crushed, as wo never foresaw such a thing. He threw his hat on the ground and said. ‘How on earth are we going to get the tree "back on to the side-line ■where the -saw pit is ready?' We s-'l'l that wo could pull it out again, lhdl your grandmother out -again’ was part of what lie remarked with a heavenly smile. He referred to new chum . duffers Ip such a polite way said we would bo pleased to -resign our position if desired. He agreed that a return ticket would be provided for us:on the return of the "‘Mystery’ and. thanking him Tor Ins great consideration, mid receiving his cordial blessing, we parted on the /shore.

.AUCKLAND IN THE) SIXTIES.

‘■'vVe were iutvadnr-od t° a k'dv wll" knew pll our relatives at Home or eur return to Auckland. She took us nil in as boarders. Her husband was fmjduyed In Mark Somerville's sin*

hies, about the hack of the British Hotel, near or about where Alfred Buckland’s saleyards were situated. Through this good man’s influence, 1 was employed by Mark Somerville in the City Mart at the Corner of Shortland Crescent and Queen Street near the Q.C.E. Hotel, popularly known then as ‘’flic Loafers’ Corner. (The letters of the hotel stood for Qualitv, Cleanliness -and Economy, hue, wittily ilubbdu ■Questionable Company Encouraged.’) 1 was employed as second porter there, and amongst my duties had to mix up sugars of grades from black to yellow, and had to truck up from the wharf boxes of butter, crates of fowls am! produce as required. AA’e had to erush coffee I bans and maize which we ground and mixed up with chicory before sending them to our troops, then engaged at the front up the Waikato. We had the officers’ mess to supply with choice wines, bottled ales and groecr’es. Well 1 remember struggling up- to the barracks with these eemmudities oil my shoulders. <i have been fond of climbing hills ever since.) -Mark Somerville had a contract to supply maize, oats and bran to the military train and I was promoted to charge of his supply store somewhere about where Edson the chemist’s pharmacy stands opposite the Hotel kept by Pat Danby and the old jail at the corner opposite the Union Bank which, with its great Corinthian pillars, was then the most imposing edifice iu Queen St.

“The outbreak of the AVest Coast goldfields filled my brain with the golden microbe ana .1 soon got away with two mates in the ‘Annidalo’ for this El Dorado. AVe called in vt the Iron l’ot eiuo.'ing Port Ahuriri stern foremost, viewuig the unimpusmg swamps of Napier. Then we saw the Lambton Quay beach of AVellington, the grave-yard' overhanging the town and the Maori pah at the hack of Willis Street. Then we saw Fit-ton, the French Pass, and ,went into Blind Bay, Nelson. It was the custom to fire a small cannon on the fore deck to announce the arrival of tlie mail at at every port. AA’e noticed that the steward placed a big charge in the gun and then went to the galley for a red-hot poker to touch her off. All his preparations were made as we came up near the lighthouse, so the filling of the gun in the steward’s absence with turnips and potatoes lying handy was tlie work of a moment. There was a schooner sailing up abreast of us, so we suggested that the steward should give her a surprise by firing blank ammunition at her. The result was a shower of vegetables into tlio sails of the schooner to our infinite delight. AVar broke out instantly and the return was a volume of the finest, description of expletives J over, up to that moment, listened to, ,f.o that we wore able to acquire souk: of the correct expressions in the language to store up for any oxen conductor that we mighthave ou argument with in after life.

ON THE AVEST COAST GOLDFIICLDS.

“Nelson at.that time was called ‘Sleepy Hollow.’* Auckland, being the seat of Government and having the spending of some millions of British gold over the Maori war, held a high hand. Otago had struck rich gold and was springing up rapidly. Wellington was flourishing, but poor Nelson had .nothing cut tier fine climate and rapidly spreading homely industries, so she had to grin and bear it. Our next port was Hokitika, a canvas town, with a shifting bar and the tight little tug ‘Bruce,’ which tendered us ashore for ‘2os a head. We erected our tent at the hack of Revel! Street and get an eariy number of the first paper published on the West Coast. There was a description of the new rush to Ross, then known as Jones’ Creek.

