NARRATIVE OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH-WEST GOLD-FIELDS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 23, 22 February 1868, Page 3

NARRATIVE OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH-WEST GOLD-FIELDS.

[By Reuben Waite.] [Concluded.'] In the month of January, 1865, 1 supplied a party with provisions to pro.-pect up the Grey River, the party consisting of while men and Maoris; amongst them there was one well known on the Colling woud gold-fields, named George Cundy. After an absence of about two months, they came clown with a very fair prospect of heavy gold, consisting of several good-sized pieces of gold gob from a creek which they named Maori Creek, and one nugget weighing 22ozs. 12 dwts. Now several parties had been up the Grey previously, but had not succeeded in getting anything like a payable prospect. These men who brought down this heavy gold I had confidence in j they were men whom I had known for years, and I felt satisfied that if there was any gold to bo found, they would not leave a stone unturned but they would find it. The Grey district was then very quiet, there being only my store at the lauding, and Blake's store near the lagoon. But the news of the nugget soon got spread, and tho people began to come in ineb fvotn tho other diggings. 'J-'liere was no conveyance up the Grey except by the Maori canoes and Balty's coal boatß. Gradually, however, we got up a small fleet of boats, which were kept plying to and fro between the Nelson and Canterbury sides of the river, and a good deal of money they made, charging la 6d. ea.'h, and sorneti?»es taking a dozen in aboub a quarter of an hour. Tho Maoris, who hnd hitherto been averse to persons building on their land, now began to see the value of letting it. When I first went to the Grey, they let me an aero of ground on condition that I would let no one else build on it, us they would not allow another store to be put up there, although repented offers were made to them. But when the great rush came they asked me first if they should let it, and I told them to do so by all means, as it would bring them in money ; then of course I had the chance of let ting mine. One day there was a perfect rush for Maori ground, and any amount of speculation in it. Some people have done a good thing with it. From this time we may say that the Grey district, formerly pronounced useless, has proved to bo a first-class gold-field. This is tin example of a good diggings being left for a long time un worked through the inexperience of men who pretend to go prospecting. Several parlies, as I before observed, had been up this river for what they chose to call prospecting, and this is a proof of how much faith is to be placed in the opinions and experience of those sort of people, many of whom call themselves practicul diggers. There are others, ugain, who, as soon ns they hear of gold being found, are off to the spot directly, and if the gold-field should not turn out any good, are Iho first to create a disturbance for the sole purpose of robbery. The towns on the West Coast are crowded with these ruffians, though luckily they are getting to be pretty well known now in spite of their shipping about from place to place. In the early pnrt of this rush up the Grey, there was no town on the Nelson side of the river, nor any police. I recollect one day a constable belonging to the Canterbury forco coining down the coast from Ilokitika after a man who it appeared had been duping all tho storekeepers between Ilokitika and the Grey, by giving them cheques and receiving the balance. He represented himself as being a wholesale- storekeeper, having two places of business in Ilokitika, and pretended to be soliciting orders. By these means lie would get his food and lodgings, and give a cheque. He tried to impose upon me, but I was too well acquainted with Ilokitika: 1 could not tell where \m firm's place of business was situated, so that I had him cut and dried. This fellow had crossed the, river on to the Nelson side, and when tho constable was told (by me) that he had crossed over the river, he said, " Oh, I must not go out of my province ;" so the fellow got awny, otherwise he might easily have been caught. I saw by rhis it would be an easy mutter for a man to rob me and go over to the Nelson side and grin »(> me, so I made it my business to inform the Superintendent of Nelson of the circumstance. Tho Superintendent promptly sent clown constables, with Mr. Blackett as Commissioner; this, I believe was the cause of tho town of Cobden being laid out. What the gold diggings in that district have been almost everyono in the province knows. The town of Greymouth sprang up as if by magic — faster even than Hokitika. A short time ago I was at the Grey, walking along one of the back streets, a man accosted me thus, " Can you tell me which is such a street " (mentioning the name of a street, which I do not now remember). I told him I did not know. "Ah," ?aid he, " I see you are a stranger here like myself" Guess his surprise when I told him I was the first white resident there. It is needless to add anything more about ihe scores of different creeks, rivers, and terraces that have been discovereH since the opening of these gold-Gelds, they are of course leading one to the other. I always had a great liking for the Buller, and I always felt satisfied