MAKERS OF OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 23

MAKERS OF OTAGO.

PIONEERS OF / THE PROVINCE.

By

Condor.

XXXVIII.—VINCENT PYKE, 18274894.

Vincent Pyke came from Australia to New Zealand, but played, such an important part in the province as almost to rank amongst its founders. Born in Somersetshire on February 4, 1827, came out to South Australia in 1851, and when the vessel picked up the pilot in the Gulf of St. Vincent he learned of the discovery of gold in Victoria. Accordingly he donned the blue shirt which was the mark of the digger, and tramped from Adelaide to the nearest diggings in Victoria, those at Mount Alexander, At Forest Creek and at Fryer’s Creek, Bendigo,, he spent the next two years mining with varying success, but with no great fortune, except that he became favourably known to the miners themselves as one of their best advocates and a staunch supporter of their rights. In 1853 Pyke gave up mining and opened a store at Forest Creek, which is in the Castlemaine district. This gave him greater opportunities of watching over the interests of the miners,’ amongst whom he, soon took a leading position, and obtained considerable influence. He was selected to lay before the Governor (Sir Charles Hotham) their objections to the exorbitant license fees that they had to

Pay. an d suggestions for the amendment of the mining regulations. When the police, on mere suspicion of sly grog selling, burned down a store at Forest Creek it was Pyke who curbed the fury of the people and persuaded them to seek redress in a constitutional manner. He also was one of the chief promoters of. the railway from Castlemaine to Melbourne. Indeed, Pyke was so much a natural leader of the miners that in 1855. when the goldfields were at length permitted to send eight representatives to tfie old partially elective Legislative Council, they carried him shoulder high to the hustings and insisted on his being nominated.

In that Council Pyke had the honour of presenting a petition with 800 signatures which originated from his own district, in favour of the ballot. The fight for the ballot was a memorable one. The government in those days was still appointed by the Crown, and it resisted to the last ditch the proposal which was put forward by Nicholson, Chapman, and the goldfields representatives for the ballot to be introduced. Eventually it was carried against them by the help of the miners representatives. Stawell. the Attorney-general, refused to draw the Bill, and a meeting of supporters of the ballot called upon Chapman to draft the clauses. In a letter to the Otago Daily Times shortly before his death Pyke claimed, that Chapman must undoubtedly be considered the author of what is now adopted in various parts of the world, and is called the Australian ballot system. Professor Hewart, of Melbourne, confirms this, but Pyke will always .be remembered as one of the active originators of the ballot in the British Empire. In 1856 Pyke was again elected for Castlemaine Boroughs under the new elective system. In 1857, during the currency of that Parliament, he was appointed emigration agent to proceed to England with the Hon. Hugh Erskine Childers on behalf of the colony. While there he not only did good work for the colony, but at the request of the Ballot Society he delivered a number of lectures in favour of the new system of voting. Returning to Victoria at the end of 1858 he was appointed warden and police magistrate at Sandhurst, on the Bendigo fields. That position Pyke had held for about 18 months when a public meeting demanded that he should again enter politics. The matter of his expenses was settled offhand by one man putting up £lOO, and the meeting making; it up to £5OO. , Pyke wrote out his resignation forthwith, and was duly elected again for Castlemaine Boroughs. Towards the end of 1859 Pyke was taken into the Ministry (Nicholson’s) as Commissioner of Trade and Customs, and a year later he became president of the Board of Lands and Works and Commissioner of Lands and Surveys. Having charge of the administration of the goldfields, he was responsible for sending out several expeditions, under Alfred Howitt and others, which resulted-in the opening up of the new fields in Gippsland. In the third Parliament again Pyke was elected for Castlemaine (1861), which returned him altogether seven times (three: of them owing to his acceptance of office). He once 'had a clear majority of 100(1 votes.

The goldfields of Otago, which broke: out in 1861, acted as a magnet to many men in Australia, even to some who were well established in public estimation; there. Otago received either as : miners' or on account of the influx of mining population a coterie of men who.had actually made their mark in the parlia-

mentary life of Victoria—-Chapman, Wilson. Gray, James Mackintosh (afterwards M.H.R. for Wallace), and Pyke himself, Chapman, Mackintosh and Pyke remained for their lives executive councillors of Victoria.

