MINER'S SECLUDED LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

MINER'S SECLUDED LIFE

FORTY-FOUR LONELY YEARS

HEIR TO FAMILY FORTUNE

EX-NEW ZEALANDER'S ROMANCE

A recent arrival in Sydney from Western Australia was a lonely, greybearded old man who has felt strangely out of place in tho big cities he has visited during recent weeks.

Tho man is a figure out of Australia's most colourful past, Mr. W. H. ("Maori") Dawkins, who has been doscribed as one of tho greatest gamblers this country lias ever known. He is now 75 years of age, but tho years havo not dimmed the keen grey-blue of his eyes, but as it is 44 years since ho left tho gay lifo of the cities he has felt ill at ease. Mr. Dawkins can still recall the Sydney and Melbourne of tho past—thoso early, wild days, when scenes were enacted similar to those pictured in somo of those memorable Far West "talkies." In tho early 'nineties thero were nights whon ho watched thousands of pounds pass over the gambling tables of Sydney and Melbourne. For the past 41 years "Maori" Dawkins has lived in a lonely shack in tho Black Range, in Western Australia. He found life in the quiet hills not so exciting as tho days when his fortune depended oil tho fall of a card, but to him it was not loss enjoyable, and his continual search for gold always added zest to his lonely existence.

Dawkins'best find was many years ago, when he discovered a gold nugget tho size of a man's hand. It weighed 330z., and he sold it to the Western Australian Government for £5 an ounce. The old miner had not set foot in a modern city until ho passed through Perth last week. "I was in Sydney last

in 1889 and in Melbourne in 1890," he said, and he smiled for a moment us lie recalled his memories.

"I came through Adelaide in 1891, and my last visit to Perth, before last week, was in 1892," said Mr. Dawkins. He did not think it strange that he should have buried himself for so long in the outback of Australia. Ho viewed the bustling life of to-day with some indifference, but he said he noticed that the young woman of to-day had a better carriage than the women of his day. They had stronger legs, but •'they are not better looking." Mr. Dawkins says be is on his way to claim a family fortune. His legacy did not come as a surprise to him. Ho knew he was the last of his family—a family that went to New Zealand from England nearly 100 years ago. Mr. Dawkins came to Australia GO years ago, and when certain formalities are in New Zealand he is "home"—to the Old Country—so that ho can settle down at Dorchester, Dorset.