David John Evans

“ They were all men of splendid spirit. Longfellow has put it in his memorable lines from “A Psalm of Life”:
“Lives of great men all remind us
⁠We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing leave behind us
⁠Footprints on the sands of time.” ”

“ But in the 1860’s and the seventies, the men mentioned above were all well-known business men, officials, and clergy that any country might well be proud of. I have written these few lines on the sudden impulse after receiving the newspaper which has brought to my mind so many memories of the past. Perhaps, at an early date, I may again visit the Coast.
“I spent some of the happiest days of my life in Hokitika, and never met as sociable a people anywhere else. Most of them were very successful in business after they left the Coast.” ”

“ Fitzherbert Street.—Mr William Fitzgerald came to New Zealand as a young man in 1842, landing first at Wellington, and a year later he was offered seat in the Legislative Council, but he declined the distinction, preferring to devote himself to farming and trading pursuits. He was, however, one of the moving spirits in the agitation for responsible government which finally won for the young colony the Constitution Act under which it still enjoys its wide political freedom. He was elected Superintendent of Wellington in 1871, and remained in office till, the abolition of the provinces in 1875. ”

“ There are other educational and endowment areas along the route of the street all undeveloped, so that it is clear the thoughtful founders of the municipal area intended Park Street to be the main thoroughfare tapping all sources for outdoor recreation which should be the lungs of the city to be. Out of the Public Park, the Hokitika racecourse reserve was taken, and Hampden Street was developed as the highway to the course and the Park reserve, though the latter has not been developed as it should have been. ”

“ Posterity which has enjoyed so much by reason of the labor of the leaders in civic life here in the early days, can well afford to honor at least two of the men who in official positions did such typical services affecting the foundation of the town to which now we are all so much attached.
And so we pass on to Rolleston St. This it is very easy to decide was named after William Rolleston who was Provincial Secretary for Canterbury at the time Hokitika came into being. Like Sir John Hall, Sir William Rolleston, as he afterwards became, served well into the later years of his political life. ”

“ Next we have Bealey Street named after His Honor Samuel Bealey, who was Superintendent of Canterbury in April, 1866, when the petition for the Borough of Hokitika was lodged. The petition in point of fact was addressed to His Honour.
Hall Street was obviously named after he whom so many of this generation knew later as Sir John Hall. When Hokitika was laid out, Hon John Hall was a member of the Provincial Executive, and took a very intimate part in the early fortunes of Westland. Ultimately Sir John Hall became Premier of New Zealand. ”

“ Some others, of which one has the form of a regular cone, stand at the foot of the outrunning spurs of the high ranges which bound the horizon.
We now left the busy abode of the mining population, and entered the solitude, although many trial shafts along the river-bed, and afterwards along the high banks near the Hokitika Gorge, proved that numerous prospecting parties had tried their fortune in many localities, without obtaining the desired results. ”

“ Mr Evans was a pleased man that morning—as the present D. J. Evans was their first and so far as I remember, their only child. I heartily congratulated him—he and I did business together up to the time I left Hokitika—we were always good friends. His wife was an exceptionally clever business woman; they were both much respected as honest, straight-forward family hotel keepers. ”

“ Intending to ascend the Hokitika and its tributary, the Kanieri, I obtained not without trouble, a canoe from the Maoris, for which I had to pay two punds sterling a week (they had soon fallen into the European way of charging goldfield prices.) Leaving the town of Hokitika next day and ascending the river, we had to cross several shingle reaches where the water formed rapids, before we arrived at the small township of Kanieri, at the junction of Kanieri river and where I remained a day studying the interesting and instructive occurrence of gold. ”

“ Here, as at the Kanieri township, the wash-dirt had very often been protected by younger morainic accumulations covering it, and have thus been preserved from destruction. At this place, again, I was detained by continuous rain for about a week, but our camping ground was so well sheltered that we never felt any wind, whilst, as I heard afterwards, a fearful storm had been raging along the Coast, houses having been blown away at Hokitika and other settlements and several vessels amongst them the steamer Waipara having been wrecked not far from the mouth of the Hokitika river. ”

“ WESTLAND PIONEERS' MEMORIAL, STAFFORD STREET, HOKITIKA.
town and district needed in the way of leadership and direction. George Samuel Sale was a native of Rugby, Warwick, and proved to be one of the finest type of men the Motherland sent abroad to build an Empire across the seas—for he was essentially an Empire builder of the most acceptable type. Mr Sale came out to New Zealand. He is, (for he still lives, happily) a man of high classical attainments, and he possessed the fullest confidences of the Canterbury Government by which he was employed. ”

“ Some of the people appear to think the first thing a new colony wants is railways, and are trying to get a railway constructed from Springfield to Hokitika through the wonderful mountains and gorges. There is already good communication by sea, and nothing whatever to warrant the enormous expenditure that a railway would cost, both to construct and repair. ”