“Now it so Happened that one of our party came out from home to look for his brother. It was reported to his family that this brother was lost in the. snow crossing the Gentle Annie down in Otago. Our friend did not think a"strong young man like his brother could 'be easily lost and he resolved to come, to New Zealand to determine or otherwise his existence still. His plan of action was to go to the latest goldfield and the last rush on that field, and we decided to go with him for luck. Jones' Creek new rush filled the bill and early the next morning found us with all our outfit dangling in new chum fashion tr.-rrnping down the 'bench until we came to the Totara stream, when we camped tor the night, tried to light a fire of fresh-chopped hark.' failed, and made a liungrv meal of flrv biscuits. We gathered some drift wood in the, morning and fried our bacon, made a b’lly of tea and feasted like kings. The track up the cveek to Jones 1 was deep- and full of roots and, although only a counle of miles, was worse then the felling of a kauri tree. Our first impressions of n goldfield were ft surprise—fallen bush, piles of gravel, sluice boxes, ln’.sv men picking and shovelling, heaving at rude windlasses, pitching tents, erecting shanties, whacking and making boles in all directions.._ We got at the fringe of this hiisy crowd, found a level spot on the side of a terrace, strung up our tent, put fern tree stems side hr side for our bed. strewed loaves and twigs, laid our blankets and slept as best we couM with, mir boots for pillows and got through the night as weary men can often do. although the roots and leaves under them mov be tickling their short ribs, Tim rain' c-"me down and we noticed in -rim morning that we bad camped in the bed of a mountain stream-that showed itself responsive to every 1 shower nml rail under oilf pn.nga

mattresses. AA'o had to wade out in the morning thankful that we had not been floated down into tlie creek in our dreams.

“I had brought a spade with me | to the amusement of the old hands i who always used shovels, short-hnnd-j ed except the JJaliandundy hoys from ! Australia, who prided themselves on \ tlie long one, to which they gave a scientific twirl over the shoulder when delivering the shovelful. To start a hole in the ground seemed tlio thing to do, so we set about it at once. Two seemed to me the only profitable number that could he engaged at the shaft at once—one digging, the other sitting oil top to relieve at intervals. So I took a dish and shovel and started to prospect down the creek. I spent half a day exploring and washing bits of gravel, ami turned back to follow the creek us a guide. I remember a big turn that rounded on to itsell and shot across through the hush to get the creek higher up. ! made a mistako and could not find any guiding stream. Night came before 1. could find it and I had to take the best looking spot at tlie foot of a large tree, making the best lair 1 could of damp- ferns and leaves. I tried to sleep, hut a voice from above kept calling out ‘More. Pork’ and made the surroundings uncanny and weird. 1 noticed the sound of the sea on the beach and that gave me a clue in the morning and, alter some time, E goo back to the creek and so home, where I found two men chopping tlie stem of a tree in order to shift it on our tent that had been flattened out by its fall. I remarked that it was a nice mess. ‘Not so had, young Icllow, as that chap lower do.wn wn« felled a tree across two tents and the breakfast hilly.’ My two mates were in tlie tent when tney heard a cry to ‘Look Out.’ Being new to hush-falling they ran out to see the tree conic down und barely escaped being crushed by its fall.

