A TWICE-TOLD TALE

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11423, 20 January 1923, Page 12

A TWICE-TOLD TALE

“THE WAIOHINE RUSH” AN OLD-TIME HOAX. (Contributed.) As an ex-Wairarapa resident, E.O.R.’s early reminiscences, as published in the “New Zealand Times,” of the 13th instant, proved pf immense interest to the writer, who would take liberty in suggesting that the item referring to a veritable “mare’s nest”—the reported discovery of an auriferous reef in the near vicinity of Greytown—most probably had relationship to that episode in early Wairarapa history then known to local fame as the “Waiohine Rush.” In his book of published verse bearing the main title, “The Pirate Chief,” the late William Skey (at that remote period Analyst to the Geological Survey of New Zealand) has “immortalised” in verse an adventure that first “startled” and subsequently "amused” the Wairarapa Valley from one end of it to the other—a “hoax" of mirth-producing magnitude to all save the few participators taking the leading part therein. In a footnote to his geologicallyilescriptivc and intensely amusing, if somewhat protracted poem, entitled "The Waiohine Rush," this locally-revered analyst-poet remarks: —"This rush occurred last summer"—what year can only be surmised, as his hook of poems was not yet published from collected verses already widely known, several of them, per medium of the Press—"and was occasioned by the fact that the prospectors had collected from this .locality a red rock which they gave the hotelkeeper, who forthwith placed it on his mantelpiece. About a year afterwards this piece, or probably a substitute of it, was dispatched to the Colonial Laboratory for analysis, when I proved it to contain thirty ounces of gold per ton.” Judge then the secret delight of the residents of Greytown in particular, ana other Wairarapa townships in general, when appeared these opening lines i

"From the town in forest born, From the town in river worn, Went there forth at early morn. Of its men a hardy band; With their pe.nikins in hand, Yellow grains to measure qff, That are gathered in the trough In the narrow winding rift, Of the Waiohine swift, Or in reefs is gathered thick. Waiting for the heavy pick Of the gallant ones who’ll dare 'Midst the locks of upper air; Of the active ones who'll crawl Where the avalanches fall. Where tho. waters ever brawl, On the Tararaus tall. Went they forth with eyes ablaze. Joyful through the morning haze, Each upon lis gallant moke, Wrapped .in thought and wrapped in smoke, , Dreaming of the joys to he In the near iuturity; With their claims already pegged, With their nuvpets safely kegged. With their wives and sweethearts dressed In Kirkcaldie’s very best; And a balance at the hank, Ample for a man of rank, With a balance that would bring Joy unto that happy thing, Joy unto a silver king.”

' Verso upoi verso, the poet traces for them every action of the redoubtable six prospectors in their fevered search for the identical red reef from which it was supposed, the voar previous, one or other of them had chipped therefrom the wondrous specimen of quartz yielding thirty ounces to tho, ton!

“Now above the forest green, Surely that red reef is,seen, Which to them a year ago, In their memorable trip Yielded to the lucky blow, That despised neglected chip. ■Members of the Tararua Tramping Club should commit to, memory, for the delectation of their non-tramping ,c:ty fir Vends, this long and rambSxnjj (but faithfully descriptive poem in its entirety, anti watch its "wanderlust” effect upon such of these “side-walk steppers” as have never yet ventured to scale the storm-riven peaks of the distant but entrancing Tararua ranges, which—from the end of Queen’s wharf on any fine summer's day—offer panoramic' inducements to every city dweller to "up-swag” and make nearer acquaintance one with the other. Its membership. already beyond the century mark, would immediately swell to breaking point, and lead them to that spot. "Where the rivers have their birth In the secret springs of earth; "Where upon its highest steep Lies that thick, gold-studded reef, “Where the precipices frown. On the water far adown; "Where the hurricanes are nursed, Eire upon the plains they burst. Could they resist at least “one small adventure” into such delightful mountain fastnesses as were traversed by this intrepid band of gold-seekers in the early ’seventies, after once reading Skey’s description of them? Writer, for one. was lured thereby into the Mount Hector country; and, but for the late Hugh Girdlestone’s map to guide him—and a trusty but equally unequipped companion to cheer his solitude and condone his rashness —might easily have come to grief in attempting but one half the journey. Nothing is more uncertain, at times, than the reception ot these frowning sentinels of the’ skyline when approached in cavalier fashion by any save tried and trusted mountaineers of their more approved acquaintance. Post and prospector alike, each of them hereby recalled have long gone to thqjr eternal rest; an "adventure into strange country** that awaits us, one and all. Only the l’arauas, tall, and a neglected volume of verse that few of th» presentsday generation arp likely to be interested in, remain to tell the tale, twice-told, of the "Waiohine Rush.”