EARLY DAYS IN TAKAKA.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14869, 18 September 1918, Page 4 (Supplement)

EARLY DAYS IN TAKAKA.

A PIONEER'S REMINISCENCES.

(From "The Colonist," July 25th.* . Mr. Eric Sparrow, of Takaka, writes: Having been- again adjured to go on with my memoirs, slight and trivial as they are, I will comply, in some part, by -submitting .a'little pen-and-ink sketch of the first start of gold-digging in the Takaka.district. Apparently my friends and acquaintances/knowing that I have now passed my 75th year, are anxious to sco me safely delivered of anything more I may have in stock before advancing further into "antedotage." Some of the^old residents will no

doubt remember that after the Collingwood field had been well opened up in 1857-58, a good many disappointed diggers found their way back to Nelson through this district. It seems to haveoccurred to some of them to give the Takaka—then untried—a "doing.',' I and two or three others, then"small boys, heard that a certain "Nosey J Bob"—-out of respect I wish I could give his proper name, but we knew him only as above, or further contracted to N.B.—had conducted a small party to a point vaguely defined a,s "away up the river somewhere." As we .knew that our friend was of a forward and aggressive nature, we thought it our duty to follow him up and investigate. Well, "we made an early start and had a scramble of 8 or 9 miles through the bush, and located the camp by instinct not far from where the river leaves the hills rtnd reaches the flatter country. We found the camp in very dismal surroundings in the wet bush in charge of a fine, strong chap evidently a member of the British mercantile marine come on shore for a change. He had just finished making-a two-decker sea-

pie of wild pork and pigeons. He was I washing his tattooed arms and ''thick" wrists and hands, that might have steered the Argo through the '"Clashing Rocks." We soon found that our new; acquaintance "was full of grievances both acute and chronic —he seemed right glad to have a fresh unbiassed "jury." To begin with, he had not had a smoke for a fortnight. We instantly relieved him with half a stick of "Barrett's twist," which he took as eagerly as De Quincey's Malay sailor did that historic "piece of opium," as inimitably' told in tho "Confessions." Then rbj appeared the party were just out of; everything, and he siippo.ied would have! to go on kllipee again. The claim was i no good, and he finally seemed inclined to include the colony, the diggings, the Provincial Council, and even the wea- j ther in a condemnation deep and wide. ] However we had come up primarily to see the claim, which was some distance off. Wo found "N. 8." in great form superintending, things; tho. party had "dried' 5;, a little, of the river heel and were working .in a .'primitive way without .sluice^boxes-^merely turning the "boulders.-.ov>?r and panning off the "wash. They -showed us.the day's take in a panluln'n—some nice snotty gold, but much disguised in black sand,, os7niridium, and "Oiiiutv-bricks," know to. nietallicians ns cuboidal iron pyratos. Although the Takaka. with the rest of our rivers, was afterwards systematically worked for years, it must be said that the gold -was +.hinly sown. No original points erf distribution in the way of quartz reefs'or other matrices were ever "dropped on," though/there is .still a siiperstition that they await discovery. After a good look round-we noticed that there were plenty of pigeons and kakas in the bush, also wild pigs, and iv the 'river it-self those curious ducks called by the Maoris "whio,"" known to science as Anas Malaco-rhynchus, the hoak bping furnished with a soft cartilaginous armature enabling the bird to suck up'organic matter from the riverbeds and rocks. These clucks were quite tamo and could bo easily got, so we did not sop that there was any chance ,of the party beino; reduced to" lilJipee. it ni:iy he necessary to say that lillipee is simply flour and water boiled up, with butter and sugar stirred in—a thing mode up and eaten in haste as a last resource. On getting, back to the carap we found our deep-sea .friend in a :much more amiable■'frame of mind and .Almost..restored to grace. We had !"'Won the wise who frowned before •To smile at last." • ■No doubt; many jof the old settlers here will remember that some of the men . who were in the first flight of those who exploited our rivers were of considerable intellectual calibre—men who had had the advantage of going through the mill in the ancient .seats of learning in the Old Land. Those were they who would brush*the dust off certain "choice and massy" volumes on the groat subjects generally accommodated on the top shelves of .our local libraries. Those solid works would ,be taken on :i. progross through the back-country and read and re-read in wet weather amidst the wildest forms of outward nature. ' The present •writer remembers in particular

one man of middle age who'had the happiest- knack of improving the toughest subjects for-the benefit of a little ring of familiars. < He would hold his audi"tory spellbound while he explained and descanted on geology, astronomy, the Darwinian Series, and even on Gibbon's tremendous volumes on that ''solid fabric of human greatness," Augustan Rome. Then, to hear him read blank and other ye: se was a treat indeed —his management of the arsis thesis and caesura was a revelation. Poor old T.T.! *He passed trom our ken as an ' artist indeed ; though- ho may have failed in almost every art he had found his metier at last as a principal in the "School of Pan." A few words may be fitly added ,as to the. amusements and recreations of the j period. They were few and simple. j There was no township to make for — j | only a few homely public-houses and J ! stores —but it was' enough to gefc stray i if or.-a day or two out of the .sepulchral! gloom of.the bush and the sound of many waters. A little cricket went on, | combined ..with quoits, bat it was' noil jlong before the late Mr Jas. Reilly pro-1 vided something in the way of purpose | and objective in the .shape" of-a skittlel alley, framed and boarded in,'as an adjunct to the old "Shamrock" at Waitapu. However, it was soon greatly damaged by the heavy artillery within and the far end bowled out entirely. The only way to keep the "cheeses" and skittles within bounds was to fix up .three thicknesses of dry hide. I .hope, Mr Editor, that your readers will be interested, in this sketchy outline of times gone by.