“O'ur mate who had come to look for his brother now- discovered on a brand outside the store down vue creek his brother’s name except that ‘Tom’ instead of ‘Frank’ was the Christian name. On making inquiries where this man worked’ lie found that lie had gone to a new rush up the mountain. In great excitement, he ran hither and thither and,' ns Tom heard of his brother being on the field lie also went in search ot him, but they did not succeed in finding each other for a week. \\ e were nearly starved out and went down to the sea beach, where, cooking the last of our Hour in a greasy frying pan into a slap-jack or sort of bloated pancake, we divided it and ' I tramped away to Hokitika to seek mnployment. After three clays without food or chance of a job, I was walking down Revoll Street quite disconsolate, contemplating the spending of my last half-crown (which J clung to as the last extremity) on a loaf or bread. My eye caught a face looking at me over a vise in a blacksmith’s window. Without a moment’s hesitation, I -stepped over and the youth came out and shook me warmly by the hand and said ‘Oh, Mr. C., what brings you here?’ I told him I was down on my luck. He then told me he worked for his uncle and that he knew me because I used to pass liis smithy going to school in our native town, Templemoro. Asking where I was stopping, I told him I slept under the verandah of the post office! His uncle, Michael Bohan, came out and very kindly invited me in and made a snug doss under the bellows in the shop, which I very gratefully thanked him for. He cooked a sumptuous supper of beefsteak and l rose next morning early trying to conceal my utter destitution by going out without breakfast. The hoy came after mo and I was obliged to again partake of his generous hospitality.’ 1 then hid them a grateful adieu, rolled up my blue blanket and left to get back to the beach, where I had left my mate with the tent. Having failed in the town to get work, 1 soon thought the diggings would find room for me.

“My mate had heard of a new find at Donoghue’s Creek on the other side of the spur from Jones’, not far from where 1 had been lost that night in the bash. 1 found my mate like a hen in a fowl yard scraping away on the sideline above die prospectors and dabbling with a dish, winning speck by speck, in all about a pennyweight of gold, which he put in a wooden match box. Michael Kearney {an old employee of Bianconi’s), the great Irish mail coach contractor) advised us to get a cradle, and directed .me to where I could get one up Dry Bread Creek when a party were just duffered out. I succeeded in geeting it' and, by a deal of lugging and patience, managed to get it”over the r-ough track to our tent. It was no use, however, for there was no water to work it- with. An old Victorian known as “Kangaroo Jack’" now took us in hand and we shifted to an adjacent- spur where the ‘color’ (that- as specks of gold showing in the prospecting dish; was turning up freely. *

“Two very rare events now took place on our field, heralded bv wild ' cheering, clanging of dishes, blowing . of horns, a Highland piper and loud , cries of ‘.Joe! Joe!’ Seated on a 1 horse rode into the creek the first ; woman on the fiat. She was a bar- . maid for Jim Horries’ canvas hotel I and restaurant to dispense shilling 1 drinks and lunches. The I other event was a man wearing soec- . fades, omoldy named ‘Old . Four | Eves.’ The ground where our tent 1 Stood, on the sideline being cleared, , -‘Old Four Eves’ sunk a. shaft of about i R feet and struck a rich a>3tch of sold. J Mv mate, hearing' of-; this, declared j we wp.re sleeping on our pile. About j this time the ether mate, Fill. '.ceme j down from Johns’ bringing )rs hVothi er - and wo lie* *». great eelebrnton ■ down, at Billy Rue’s storm t power- • c.,| riier his brother Fj-pot- was, ‘Look fit him,’ said Bill. ‘Oh! how

glad I came to find him. I knew such, a specimen couldn’t lie iost on any snow-clad Gentle Annie, hut it grieves me to find that he does not believe the Bible is any better than the “Arabian Nights.” ’ Frank laid a short-handle shovel on the ground, made George (about 12 stone) stand on the blade, caught up the handle in both hands and threw him across the table, landing him fairly on his feet at the other side.

