THE "OLD MAN" ROCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2473, 7 August 1901, Page 70

THE "OLD MAN" ROCK.

" A REMINISCENCE. By Mr W. D. B. Mirk ay, Nafier. In the Otago Witness of March 27, 1901. I ,«ee a photograph of the Old Man Rock, plainly showing the trig flagpole on top. As I pla-ced this flagpole (or, lvither, iron b.ir) there in January, 1879, perhaps a few particulars of how it was done iney interest your numerous readers. I might prem.FP. In the pioneer survey of new country, there are oTten dmgeis to be encountered, privations to be suftexed, and difficulties bo be overcome t3:at people out of the profession of surveying have no idea of. There i& scarcely a &iuv»yor of the old daj's in New Zealand but who could relate Stirling incidents from his professional life, such as surveying in Maori country, when the Rnngaura and his w;>rnors were on the war p<ith, and every white man was looked upon as his enemy. The surveyoi, in the course of Ljs duties, had often to contend with flooded rivers, iattle through heavy snowstorms, travel along high mountain ranges, in mist, storm, and darkness, and niaybs pass the night under the lee of a pile of rocks, with neither food nor shelter. Though the incident I am about to relate had no great risk to life attachtd to it, still as it was said to be impossible, yet was successfully accomplished, it may be worthy of space in the Otago Witness. In January, 1879. I was engaged surveying 30,000 acres on the Old iilan Range, Teviot survey district of Otago. The land was to be cut up into large grazing sections. I was instructed by the Government to range my west bouudary line due south from a trig station to be fixed on the summit of 1 the Old Man Rock. The rock stands at the northern end of the Old Man, or Obelish Range, height over 5000 ft above sea level. The rock itself is a solid pillar, over 50ft high, with straight sides, about 25ft along the base, and 9ft in diameter across the top. The fixing of a trig station on the rock had been tried some years before I went there by a survey party, but they failed, and residents in the district predicted for my attempt a similar fate. Of course the only way of ascending the rock was by means of ropes. Everything had to be packed eight miles up the range. I therefore tool? up with me three different kinds of rope — strong, thin Avhipcord for a heaving line, stout, strong marline, and three-quarter-inch Manila rope for ascending — of each 150 ft. Before describing the particulars of the ascent I shall .quote from my diary of 1879: — "January 13, Monday : Started with men and camp for Obelisk ; camped at foot of range. January 14 : Started up the mountain ; when three parts up it came on to rain hard, with snow and mist. Had to go back to camp. This in midsummer. January 15 : In camp, weather clearing. January 16 : Took men and horses wp the mountain, ascended the rock, drilled hole, ' fixed iron bar with flag, and camped at ' foot of rock. January" 17 and 18: Reading bearings to iron bar from surrounding trig stations. Camp at foot of lange. January 20, Monday : Camped at foot of rock, to start boundary line. Fearful night — snow 9in deep in the morning. Hor&es and men nearly perished ; tents blown to smithereens. January 21 : Back to old camp at foot of range to refit. January 22 : Up to Old Man ; ascended"' with theodolite ; set on to distant trigs ; laid off the four cardinal points, well out from the rock ; pegged the same ; started boundary line due south ; ranged it five miles, and camped at snowshed from Coutier's. January 23 : Finished ranging boundary line ; camped for the night at snowshed near big swamp." I shall now give a few particulars of how the rock wee ascended and the bar fixed. I had a portion <& the ground in the vicinity roughly cleared, ar.d coiled carefully my whipcord line on the same. I then* attached a. nointed lead weight, sin x lin, to the end "of the l!oe ; sent my cadet to the opposite side of the rock to look out and hold the weight if it came oyc^, and with a flying heave I sent the weight fair over the top of the rock first shot. I should have been well pleased if«l had done it as well in hours. I had only 9ft of a sloping top to come and go on, at aa elevation of ii'om 50ft to 60ft. I then bent on my strong marline to my whipcord, and my cadet hauled it over. I then bent on the three-quarter-inch Manila, which was knotted at every foot, and had it hauled over. I had the two ends, pegged firmly in the ground, witn heavy rocks on top, and grasping the rope, I went up hand over hand to tire top, the knots giving me great help, both to my hands and feet. I then requested my cadet (Mr E. B. Hardy, a smart, clever young fellow, and lately a leading surveyor in the Auckland province) to come up. I meanwhile lying on the rope on top, for fear the rope might slip oft. On his landing safely, we passed down a line for a drill, hammer, a bottle of water which we had with us for drilling, and the iron bar. Cadet and self then drilled the hole 9in deep in the centre of the rock, fixed the iron bar in the same, and flagged it. We then descended to terra firma, leaving my ropes fixed, as I had to ascend the rock again, which I successfully did six days afterwards tc range the boundary line, when I had read bearings to the bar from surrounding trigs for this purpose. In the photo the iron bar can be plainly seen on the top of the rock. As this photo was taken this year, and the- bar was placed there in 1879, it has weathered 22 years. The storms that have passed over it in that time have been many and fearful. . as the region is one of the bleakest aaid 1 most inhospitable in New Zealand. I might state that before my time a 1 man who was lost in one of the howling storms that pass along the range is buried at the foot of the Old Man, and when I was ' there a horseshoe marked the head of his grave. Many men and horses have been ; lost on the Obelisk Range. In one gully was cammed, in o«, the ran^e&ide, there

were seven graves, all of mHr who were lost rr the same snowstorm. Three gold-bearing rivers take their rise on this range — the Pomahaka, the Waikdia, and the Frazer's Hiver. Consequently both miners, and packers are in the summer continually passing back and forward from the townships on the low countiy. The Government have guidepoles with large ci'irns of s-tones all along the range, and down the leading spurs, wiHi shelter fheds every three or four miles, for men to take refuge in when overtaken b\ storms, that even in summer no hvmg man or beast could survive if caught in. Some cases have occurred of men leaving the diggings to go over the range to some township, with good parcoLs of gold with them, and they were never even heard of again. The bones of their horses have been found, but whai became of, the men no one can say. iSome suppose they may have taken refuge in some of the many large piles of rocks scattered over the range, and perished there. Or one man or men may have murdered their mates for their ■M.are of the gold carried, and so vanished, to leave no clue.

I know im r men gnre each pile of rocks we parsed or came near a rough s-earch on the chance of finding some fkeleton, wiih liis go.d, but they drop-ped on nothing. One particular case was mentioned to me by a man who had packed with horses over the range for years of two men with a pack-horae wLo Jeft the head of the Waikaia River for Roxburgh township with £900 in go!d with them, and from the day they left they never again were heard of. The bones of their horse were found among some rocks a year^or so afterwards, at the foot of a high cliff, and the story current was that they either got lost and perished in a storm, though their bones were never found, or the one man murde2'ed the other for his shfre of gold, backed the horse over the cliff to get lid of him, and then, by night-travelling under a new name and in a new country, all trace, in those days especially, of the crime was lost. In such country, corpses by the score could be thrown into rock chasms that only the last trumpet will reveal. The O'd Man may have some fearful

tragedies wrapped away in his bosom, but they are safe with him for ever. He stands there grim and silent, a solitary sentinel over a vast expanse.