Round About Switzers.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 17

Round About Switzers.

■> TO THE ED ITO U. Sir,—Your travelling correspondent, during his peregrinations "round .about Switzers, evidently stumbled against and button-holed someone of its inhabitants whose knowledge ot the times expatiated upon was of the meagrest description. The information elicited at Jiaphazard is in most instances contrary to fact and the actual records ol the o'.d-time diggings. With regard to postal matters, Mr Geo. Bailey was appointed first postmaster and registrar of birtns, etc., after Skene and Haast relinquished the duties of giving out the mails. When Mr Bailey left the district the late Mrs Frank Fieldmg, nee Hawson (not Hanson), elected to take over the duties, and continued to perform them until the opening of the telegraph service by Mr Storey, who perfonred the combined duties of telegraphist an t postmaster. The first appointed schoolmaster imder the Education Board at SwitzeTs was Mr John Frederick Dean, hailing ironi Holbeck, a suburb of Leeds, Yorkshire, a mfin of sterling ability, also a thorough musician, now residing in the States. lurther, Mi Dean was never known or called by the nickname of "Mount Cook", he was called ''Vir Dean, ' as he always conimjmded gTeat respdet in the then wide district. He owned a hoise rejoicing in that name from the fact of the , quadruped having carried him during one of his holiday excursions to the part of Mount ] Cook where the Hermitage is now elected, i Tho old Bank of Otago was fii^t opened at j Switzers by Mr T. T. Ritchie, now of Dunedin. ! I ought to know, as in the year IS7O I sod *o him the first pound weight oi gold procured at the diggings. Mr W. H. Davidson succeeded him; then followed Messrs Hare, (of the "Big House" fame), and Taylor, who now abides at Waikaia m the new bank premises erected there. Doctor M'Crystal was a long j way off being the first to be mu-ied m the cd j Welshman's Gully cemeteiy. Long befoie the j decease of that gentleman seveial burials Iccl^ place there. Among the very ear'}' burials may be noted Mr Carme, mar.a'ior of Skene and Haast's water lace; Tom White, a prominent man among the diggeis at thst time, who was killed (well do 1 lcmenibur the dayl) by being earned down with a fall of the huge face of his claim on Frenchman's H'll, whereon he was standing, and crushed Lo death. If your tiavelhug co-respondent had resided at Switzers in those stirring o:d times of dice, drunken orgies, Dublin Tom, and Billy Middlcton, he would not have relegated to himself the idea that law and order were an affliction and a burden—vide court records of that date. The nist clerk of courts appointed for the Switzers division of the Otago Goldfields District was the kindly and urbane Mr James Cosgro\ c, whose sac! death by ch-owmrg in the Waikaia River some time ago wrs deplored by all who knew him. Mr John F. Garvey succeeded him, sitting on the clerk's stool for some years until removed, along with the old court house—re-erected in Waikaia Township about the year 1878. Mr Garvey will also be remembered as time rolls on as the first Switzers lesident who erected his home m the now flourishing township of Waikaia. Further than this, he was the pioneer settler of the Wendonsidc farming district. Among th> members of the "force" who combatted evildoa-rs and held them m check, must not be forgotten Sergeants Shury and Fleming, Constable Wohlman, also Sergeant Morton, all of whom have joined the great majority. Sergeant il'Nally," the beau ideal of the jovial and hearty Irishman, will remain on lecord as the instigator and promoter of the A.0.0.F. Lodge doing such grand work among us now and in the days of the "Old Hill." The exclusion of the late Mr J. W. Braithwaite from the associations of the old Switzers goldfield le?\e& out the mest prominent inhabitant of the ei^rly seventies. "Bill Braithwaite," the smalt New-castle-o.i-Tyne man, who devoted =o much time ard encigy to all nubhc '^attei? appeilaunn" to the welfare of the- miners, and pioirotion oT the field, will long be remembered by the few now remaining as a power in the Otago goldfields of that day. I may mention he was the chairman of the first school committee, the same which elected the first schoolmaster, Mr J. F. Dean, already referred to. He. alone; with Mr Edwin Dapp, who for years thiough wind and rain, =un=hijie and snowfall, earned rovmd "the staff of hie" ar.d other coocomitajits of his business, now lies peacefully at rest in the Waikaia ceir'jHeiy. Sir. yon miy be assured that although changes ha\e been great, and nearly all the old stock ha\e passed away, still tho=s who remain, mvsclf among the privileged number, can vouch ifv the coirectness of the incidents which came under our obseivation. I feel lam getting pretty far thiough myself, but nevertheless am glad mv declining faculties still enable me to contribute coirect information of the bygone Switzers m its bustling days 35 years ago —I am, etc., ANCIENT DIGGER.

At a special meeting of the Oamaru North Schriol Committee on Friday e\enintx Miss Isabella C. Allan was recommended for the position of iunior a=sistant. New Winter Shipments — T. Ross has opened a grand lot of ladies' hand=ome favsn jackets beautifully braided, 12s 9d to 45~>. New shapes in best rainproof coats 21s to 425. Two thousand umbrellas with pretty handle^ Is lid to 255. New lace and silk ties, white, cream, and all colours, from Is. New fur necklets in white, giey, fawn, brown, and black, from Is 3d. Muffs to match from 5s lid, and the finest lot of kid glo\o^ and cashmere stockings in town at 1. llosb's ; importer.