"These were the days of our primitive microbes, germs and animaculae. 'Having put down a shaft 20 feet and found a good prospect, wo began a tunnel with rough props, slabs and caps. Our cradle was --reeled with dipper complete and tlie whole set in motion. Oh! it was a glorious day in our annals when we louiid a 15 clwt nugget and in our jov we decided to celebrate the event with a glorious feast of a leg of mutton and a bottle of port wine. This blow-out shed a radiance over the event that still shines this very evening. AYo had got in a bout six feet with our tunnel when old Peter and I came to a hig boulder in the face. Big stones always sat on a good pocket when they occurred in wasli dirt, so we determined to shift it. AVb were both trying to crack it with heavy blows of our pick heads, when 1 noticed a flake fall from the loot of the drive. I caught hold of Peter and dragged him to the shaft; he was nervous and I had to slaw*- Inn up, and we had barely got half-way when the drive fell in and theJow'er half of the shaft with it. AA’e got on top safcljv lit our pipes, went in to our hut and started a game of euchre to- cool our nerves over the shock of our narrow escape.

“AA'o worked the claim for seme months before washing up. AYlien wo had saved about seven pounds of gold per man we sold the concern to the storekeeper for our account with him for tucker and all cleared out for Hokitika. Thus ended my first experience of alluvial mining, and i agreed with my mate George, who said ‘A mail gets tired of even digging gold.' AVe found Hokitika a lively place, as most of the.’lucky strikers were painting the town red, ordering a case of champagne at » time as a shout for all hands, pouring it all into a bucket and serving li

round in pannakins; holding sports and races down Retell Street, out of bravado using one pound notes to light their pipes, holding boxing competitions on the plan that the first shedder of blood shouted for drinks all round. Barry, of Thames fame, fought Hogan, of Bendigo, in the back of one of the hotels, 15 rounds, for a new pair of watertight®. The police turned up to stop the null, but couldn’t force their way through the crowd until it was all oVer, when they declared there must be no more of it or they would be forced to take someone in charge to vindicate the law!

A STOREKEEPER’S RUSH.

Hurst, who had been badly used when he prospected the Greenstone by -having his claim jumped, now, in retaliation, reported a rich find down at Bruce Bay and led ;» new rush down there. iVe had a go and followed the leader for some miles into the mountains until he fled into the forest and escaped through into the Dunstaii leaving a mad crowd behind. It was reported that it was what was called ‘A Storekeeper’s Rush,’ promoted by Mulligan ,tbc publican. The infuriated crowd rushed his shanty, seized all the liquor and then turned to a female who had started a small store. As they were about to loot her little calico warehouse, some one cried out, ‘Boys ’iis a- woman. Let the creature live,’ and they went tlieir way to hold a night's orgie on Mulligan’s liquors down on the beach. A wild scene until daylight found the sands being; paved with human litter like a sanguinary battlefield. TV hen we got back to Hokitika we found a boat leaving for . Wellington and, hearing that gold had been discovered at Terawhiti, down the straits. w„ popped on board, landed at Wellington in time for the New Year sports, won a couple of prizes in the athletic competitions, and, meeting a man wearing a brown plush digger’s hat, who said he had been to the Terawhiti rush and found it was a duffer, our company split up and two of us got, employed bv Tonks next morning on thesrfirst reclamation contract in front of the beach at Lnmbton Oiinv. I ain not ouite certain from memory, britl ‘think this was the rear 1867.

ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH.