that it would be the finest port and the healthiest place on the coast. So strongly did I cling to this opinion, that I once offered my right to the acre which the Maoris had let me, and the store on the Grey, to Mr. Batty, for £100. This was just before the great rush ; a month afterwards it was worth a thousand pounds; so that it will readily be believed I did not deeply that Mr. Batty declined my offer. , Still I had a hankering for the Buller, and hearing that a mob of men were there, and that they were killing my cattle, I paid £20 for the Wallaby to land me in there. At that time no steamers went into the Buller unless they were paid in this way. I have repeatedly written about the Buller and Cape Foulwind as a shelter from S.W. winds, but no notice was taken of it. I have known several vessels <;o to Nelson or info Blind Bay for shelter, from Ilokitika, when they might have got quite as good under Cnpe Foulwind or in the Buller. That the Buller will bo the largest and finest district in the province, I feel satisfied. It will take time to devclope it, it is true, but this is rather an advantage, ns no good ever came of a sudden rush ; and it is not always those who go first into a place that do the best, especially when tho rush is great. Business gets in a confused state, and, with sending goods here, there, and everywhere, the storekeeper finds at last, that the diggers have given him the slip, and he may look long for his money. There is a certain class of men on the diggings who call themselves merchants, who put aB many airs on as though they were the greatest merchants possible — in fact, they need to do (his to make themselves somebody, and to keep the ball rolling. These are the men who have done more injury to the diggings than any other class. They start with nothing but a good suit of clothes on their back, which, by -the- by, is usually obtained at the expense of some tailor in the place they last left. They make a start on credit, and, if they Biicceed, well and good, but if not, why, when their hat is on, their castle is roofed — nothing from nothing, nothing remains. But when a place is quietly settled, it steadily improves itself, and such I think the Buller will now be. It ha 3 great natural resources, such as no other part of the province possesses ; it has a good harbour, and, close at hand, stands a vast mountain of tho finest coal in the world ; there are thousands of acres of country yet unexplored for gold and other minerals; there is a large tract of good land along the coast running either towards Cape Foulwind, or north towards Mokihinui; and both sides of the Buller River, as far as the gorge, are capable of growing anything. I have seen lots of wheat that was grown by Maoris when I first camo to the coast, and the primitive style of sowing and harrowing there was not ploughing or digging ; the seed was merely thrown down, nnd a large bush harrow, drawn by four or five Maoris, with two women riding on the brush to keep it down, was all the cultivation thought of. This was at the Grey. At some of the old cauipiiifr-grounda up the Buller I have seen both oats, and wheat, and vetches that have been shaken from a potatoe bag or something else, self sown, growing as finely as if they had been on cultivated soil. When the diggers on the old diggings up the river had settled themselves down, they dug a piece

of ground, and planted cabbage and other vegetable?, and brought down some to tho Buller; indeed I have seen some fine large cabbages at the 13 idler free from blight, when there wag scarcely a cabbage to be got in Nelson. Again, at the junction of the Inangahua with the Buller, about thirty miles upon both sides the Buller, there are some fine fern fiats, and what will be some fay in that locality a payable gold-field, when provisions find their level. I have often wondered that men having families have not been up there, lor there is digging close by that would keep the pot boiling, and some of the finest soil in tho Province of Nelson, with nothing but fern and flax Lo clenr, which could be done with a lighted match, and there is plenty of feed for cattle or pigs. In the immediate neighbourhood is plenty of white pine, riinu, and birch. The Maoris who used to carry the goods to tho Lyell had a patch of potatoes just here, and, instead of carrying them in their ennoes, used to stay and get some as they wanted them. As before stated, I came to the Buller in the Wallaby for the purpose of putting a stop to the slaughter of my cattle. I took up my old residence afc Westpovt, and had not been long there when tho rush to Mokihinui started, and a vessel of mine WOllt in there with a cargo of goods, which sho delivered, but in coining out was wrecked on the North Shore. I went down there to see to it, and the weather being bad, I was compelled to stay there three or four days. I caught what is called the swamp fever, and was so bad that I had to be carried on board tho st amer and taken to Nelson. More than once my life was despaired <?f, and I was bad for eight or nine months, so that I cannot tell you much about Charleston or the diggings known as Waite's Fakihis. I was surprised, on my return j to the Buller, to see a largo town sprung up, though it was nothing more than I had predicted long ago. When I stood on tho point looking at the steamers, shipping, and about thirty ferry bouts