“EARLY DAYS IN CENTRAL OTAGO.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3996, 14 October 1930, Page 7

“EARLY DAYS IN CENTRAL OTAGO.”

TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, —I was pleased to read the letter , in your last issue by Messrs W. Cassels and T. Mac-Gibbon. The following remarks are not intended as controversy, but as giving a little more history on the above.

In 1868 Sergeant Hunt came to Cardrona one evening to arrest and take away Charlie Murray (I think that was the name), who had gone insane. The next morning they went to Murray’s claim, and the sergeant fired a couple of revolver shots over Murray’s head to frighten him into quietness, but it had the opposite effect, and aroused all his fighting instincts. He pulled out of its sheath, hanging on the strap round his waist, his big butcher knife. Carrying a butcher-knife like this was quite common in the early days. Colclough rushed in to help the sergeant, and he got a bad downward cut from the shoulder to the elbow before Murray was secured. Everybody said that Murray was quiet and inoffensive, and if he had been taken quietly there would have been no trouble. Colclough subsequently received a medal. A few years afterwards Sergeant M'Gahan (not M'Gan, as stated) had to go out to Cardrona, I think, it was, and bring in a miner who had gone a bit demented. With honeyed words he asked the demented one to walk into Arrow and deliver a letter for him, and gave him a pound for so doing. Then the sergeant followed him up, as he did not want to be too long behind him. The sergeant, on arrival in Arrow, went direct to Dyson’s Hotel, and his man was sitting in the parlour. He had the butcher-knife at his back, in the usual way, and M’Gahan then took out his pipe and tobacco, and, walking behind his man. pulled the butcher knife out of its sheath and began to cut up tobacco. The other man got very wild, and a bit abusive, but M'Gahan was calm and collected, and made some soothing remarks. However, the other was then harmless, and was secured without further trouble. This is the story ae M'Gahan told two of us in Albert Town in the early ’eighties. He was stationed at Cromwell afterwards, and stayed a night at Albert Town, while en route to Colquhoun's run at the Neck. James M'Lean, the Wanaka Station manager, and two others accompanied him, their objective being to search Colquhoun’s woolshed, with the result that several sheepskins supposed to have the Wanaka brand on them were taken away. When the case was tried in Cromwell a few days afterwards it was dismissed. Subsequent legislation made it compulsory to leave the ears on sheepskins. Till I read Messrs Cassels and MaeGibbon’s letter, I was under the impression that Sergeant Hunt was transferred as a reward to an easier place after the Cardrona incident. There is no question about it, both Colclough and Hunt displayed much courage in tackling a demented man, armed with a keen-edged butcher-knife. There was a bit of melodrama in the way Rennie endeavoured to cover up hie tracks by burning his saddle and bridle. He could have hidden them away somewhere, or placed them a good way off the track where they would not be likely to be found. But burning them showed that there was something to hide, even thought he thought their identity was destroyed. And then the shoemaker’s wax-ends were very valuable clues.

John A. Miller, who lived at Arrow, was a very good scholar, having a very fine command of the English language. I had sundry letters from him in reference to an advertisement to be placed in his Lakes Guide, and other matters, so that I can speak from first-hand knowledge. He had no known relations when he died. If all his writings were collected the result would be a valuable history of Wakatipu for his period. Both Wanaka and Wakatipu were very lucky in having so many details of their history written, mostly in the Otago Witness, which will give future ages some particulars of the life in the baekblocks. Once Miller (it was Moeller in Prussia, his native country) wrote a humorous series of articles in the Otago Witness, giving the colonial experiences of Yak Kummerthal, a German who was learning the language and wrestling with its many intricacies. This might have conveyed the impression that his MSS. required much revisions It must be 30 years since he died. He was often in hot water, somehow, and did not always come out of the ordeal well. One case might be mentioned. The Arrow HosEital Committee decided not to renew Dr lonaldson’s contract, and there was an uproar in the district. Applications were called for the position. One application was signed with a Chinese name, but the secretary put it into his private desk and kept it dark. In due course in the weekly news of the Otago Witness the circumstance was noticed. Afterwards there was a Supreme Court case to test whether the Hospital Committee acted unconstitutionally in the matter of cancelling Dr Donaldson’s appointment. Miller gave evidence against the committee. and as he was leaving the witness box the solicitor on the other side, the late Mr J. F. M. Fraser, called him back and. producing the letter signed by the Chinese, gave him several minutes’ merciless cross examination. He finished bysaying, “ Get out of that box, sir," which was a byword in Arrow for many a day. Subsequently a new doctor was appointed.—l am, etc.,

Richard Norman. Lawrence, October 9. ,