“After three months Phil McGovern giul l left to go on a Government

survey up the AYairarapa, passed the embryo Feathcrston, Grey town and Masterton, crossed the Ruanmhanga and camped at the foot of the Otahua Hill close to the river. AVe got flooded out in the Hakahakakehahea stream near Collins’ station, where we had to lie rescued from a fallen log with an old canoe lying in the flax. The rivet ran high for about eight days and we were nearly out of provisions. I managed to get to Bannister's store at Masterton, when they harnessed a bullock loaded up for our camp and the grand old animal plunged into the ford until the river ran to his hack, hut he held his head and never faltered until he drew up safe up the opposite hank. As we got along the camp trail we found a driver in trouble with his team in a swamp patch. He was using the most endearing terms to them and sending his long whip in graceful curves around their raw hides which, he ex, plained, he was merely decorating. One of the beasts lay down and after copious decoration, died. The service that tlie jdiivor offered up for the untimely deceased was touching. "I don’t care a straw for the bally bullock,’ said lie with much emotion, ‘but to lie down and die in this beastly swamp is cowardly.’ AVe could not have had a more hearty welcome if we had been the Campbell brigade to the relief of Lucknow than we hnu when wc returned.,- Cutting hush tracks, chaining out sections, plaining numbered pegs of 4x4 totarn, four feet long, to define the boundaries, running trig lines for miles in every direction was fine healthy exercise that I have never hankered after since, although it cultivated the right muscles for hill climbing and weight carrying. AA’e had a eat and a tamed woka at our camp. I learned to cook a camp oven loaf and CT n Irish stew, could wash my clothes en Sunday and build a grand ti tree shod in front of the tent.

IN A STORE AT TIIE THAMES.

“A rumor having got round- that Hunt's party had struck gold at the Thames, tlio golden microbe again got into my . brain and, ns soon as my place eovifd-be filled, I was off. I called at AVanganui as a mere accident and I was able to meet mv in-

tended, who promised to wait until L made a pile for her. Most of my visit at Wanganui was spent in cultivating love’s young dream. We left Wanganui with the last detachment of the British soldiers in the ‘Rangatira’ to the strains of ‘The Girl -l Left Behind .Me.’ We were nearly swamped crossing Manukau bar but got through, and I took up my abode with mv step-uncle in Auckland and looked out for a billet- being ready for anything bar two—one was driving, bullocks, the other milking cows. I finally got employed as storeman to Petscliler in Shorthand, Thames. 1 copy some linos in the local paper of tlie - day supposed to be inserted by a Frenchman. ‘1 cause myself to arrive by the ‘Enterprise’ making an abutment against Sheehan’s lauding on the Kai fmmga. I look for the streets; it is no streets: it is much water; it is oyster shells. I am induced to proceed and spring ashore. Mv boots they fill up and go down. I meet a man of the field and enquire the place for a chop... He says “Butcher, Baker, Grocer.” 1 I say “Damn, I want a bit of sheep done brown.” The footpaths were two or three planks loosely laid on the mud, very treacherous at the ends when they were likely to spring down and squirt nmd up your body. Butts’ hotel and Theatre stood at the corner of the main street called, T think, Pollen St. Most of the houses were either pubs or boarding houses. Petscbler’s store stood behind Butts’ near the Hopu creek. It was acute angle shape to fit the point of the section and contained three rooms and a long wedge shape general store, containing provisions and wearing apparel, spirits, fruit and vegetables, with an assortment of tinware and ironmongery. I was installed secona officer and a lad was also engaged to run with parcels and messages. 1 st"uek a patch in a claim next the ‘Caledonian’ and invited my intended to join me when I could get a cotta ore out up and. in due course, we settled clown next to Burke’s on the Hapu creek. Shortland. I got mv employer’s permission to make this home hut lie promptly crave me the sac-1: mi the Grounds that he muse have n man living in the store.

WHEN BALLOTS WERE NOT SECRET.

“My old Hokitika chum who found his brother on Jones’ joined me now and we became sharebrokers and did a

thriving business in Bank’s buildings opposite Curtis’ Hotel, Grahamstown. AVe opened up the Little Nell, next ■ to the AA’ild Missouri up the Tararua creek. It was understood that no sharebroker could hope fur success unless he swaggered round smoking cigars and playing billiards. AA’o were getting on quite nicely until my partner went in for dairy farming and oldJ'etsc-liler offered me tlie old Lillet , which I accepted, and ran the place for him until he failed over a shipload of goods imported from Sydnev proving unsuitable for the mark- ' et, not giving him a chance lo realise or get advances on it to meet the | hills passed in payment of them, j Out of collar again 1 organised a j prospecting party to Oliiiiomuri, up ! the AVaitekauri creek. We loaded a j boat tip with goods ,landed at Belmdnt, bought tint Casscl’s store and | began business in a mheh-required j commodity—a. pub that hadn't the sanction of the State. Just about this time John AYillinms-.ni was standing for election for Superintendent of j the Auckland Province and Hugh j j Conlaghan one of his supporters,'! i bought up all the axe and pick ban-' j dies on the Thames to arm the AA’ilI liamsonites on this day. It was before the secrecy of the ballot.