While still in the Victorian Parliament Pyke paid a visit to New Zealand in 1862, partly for the benefit of his health and partly to inspect the goldfields of Dtago. He was invited by the Provincial Government to apply his experiences of Victoria to the organisation of a goldfields department, and on December 23, 18 p2. was .gazetted secretary for the goldfields. In the five years during which he held that office Pyke drafted very carefully and amended from time to time the regulations necessary for the control of the fields, and drafted the Acts for the Provincial Council. The office- was abolished in 1867 owing to the .General Government asserting its right,.to control the fields, but one of the most important events m goldfields history took place at Byke s suggestion in the , following year. This was the conference of, delegates appointed by the Provincial Government and by the various local interests of the mining population throughout the province. Pyke was chairman, and the result was an amended code of regulations -which provided for the new methods of mining which had been introduced. In Victoria Pyke was the author of the Mining Companies Act, which - was afterwards usee by New Zealand in framing its company legislation.

Pykes next post was that of warden and resident magistrate at the Dunstan He hacthis home in Clyde, made beautiful by his passionate love of gardening and trees. Later he. moved to Lawrence In August, 1873. after a stiff contest with four other candidates. Pyke was elected M.H.R. for Wakatipu, a district which was afterwards extended to that °f> . e Dunstan. This he represented continuously until 1890, when he contested the larger Mount Ida seat against Scobie Mackenzie and was defeated. Pyke was for all these years a staunch advocate of the development of Central Otago. He was the first chairman of the Vincent County Council when it was formed after the abolition of the provinces, and named after him as a compliment. His confidence in the future of Central was unfailing. He foresaw the great fruit industry which has since materia lised and a prosperous yeomanry upon the soil, when it was irrigated from the abundant waters of the Chitha. But first and foremost, he demanded a railway to Dunedin, and in 1876 he introduced and carried an empowering Bill Three years later he turned the first sod But delays and obstructions were to intervene, and many years passed before th.e railway reached the heart of . Otago In Parliament he strained every nerv° and employed all of his persuasive powers to further the scheme, but with tqrdy results. In 1887 he brought in a "Bill to allow a syndicate to carry out the work, but it was thrown out. Next year he proposed that it be constructed out. of land revenues, but the Legislative Council defeated that. At length he made some headway with the Atkinson Government, and in 1889 piloted Atkinson over the proposed route, but he was fated not to. see the fulfilment of his far-sighted schemes. Pyke was again returned to Parliament this time for Tuapeka, at the general election in 1893, when he defeated three other candidates by a large majority. H? was a popular figure in Parliament, full of good fellowshin and wit, and he would wander , about the chamber offering his snuff-box to members, irrespective of party, His interests outside of politics were active and varied. He took part in the exploration which resulted in tfie discovery of the pass between the lakes and the west coast of Otago by way of the Hollyford River. He was a keen volunteer, and for some time held a captain’s commission. As a Freemason he was grand master for Otago under the Scottish Constitution. A strong churchman. he worked aa lay reader at Clyde until a vicar was obtained for the church there. He was an accomplished elocution, ist and an entertaining lecturer. But Pyke’s real profession was that of journalism. He . started the Southern Mercury in Dunedin about 1874 to advocate the cause of the people, and contributed to it . steadily a humorous column signed “ Timon.” A year or two later he gave up control of the Mercury and edited the Guardian for a short term. He was proprietor, and editor of one of the publications known as Dunedin Punch. He published handbooks, on Otago (1868) and the New Zealand land laws (1893). and in 1887 brought out his “History of the Early Gold Discoveries in Otago.” But from a literary point of view Pyke did his best work as a novelist. . His best-known stories, “ Wild Will Enderby ” (1873) .and “The Adventures of . George Washington Pratt ” (1874) are full of colonial colour and are well’written and conceived.’ Both were ’published in Dunedin. In 1884 he wrote a prize’ story “ Craigi'elirin ” for the Ayrshire Association. and in 1886 a series of old identity stories in the Tapanui Courier, i-

Vincent Pyke died at Lawrence on June 4, 1894, leaving a widow (who before her marriage- was a Miss Renwick), four sons and one daughter. . One of the sons was manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Gisborne, and another proprietor of the Dunstan.. Times and of the Bruce Herald. The. daughter married L. D. Maegeorge; a civil engineer'.: