EARLY MINING DAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1933, Page 10

EARLY MINING DAYS

RUSHES ON WEST COAST PICTURESQUE DIGGERS. ■ • • I. ■' ' HOTELS AND EXTRAVAGANCE. An interesting talk on the “Romance ©f the early goldmining days on the West Coast” was given by Mr. H. McD. Vincent, great chief of the Christchurch Savage Club, at a recent korero. “The ’sixties and the early ’seventies on the West Coast will always be regarded as days of romance,” said Mr. Vincent “Those were the days when the coast was literally the ‘Golden Coast’ with its riches gleaming in its valleys and beaches. It may be that another golden age is dawning on the coast; but those exciting, colourful days in its carefree early history will never be recaptured. Someday a writer will recreate them vividly on printed pages, sketching that brave, swaggering, red-shirted brigade of the dead who embodied so lavishly the manly virtues and often, the failings. The person who can do that will write the great New Zealand novel that is this country’s due. “I suppose most of you know 'many of the poor, played out remnants of old West Coast gold towns. They are vagrants now, with no lawful, visible means of support You will have seen those melancholy sepulchres of the past—miles and miles of tailings—and moss-covered buildings mouldering into the soil. “May be, you know the dimly lit Revell Street the main thoroughfare of Hokitika. Just imagine in the old days, when 15,000 miners each night thronged it, and when 50 hotels in that one street alone ministered to thirsts. THE FIRST GREAT RUSH. “Hokitika was the scene of the first great rush. Kanieri, Eight-mile, Big Paddock, Blue Spur, Waimea, and numerous flats and gullies supported bustling thousands. All . along the beaches to Greymouth and up the Grey River, and from there to the Teremakau, busy hives / of workers could be seen. Darkey’s Terrace, Brighton, Charleston, Addison’s Flat, the Lyell—where the biggest nuggets were found—teemed with men. South of Hokitika was the celebrated Ross Flat, probably the richest piece of alluvial ground ever discovered. At the Five Mile, they carried the gold dust to Okarito in billies, the usual chamois bags being too small. Is it any wonder that with this profusion, living was riotous and reckless? “Before the banks began to install their smelting plants, many a digger would dispense with scales, paying his tucker or hotel bill from the raw contents of the chamois bag, disdaining the scales. The gold was of the type broken and washed down by the rivers, so that there were no almost fabulous nuggets, such as were associated with goldfields in other parts of the world. I have been told that no single claim yielded its owners more than £5OOO a man. Claims, yielding £lO a week to a man were regarded as a matter of course, and there were many where the return for' good periods was £5O to £lOO a week. It is easy to excuse the extravagant spending; they made the same mistake in those days that we made in the immediate post-war years—they thought their excessive prosperity would last. THE EARLY DIGGERS. “Many of the early diggers came from Otago,” continued the speaker, “going up the Hurunui River and down the Teremakau, using Maori tracks near the coast, and invariably crossing the rivers at the mouth, where there was generally a small native village and the necessary canoes. But most of the diggers came from the Victorian diggings. Old-times and contemporary accounts always insist on the size of them and their splendid physique, six-footers being the rule. They seldom exceeded 40 years, generally running from 23 to 33, and what a picturesque band they must have Bearded and bronzed, their high slouch hats decorated with a crimson cord, they invariably wore crimson shirts and crimson silk scarves. Their moleskin trousers were stained by clay. There was usually a sash of crimson, or green if the wearer was Irish, and most carried sheath knives. ‘'Such boats as the Aldinga, Stormbird and Alhambra landed them from Australia at the rate of 600 men a. time. Vessels at Hokitika used to tie

up three deep at the wharves, and the beaches were littered with wrecks. One coastal vessel, the Bruce, used to bring 1500 ounces of gold to Hokitika each month from Okarito. THE FEVER OF EXTRAVAGANCE. “Every boat from Melbourne brought fresh batches of dancing girls and barmaids, most of whom drew £3 to £5 a week, and soon became infected by the fever of extravagance. A lucky digger would think nothing of giving £3O, or more, for a dress for a girl he was taking to a dance. There were, of course, social distinctions among the girls. Barmaids were the elite, hotel domestics were tolerated and patronised, and both looked down on the dance girls, among .whom there were distinctions. “It is an interesting fact that until the licensing of barmaids in New Zealand, when recruiting stopped, the bulk of the barmaids throughout New Zealand came from Hokitika, the home of pretty girls. The girls were usually handsome, as can be imagined with mothers who had been imported because of their physical charms. There was really no employment for girls in Hokitika except in hotels, and so the daughters learned to serve in bars as their mothers had done before them. “In any -gold rush, the storekeeper and hotelkeeper were in the forefront. The first stores and hotels were usually of calico —indeed, I have heard of an advertisement in a Sydney paper asking for 12 fair-haired girls for a calico dance hall in . the West Coast. When a hotelkeeper arrived in a rush he would simply cut a few saplings, run up a frame, spread his calico round it, get out a jar of brandy and a case of gin, and he was ready for business. Hotels flitted here and there like shadows. Gin and brandy were the favoured drinks, though in the bigger saloons in Hokitika, champagne flowed like water. Seventy-five bottles of champagne a night was a customary libation in some bars.”