SPIELERS GET TO AYORK

“Our life at the time consisted of pulling a heavy boat up the river from Shortland to Thorpe’s place, Belmont, near Ohiiiemuri, where a crowd of miners were camped on the river batik waiting for the completion of Sir Donald McLean's negotiations for the opening of that district for mining purposes. Some spielers put in an appearance and operated the game of straight poker. They cheated a poor fellow called Jem Sheridan out of all the money he had and, when he made a fuss about it they only laughed at him. He secured a revolver aiul put a bullet into one of them. Feeling that he had killed the fellow, he fled into the hush mid was eventually caught and given two years at his trial, in the Shortland Court. He was examined as to hav- j ing fired at and shot, which lie described. Pointing to Ids body, he said: “The blessed bullet went in'* right here aiul if it wasn’t for my blasted backbone it would have gone right through mo.” About this time the Colonial Forces under General Sir George AVhitmorc were elmsing To Ivooti through the Urowora Country and a rumor was spread that the Upper Thames Natives wore disaffected and had invited the outlaw to come down and make a raid on Shortland. I

A FALSE ALARM

“There was a character known as ‘Bully’ Frazer with quite a bulldog face and fond of haranguing tlio crowd. He formulated a method of defence in case To Kooti should come down. He got possession of the only shot gun to he had and spent an anxious night with this gun concealed in a weeping willow tree, overhanging the river, purposing to blaze into the rebels, then swim across and fetch a rescue party. On hearing his shot all hands were to escape into a swamp that lay at the hack of Belmont and flee to'the bush. One of Thorpe’s dogs who had been for some time practising the art of haying at the moon set up his music about midnight—a thing that under ordinary circumstances would be unnotio, ed. But Frazer at once concluded that the war party were on us, so he fired off the gun and crossed tlie river. Some of us were rushing into the swamp until we heard the wellknown shrill voice of Thorpe crying out: ‘Come back hoys; 't:s a false alarm.’ AA’e never saw ‘Bully’ niterwards. I think he must have bcei. lost in the P'iako swamp in search of the rescue party.

NOVEL FORAI OF DEBT COLLECTING.

“There was a party of retired Military officers camped on the river bank who had an old soldier servant called ‘Come Hither Jack for short. This party became heavily indebted to us at the store and, when the election before mentioned was on Williamson’s supporters sent the ‘Enterprise’ up to canvass and bring down the electors. The officers had gone: down to Shortland in a boat a few days previously, leaving Jack to take charge of their effects until their return. Now the ‘Enterprise’ brought a letter to Jack, which he brought to me to read for him, as be couldn’t ‘spell himself.’ O'l looking at tne letter, I found it was instructions to take down the tents and put all the tilings aboard after dark and come down at once. I read out to him that he was to bring all the things up and store them with Us and come down himself. I helped to bring the things up in a barrow for which lie was most thankful and I saw him safely embarked about 10 at night. Jack’s want of the knowledge of how to spell saved us a loss of about £2O, but I fear caused his masters the inconvenience of having to pay their debts in this unconscious fashion.

“THE PRETTY JANE.’’