“ This was named after Thomas Cass who was Commissioner of Crown Lands in Canterbury prior to Cyrus Davie named before. Travellers by the overland route also pass a well-known locality likewise named after Mr Cass. Cass Square, too, is to become the object of special attention by the Beautifying Association, and the members and public alike while this necessary civic work is being done, should also feel that honor is being done to the pioneer officials of the past who had so much thought for the future generations by providing so generously for the people who were to come after them. ”

“ But the happy choice of names for our streets gives them a pleasing distinction, and associated with deeds of the men who bore those names, a marked importance, quite befitting the capital town Hokitika was destined to be. ”

“ An attack of fever, without doubt caused by being continually in wet clothes, kept me here for several days in the same camp; however, owing to the use of some strong doses of quinine, I soon felt much better, and was able, on May 30th, to reach the foot of the ranges, where the river enters the plain in a deep gorge, the vertical or overhanging walls on both sides of which consist of gneiss-granite. The water in this gorge was so deep, that we could nowhere find the bottom with the large pole we had in the canoe, and there was no perceptible flow. ”

“ Near the junction of the Kokatahi the Hokitika turns abruptly to the south-west and changes its character becoming, for more than a mile a deep slow flowing river, the shingle deposits of its smaller but more rapid tributary having damned the waters of the main river back to a considerable extent. Its left bank consists of large morainic accumulations covered with forest vegetation, the right bank being low and covered with shrubs and ferns. ”

“ There are some thirty streets in all in Hokitika, or one less in number to be correct, because Haast Street is now officially closed. Also we have three large squares, averaging some ten acres each. These public places all bear the names of men who in some way more or less important, and nearly always official, were identified with the birth of the town, and the making of Hokitika as a municipality. ”

“ Mr Michel was only a boy when he came to Hokitika, and I can remember the day the Perry Bros. father and mother were married. A lot of water has been run down the Hokitika river since then. There are very few men now alive on the Coast who were there in my day. I well remember all the officials connected with public offices mentioned by Mr Evans as I came into communication with them in the course of every day business. ”

“ Mr Buller was the pioneer to prepare the way for the Revd. Harper, who was appointed to Hokitika and came later by sea. Speaking of the gold find here in 1865, Mr Buller comments: “Nothing populates a waste howling wilderness” like gold. When Mr Buller debauched on the ocean beach at the Teremakau he found a stampede of miners going north to a new rush at Greymouth. The beach was alive with men, pack horses and teams tearing north. ”

“ In the naming of the streets of Hokitika a very happy system was followed, and the town is honored indeed by having in the names of its streets the closest association with many splendid men who in their day and generation were outstanding citizens in the young colony, and whose work in the various walks of official life in which they practiced was of special prominence. ”

“ His inclination however, drew him towards outside work, and quite early in the days of settlement he found his way across from Christchurch to the West Coast. As that of an able administrator, a loyal friend and a broad-minded man, his name stands high among those workers of history in New Zealand. ”

“ I have a list of some of these memorable names before me this evening, taken almost at random, and I propose to remind you very briefly of what the courageous far-seeing men who bore them, did for you and me and the rest of the community. ”

“ The desire has been to stimulate an interest in our town, so that the citizens will pride themselves on its well-being. A long list of notabilites are associated with the naming of our streets, men who did their country great service. ”

“ At once I went up to the Warden’s Office (Mr Revell was the then Warden and Resident Magistrate) took out No. 6 License to Occupy, and put on men to cut down the bush and clear the section, and before night had a tent erected and two bunks put in for Chesney and myself. That day I named the street Wharf Street. A few friends were invited to the opening of our premises, amongst whom were J. F. Byrne, of Corinthian Hall of drapery notoriety, Inspector McTavick, Dan O’Donnell, and as many others as the tent would accommodate. ”

“ We had the usual drinks after meeting, and they told me they were leaving for one of the rushes that evening, and kindly offered me the section for what it was worth, as up to that time no Government sections had been marked out so that no licenses had been granted. I accepted the section and took it over. I then had to look out for a place of accommodation for that night, and managed to secure lodgings from a man named D. Cox who had been a storeman of mine on Dunstan Creek. He had joined another Otago man, opening a public house and dance room combined. ”

“ Above them rise, conspicuously, the highest summits of the Southern Alps—Mount Beaumont, Mount de la Beche, Mount Haidinger, Mount Tasman, Mount Cook, Mount Stokes, and the Moorhouse range. In very clear weather, other snowy mountains show above the horizon of the sea, but often so faintly that very often they may easily be mistaken for white clouds. ”

“ His great aim in private life and in the various public offices he filled, was to hasten the young colony towards the great goal to progress and prosperity which he believed to be its ultimate destiny. He did much to promote public works in Canterbury, and expended much by his thought and energy in developing the country on this side of the Range. ”