FOR OLD TIMES’ SAKE.

Grey River Argus, 10 July 1922, Page 8

FOR OLD TIMES’ SAKE.

(By “Old Boy.”) ’LS’"? o l TU’' ~—T r T’ ’W? The next peg upon which I intend to hang an article is BOUNDARY STREET. This thoroughfare is still in the , ffice that it was when the writer was a boy, but it has been vastly improv- •» -in its formation. In olden days was, underfoot, always one of the roughest of streets us, besides being r-tuiiy formed in the first instance, it bad enormous traffic upon it, and was, addition, being continually torn up, in flood time, by the rush of water .. om the river to the lagoon. All the traffic to and from Hokitika, and all Iho jreat southern gold diggings passel, in the brave days of old, up and dow; Arney Street and Gresson Street, •snd i cbod the business portion of ‘uo ■ •wn (Richmond and Mawhera Quejs , by way of Johnston Street or Boundary Street. Ashton’s Stables, .•» th< d named thoroughfare, was .aJjv i a busy place in those days, anil L. •,r still as the up-country digguigij became more accessible to saddle’ h-, r-“ , ches and waggons. Wheeled vehicles of every shape and descrip ion even to an Irish Jaunting car) (fact) wore 11 parked” on the seaward or eastern side of Boundary Street. Moving traffic by tacit consent alike Of th ’ general public and the civic authorities, was practically confined to 'he western or upper side. In thisj streo* MacGregor (2) and Campbell (who by the way, were not Germans!) had n flourishing blacksmith’s shop next to the stables; their lending hand. John Tannvr, being renowned throughout the Coast as a farrier and horse •:>etor. The Imperial corner was, in aiy time, occupied by the Red House, once the shop of Charlie Southam, the 1 ootmaker, but the corner had at var- : us times many owners and occupiers both before and since. Perotti’s Hotel was then occupied by Peter Bell Cameron, whose sons John, Abbie, and William were favourite schoolfellows of many ‘‘old boys.” Kitchingham’s bicycle shop was Mr T. North’s crockery and toy emporium, not large in appearance, but with its motto ‘‘small profits and quick returns,” doing sufficient trade to support a large family, 4vspect<|fj descendants of which are »lili in Greymouth. The “Argus” Office with its vicissitudes of tire, flood and escape from hanging, deserves, a special article some day! The bund rotunda did not obstruct the vicv , . thos-o days, and Wickes’s and Watm’s Timber yard, on the Beehive Cor- • 'r, was visible to the whole sheet. Duncan McLean’s shop, without the ironmongery department, was known i everybody. It is undoubtedly the oldc-.< established business of its kind in Greymouth,..carried on continuously !»\ members of the same family. (The firm was originally McLean and Hag gart, but this was before my time). On or about the site of the Band Rotunda there was, in early days, a rather quaint old drinking trough for horses, surmounted by a wooden arch as a lamp post and it is interesting to recall that the lamps of those old “kerosene” days were lit by Mr Goodall, the father of the present efficient Borough servant, who now light cns our darkness. The tramway to Saltwater, afterwards extended to Marsden and later on to Kumara, was opened in 1867, and started from a mere platform at this drinking trough and lamp post. The course of the old tramway can still be traced by the eye from near the Fire Brigade Station towards Preston Road Bridge—in olden times always spoken of as Sefton Bridge. The line had to be raised on an embankment immediately after leav-

ing Boundary Street, owing to the low lying nature of the ground, which was under water at every spring and neap tide. The title of the street we are dealing ■with is derived from the fact that the street itself separates the Maori leasehold portion of our borough from the State-owned or freehold part. The old names, “Maori Town” and “Government Town” were very convenient, and it seems a pity that they were done away with when the borough divided into wards which have, themselves, since been abolished. The writer is trying to walk wide of politics of any sort, but the present day agitation for the freehold, oi Maori leases reminds him that a much more enthusiastic movement for the same purpose took place in early 70.’s, close upon fifty, (not twenty-live) years ago. In spite of the great pressure brought to bear by means of public meetings, deputations to Wellington, and so forth, the movement was unsuccessful notwithstanding the fact that, Major Heaphy, V.C. Administrator of the land for the Natives, was in favour of the freehold. The area upon which so great a portion of Greymouth is built is in a very different position to most native reserves of the Colony. Jt is territory reserved by the Maoris, not for the Maoris. It is Native Land, not native reserve, and never was the property of the Pakeha. This fact, and the complications arising from it, are well-known of course to our local lawyers and conveyancers. At the time of the first agitation, a somewhat amusing mistake was made by the Member of Par liament for the Grey, Mr Harrison (who by the way was Editor of the 4 ‘Argus.”) He telegraphed from Wellington that he had discovered a deed made in 1860 in which the Maoris <®ded all the rights on the Coast to

the Governor. Great wa*> the joy in Greymouth, and Air Harrison was | toasted in many a public house! Alas? , it. was soon discovered that he had only read the book by half! The deed he had got hold of was Mackay’s purchase, and he had failed to notice that the old Maori Chiefs had absolutely refused to part with the 500 acres above the lagoon. Note.—ln writing these notes it is very difficult to avoid the. use of the first personal pronoun. It is not egotism, but the nature of my discourse which causes me to use it. I hope to obviate the fault later on, but here is one more reminiscenc-e at present. Many years ago (probably more than thirty) I was talking in Kumara to that dear old lady Airs Rugg, whose husband at one time owned boats on the Grey River and a hotel in Boundary Street. Hearing that I was going to dreymouth she asked me to call at Alary Burchell’s Hibernian Hotel ’ in Boundary street and quietly see if there were a picture of old-time Greymouth still hanging in one of the rooms there. Airs Rugg, for whom the picture had been painted in oils, had parted with it, but thought .she might some day like to recover possession. I called at the hotel, but found its name had been changed to the Golden Eagle.” a title it still retains. The picture was there, and I told Mrs Rugg I had seen it, but she died some years afterwards, without taking steps to repurchase it if possible. The picture is hanging on the wall in a parlour of the Golden Eagle to this day! I believe it to be the. earliest picture of the town extant at the present time. Its intrinsic value, from a purely artistic point of view, may not be much, but as a record of old times it is of very great interest