“At this time I was called to Auckland to the bedside of my poor relative, who was seized by an internal tumour. I stood hv him for three months to the end. The poor fellow introduced me to his employers to take his place as clerk in the Albert Brewery and, in 1871, I removed to Auckland and took un the position which I. held until.the firm decided_to start a branch at Gisborne in 1874. Whilst engaged in this office. I saw an opening at. Onehunga for a general store, and got an old friend of mine, just arrived from Home to take up the management of it. I removed to Onehunga. got a spring cart, drove in to mv office in the m/orning and brought back supplies

at night.. I accumulated a few- hundreds by this, which gave mo a free hand for the removal to Gisborne with my accumulation of worldly goods in the old ‘Pretty Jane’ of those days. She was a pretty model of a boat, with all the masts and sails of a schooner, for they hadn’t found out the triple expansion engines and the coal consumption was enormous.

Cl! 1 DEED, CABINED AND CONFINED.”

The machinery was crude and liable to a breakdown at any moment. She had to be nursed the whole way down and was obliged to run in for shelter if a head wind, sprang up. Under adverse circumstances, she was often four to six days on the run either up' or down to Auckland. She carried sheen and cattle from Gisborne to .Koliimarama, on the Tamaki creek, south of Auckland. The little deck was often covered with sheep and the hold full of cattle and plank ways were laid from tim cabin to the cook’s galley forward, along which. w!ic;i one had gut sea legs on, one could take an ailing full pi mutton ediair ami beef bellowing. The cabin was over the boiler with a small crib partitioned off for ladies. ‘Cribbed, cabined and confined’ exactly applied to the passenger accommodation. The cry of cork feciders as we left the tumble-down wharf at Turanganui (Gisborne) signified Hint trouble began for most of the voyagers.

HOLD-UP ON Til IP TO GISBORNE.

“On my first trip from Auckland wo called in at the Thames for an eight horse-power portable engine for I the South Pacific Oil Co. at Waionga- ' romia, near where the Gisborne Oil Co.’s works were later situated. The steam engine was laid in the hold and we proceeded on our way until we reached the turning point of Coromandel Peninsula, where we were obliged to take shelter and anchor awaiting a favorable breeze. This breeze came on us with a rush in the north-east direction, having a tendency to blow us onto the rocks at the point. Our boat began to rock at' her anchor, causing the engine below to fall over and nearly swamp us. An attempt was made to heave the anchor, but it was caught in a rock below. With all hands and the donkey engine we got the anchor free at last and got away into the shelter m Brown’s Island, where we- found a small cutter laden with trusses or hay. The men in this cutter, one of. whom had a wooden leg, came alongside and traded a truss of hay for some provisions that they had run short of. As wo had some prize sheep just imported from Home aboard, the exchange came in very timely for us also. GISBORNE'S BUSINESS PEOPLE, IN ’74.

“When we reached the river at Gisborne, it struck me that the scene was not much changed from that presented to Captain Cook when lie first landed from the ‘Endeavor.’ We had to land at the Boat Harbor We found Sam Stevenson, G. E. Rend, G. Lawrence, J. Harvey, Skipworth and W H. Tucker amongst the few first tc meet us on arrival. Old Blind Charley, who ran the Turanganui ferry, l.'cd in a lnit about the Supreme Court site. Stubbs, the chemist, kept the Post Office. The Albion and the Argyll were the first hotels and the Masonic was in course of erection. Capt. Read and Mr. Horsfall carried on the only stores. Mr. Horsfall subs quently sold to Kinross and Graham. Mr R. Thehvall had a butcher’s shop >vhere Mr. dcLautour’s buidings now stand. Air. Buchanan had opened a general store where the Poverty Bay Club stands. Mr. Daly was building the ‘Sliain.rock,’ now the Gisborne Hotel. Sledge bouses that had been drawn into tlie town after the Te Kooti raid stood in every direction. Dr. Nesbitt and bis family lived in a cottage at the back of Adair Bros., which was given up to me with the section to Bead’s Quay, on which v.c built the new brewery.

