"SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22751, 11 December 1935, Page 10

"SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO"

TO I'HE EDITOR. Sir, —In your issue of the sth lnst. under the above heading you reproduce a paragraph which says that fears are felt for the safety of Martin Souness and Joseph Pryde,' who went to Makarora to cut mining props. The paragraph says they intended to raft the props to Lake Hawea. This is an error, as the props were to be rafted to Lake Wanaka. Always the mode of procedure was to cut or saw the timber at Makarora Bush, then raft it down the Makarora River to the head of Lake Wanaka, about five miles, each raft being managed by one man, who had a long pole to nush the raft into the right channel. These rafts were dismantled at the head of Lake Wanaka, and the material stacked up till several rafts were accumulated. These were then built into one big raft and partly pulled, and partly sailed down Lake Wanaka to the head of the Upper Glutha River, where they were discharged, and a number of small ones were built and floated down the river to Lowburn, and disposed off from there, two men managing each raft. There were five men in the party with Souness and Pryde, but the other three may have been employees. Some were Norwegians, who had a lot of experience of bush work in their native land. They were never seen again. I received these particulars from Mr Thomas Tait, one of the Kawarau Gorge pioneers. Mr Alexander Wilson, who was one of the later pioneers of Wanaka, told me that the poles were washed up on the lake beach below H. S. Thomson's West Wanaka Station.

A,few years after this George Yeldham and Charles Hamilton (" Yankee Charlie") were taking a small raft down Lake Wanaka, and it broke up and became unmanageable. By good luck, the next morning, John Mason, whose father was British Vice-consul at Bremen, and Alexander Bell, the owner of the first small boat on the lake, were sheltering at Castle Point, west of Pigeon Island. When they saw something unusual in the grey dawn Mason climbed the mast to get a better view, and then went across in the dinghy and rescued the two partially shipwrecked men, who were soon recovered after their all-night struggle for life. Once they thought of trying to swim ashore at East Boundary Creek, but Hamilton said that would be hopeless. A few years later still a squall upset a boat with three men at Makarora. William Caton, who spent the last 30 years of his 1 life at Makarora, and James Bayno, one of the pioneers of Anderson's Bay,

swam ashore, about 20 yards, but Billy Smith, the laughing-faced, bright-eyed “ Billy,” went down, never to rise any more. About 30 years ago there was another mishap on the lake. A youth named Moore, from the Gore district, was poking a raft down to the Head of the Lake, and it broke up and left him astride a big straining post, with another one across the top of it in front of him. His legs were in the water. Once he went to sleep and dreamed he was riding one of the mill horses. After being nearly all night on the lake, he landed on Pigeon Island, and went to a deserted camp, where there was one piatch in a box. He soon had a big fire, and dried his clothes and slept all day. In the evening, or on the next morning, William Allan, who was stleaming up the lake, rescued him. —I am, etc., Richard Norman. Lawrence. December 9.