plying for hire, und the hundreds of people walking to and fro, the numbers of horses and drays, I thought what a change in the scene from the time I first landed on this point when we pitched our first tent to put our stores in. We had then to clear the bush to pitch it. The first night the rats were constantly running over us, and we had to cover our heads over with the blankets to keep them off the face. Afterwards we rented a Maori whare lo start a More in, und the little craft was the only vessel in the Lagoon. So, thought I, that little ketch was the forerunner of all this greatness on tho whole of the West Coast. I will here ju<*t mention that the diggings known as Waite's Fiikihis are named after me, it; being my right of runs — 600 acres and 300 acres — which entitles me to pre-emptive, right. I have been seeking to obtain a recognition of this, and which, had it. been granted at the time I first applied for it, the runs would have done me some good. But I could not succeed. There was any amount of putting off from time to time, while thousands of diggers traversed the Pakihis everywhere, and my cattle had been ecal tercel in all directions, been shot down and driven so wild that I had to sell them at a nominal price. Mr. Kynnersley writes to the Government in this strain :—: — "To the Provincial Secretary, Nelson. " Sir — I am informed by Mr. Reuben Waite that he has applied to tho Commissioner of Crown Lands to purchase eighty acres for a homestead on each of his runs on the Pakihis, south of the Buller. I therefore think it advisable to inform you that, upon the run nearest to the Eiver Buller, Mr. Waite has erected a house and fenced in some twenty or thirty acres of land, and that upon this run, although it has never been stocked, I consider thut he is fairly entitled to the pre-emptive right of the homestead ; but upon the other run to the southward no improvements whatever have been made, and it has never been stocked. If Mr. Waite is permitted to purchase his homestead, he will probably select the prospecting and adjoining claims on Addisou's Flat, where the present rush is situated. " Westport, June 1, 15G7." I have proved to the satisfaction of the Waste Lauds Board that these runs were stocked, and that I have held them since 1863, and my statement was never contradicted. The Groverninent has always received the rent up to this day. It would seem strange that I should keep two men on these runs besides employing others at various times, if the runs were never stocked. As to my choosing to exercise my pre-emptive right where tho diggers claims are, I have been long enough O7i gold-fields to know better than that. If Mr. Kynnersley had looked on the left hand side of the road by the Bald Hill, going towards Addison's Flat, he would have seen a house and stockyard : that is where I hud intended my second pre-emptive right should be exercised. It would seem that evcrv obstacle was thrown in my way to prevent me from getting what I consider is my just rights. Although this is by no means all that might bo said on this matter, I will not give further particulars, as it could have no interest for the general reader, and must apologise for having taken up so much space with n private grievance-; this account, however, shows what treatment may be expected on the gold -fields. I will just make one or two further remarks, and then conclude my narrative. That tho Maoris were the fir-<t to find and bring in gold in any quantity there is not a shadow of a doubt, and that they were the leaders for a long time, is, as I have before shown, quite certain. I believe, however, that some years ago, when Mr. J. Kochfort, the surveyor, was exploring the Buller district, he found some little gold up the Buller river, and I believe it was in consequence of this discovery that the Maoris went to look for gold. It is evident they knew but little about gold, as, when they came to the Aorere, they did not know the value of it. I may as well state here that the Buller Maoris first brought gold from the Knramoa. They used to take provisions from the Buller to the Karamea on their backs, and bring back as much as fifteen or twenty ounces of gold as fine as flour. How they saved it I cannot tell. All that a Maori wanted was flour, tea and sugar, and tobacco. He could get everything else, and live where a white man would starve. My opinion is that the whole coast, from Wanganui Inlet to the Buller, is more or less auriferous and will eventually be worked. Had the Collingwood dis'rict had the trial the West Coast has had, and with the same Hppliances that are now being used for getting the precious metal, thousands of ounces more would have come from there than has come. I have had a groat deal of travelling about in that district, and I am of opinion that there is just as good digging in that district as there is on the West Coast. I hope that what I hove written will give offence to no one, as I have done it with the desire to please, if possible. I have written entirely from memory, and there may, therefore, be some little errors I trust, however, that the account which I have given will be of interest, and as the main particulars are at all events correct, that my namitive will be of some value to those who care to know what was the true origin of the West Coast gold-fields.

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