A TRAMPING EXPEDITION

“I started to explore the country on foot, did the Coast as far as Whang,era, then crossed the ferry down the Big River to Wairckaia, up to Kni tern tali: .on the way to the oil springs at Wnirongnromla, above Wiiatatutu. Tom Bell" had opened the Kaiteratahi Hotel and, stopping there lor the night, I ordered an early breakfast, “intending to follow the trail of tlie engine that had just been hauled up by a bullock team a few da vs before. ~ It was considered to bo quite an unheard of thing for a man to go on a tramping excursion in Poverty Bar and Tom volunteered to find a fair of good horses and accompany me to the o:l wells just startinn-.' Arthur Cuff had an accommodation house at Whntntutu, where we wore kindly treated for the night and plunged up the hill to the works in the morning. I rode up to the works with Tern Bell (who afterwards settled with his family on Sunday Island) the derrick was - being erected and the engine had been pulled up hill to the site of the first well, i think Parsons was the first American expert in charge of the works. The surface indications were very promising and oil and gas exudes all the wav through the hills up to HAura iigi at the East Cape where, in some places, a surface deposit of what is known ns dopplerito exists. It is a sort of solidified crude oil saturating the -vegetable matter of the surface and petrifying rats, birds, or lizards that have’ become immersed in it. Petrifying is hardlv the correct word for it. but the animals nj-e preserved intact and 3olid in the oil.

We clambered down the greasy slopes of the Waiongaromia, forded [he Waipaoa and the Manga in river and went on through this to the ti tree scrub and I nursed my blisters for a couple of days at Kaiteratalii before crossing the hill to Ormond to catch Bidgood’s coach for Gisborne.

“Abel Fletcher, the well sinker 1 brought from Auckland, had made „

good shape lor the well six feet in diameter and had a kerb constructed to protect the sides as it was; excavated. Tiiis kerb was a wooden frame, lined with bricks and, being about (i feet high, sunk by its weight as the well was excavated below it. Then another similar layer was attached to the top of the first and .so continued to the finish.

In ]S7o, the year following his arrived in Gisborne to take charge oi the local brewery, Mr. Crawford took over the business. Twenty years later a company was formed to take over the business ami he was appointed manager. Subsequently tile business was acquired by another eninp.ipv with Mr. I). J. Barry a- managing director. In turn it was taken oyer , wo ur throe years back bv N.Z. Breweries-Ltd. Mr. Crawford had always taken a keen interest in j holography and for a number of years he next conducted a studio in Harris’ Buildings. Some years before the war he paid a visit to his native land and subsequently he went to' reside in Auckland with a daughter, who was the wife of Archdeacon Hawkins and passed his last days in the Queen City of the North.

ECHOES OF PROGRESS! VI LEAGUE.

MY. Crawford, throughout his lengthy residence in Gisborne, strived to his utmost to advance its interests. His heart and soul in what was known as the Progressive League, the objects of which were as under:—

To endeavor to organise, throughout the City of Gisborne and the electorates of Gisborne and Bay or Plenty, the large unorganised section of the community, whose views and opinions are not reflected hv tho motives and objects of any existing institution, with a view to—(a) Creating a healthy and rational public opinion in all matters of a social, commercial and industrial character; (h) Inspiring electors, Loth town and country, with a true and spirited sense of their responsibilities; (e) Inducing broadminded moil of integrity and ability to contest all public positions; (d) Supportng actively every, movement which makes for the betteiniont and liberty of the community : (e) ’Hiking nil active interest in all concerns which affect tho Port. City and electorates of 'Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty; ff) Expressing the voice of true public approval and disapproval as the, occasion demands on the actions and schemes of public corporat'ons in the administration of public affairs; (g) Extending to men of recognised ability the opportunity of addressing the country upon matters of a public character whereof they have made a special study; (h) Urging the claims of Gisborne and surrounding districts to the right to he, supplied with necessary public buildings; (j) Offering every reasonable inducement for the occupation of our waste lands and reading of same; (j) Establishing throughout the City of Gisborne and country districts a complete system of organisation with a view to the achievement of the above objects.