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Otago Witness, Issue 3993, 23 September 1930, Page 6

1 The authority for above statement was Mr Pyke himself, who so informed the writer.

shooting. At lunch time the first day Or. Colclough climbed into the County Hall by a back window and ensconced himself in the chairman’s seat, but he had not reckoned on the stalwart Or. M‘Ginnis, who promptly followed him in, seized him by the collar, and hurled him from the chair. A hectic time followed, councillors movingand supporting resolutions which were never carried, voting dbwn all proposals of the other side, and ferventlyobserving the movements of their opponents as a lion watches a bear. The Dunstan Times, describing one. sitting, says: “ Here occurred another scene that it is well to draw the veil over, nor would it be well to detail the numerous insolences that were bandied about.”

For eighteen months the -unseemly struggle lasted* foux* members of one party always negativing everyproposal by the other, and no chairman being legallyelected. Legal opinions were obtained on both sides, ° and xnany awkward errors in the Act were discovered which liSve since been amended. For a time there were two’ chairmen, one at each end of the table, for Cr. M'Ginnis, was seated at the top, and the northerners presented a memorandum to the clerk stating that “ in order to have the business decently conducted,” they deemed the chairman should sit at the foot. Business and progress were, of course, impossible. Both sides applied to the Supreme Court, and both chairmen were ejected, or, after trial, deemed it wise to temporarily withdraw. “It is very-unfoi-tunate for the county,” said Judge "Williams, “ but, that is really a matter with which I have nothing to do.’’

The natural result of misbehaviour by councillors was, laxity by the clerk, and when the council met in November they discovered the Government auditor had reported the clerk for irregularities. That, however, did not settle matters. After a temporary truce, a new clerk was elected, the old clerk was prosecuted—and got off—and the fight went on again. In May, 1883, once more came the time when a permanent chairman must be elected. All this time the County System had been at a standstill.

Roads and bridges were neglected, and the various councillors thought only of how to win the struggle. Feeling in the district was at fever heat, and hundreds of pounds were subscribed on both sides for the law costs. A melancholy accident helped to bring about the termina-r tion of the senseless and protracted wrangle. Mr M‘ Ginnis, the stalwart southern henchman, was seized with Alness, and had to be removed to the hospital. By a terrible blunder he was given a too powerful sleeping draught, and he never woke again. 2 After his death, Mr Fraser, of Earnscleugh Station, was elected in his place, and the" chairmanship war might have gone on again and perhaps for ever. Fortunately, however, one of the northern representatives, getting disgusted with the state of affairs and dreading the accumulating costs, made up his mind to stay away, thus setting an example since followed by Jenks, of the Irish Free State. So in July, 1883, Mr Fraser was elected chairman by 4 votes to 3, and the long contest which had raged for eighteen months was brought to a conclusion, and from this point onwards the local government business went smoothly, and the County Council became a model one.

_ It is interesting to note that iiwecent times in Ireland a similar dispute as to the election of a chairman arose. This was at Warren Point Council in February, 1929, when it appeared there were two equal parties, each of them determined to elect its chairman. When it was found there was a deadlock, it was decided the council should sit on until it had resolved its difficulties. After a fortysix hours’ sitting one member retired ill, and one party being then in a minority, a chairman was elected.

Pyke outlived Cromwell hate, and was still a member of the House of Representatives when he died at Lawrence, and as he had been closely connected with Central Otago from the first discovery of gold, a few words about him will not be out of place. He was a man of considerable literary ability and a witty raconteur. In Victoria he had been a Minister of the Crown, and on coming to New Zealand, he was appointed to the position of Goldfields Secretary, a position he held with credit to himself and benefit to the community. In the ’eighties, when Britain nearly went to war with Russia over the Pendj eh incident, he wrote a song called the ‘ ‘ Old Flag ”: — Only a bit of bunting, Only a tattered rag, which went through Otago like wildfire. He was also the author of “ Gold Discoveries in Otago ” and “ Wild Will Enderby,” two invaluable books on Central Otago life. One day in Parliament, Pyke held forth on the subject of the beauties of Central Otago, urging the building of a railway* to open it up, and enlarged with warmth on its fruit and pasture and the richness of the crops. W. P. Reeves; who loved a joke, whipped out to the library and got Pyke’s novel, “ Wild V T ill Enderby,” and presently rose to reply. “ The honourable gentleman,” he said, “ has given you his opinion of <!entral Otago, according to which it is nothing short of Paradise. I shall read you an extract about that district from a book written by a man who is considered a first-rate authority on the subject: 1 A strange wild scene. Black and desolate enough, God wot, yet not without a certain rugged grandeur, such as Nature preserves even in her wildest moods. Huge, unshapely masses of rock—weather-beaten geological veterans —blackened and seamed and scarred by I know not how many centuries of conflict with the elements; some prostrate, some erect, others inclining earthwards, some fantastically grouped, others— ’ ” but at this stage there were loud cries throughout the House, “ Who is the

Note.—The curious will find the Supreme Court proceedings above referred to reported in New Zealand Law Reports, Volume I, pages 129 and 212. 2ln those days the movement commenced by Florence Nightingale had hardly reached New Zealand, and trained nurses in rural districts were unknown. The usual country hospital was looked after by a married couple, of whom the woman was a kind, motherly person, and the man a good gardener. No female nurse was admitted into a man’s ward.

author? ” “ Oh,” said Mr Reeves, looking at the title page, “ it is by a man called Pyke.” In spite of the chaff, Pyke got his railway, which is now un fait accomplis. It is quite true still, as it was then, Central Otago contains gardens which bloom like Paradise, while close alongside lie wild deserts and barren rocks. The difference is made by irrigation. Sitting at lunch one day at Bellamy’s, Sir Julius Vogel, a well-known statesman of Jewish extraction, helped himself to an enormous plateful of lettuce salad. Pyke convulsed the convivial members by quoting:—

Lo, on the green and tender herb

The gentle Jew descends.

Another day, at the time when the Californian thistle first began to spread in New Zealand, the Minister of Lands had a bundle picked and forwarded to him for inspection. Pyke called at the Minister’s room, and, putting his head in at the door, found the gentleman apparently smelling the thistles. “ Very sorry,” said Pyke,” “ I did not know you were at lunch.” The Dunedin Punch, which flourished in 1865, contained many quaint jokes and cartoons of Pyke, and when he died

he was sadly missed as the friend of the miner and settler, the ardent lover of Central Otago, and also as the irrepressible jester, who many times had caused the sombre halls of Parliament to ring with laughter as he cracked his jokes and told his tales of his experiences on the diggings in the good old days.

The next chapter will be “ Coaches and Roads.”

“Early Days in Central Otago” will shortly be published in book form. r