Reuben Waite

“ The Hokitika River, as I have before described it, with nothing but the one solitary tent, and beach-wood ferry house, surrounded by a mass of impenetrable driftwood, cold, bleak, and miserable, is now the site of a fine town, composed of spacious and substantial buildings, handsome hotels, concert-rooms, theatres, and places of amusement of every description, is surrounded by gardens and ornamental villas, and in fact, what was recently a desert is now a thriving, busy town. ”

“ There are plenty of people who are both willing and able to exert themselves to the utmost in forwarding the interests of the place—people of capital, too; but of what avail, if steps are not taken to aid and advance the furtherance of their schemes? What use is energy in the individual, if a dilatory Government sleep for six months over an idea that another would grasp in a few days, and execute in as many weeks? No; the secret of Nelson's failing is thus explained in a few words:—The shafters are staunch and willing, but the leaders are used up, and are only fit for the knacker's yard. ”

“ Gold is the talisman that transforms with magic power the bleak and sterile wilderness to a region of luxury and wealth. Places where but a few years ago the foot of man had never trod, are now teeming with busy working multitudes, aided by all the new improvements that modern science gives to machinery for turning out the hidden treasures of the soil. ”

“ Before concluding this brief description of the discovery and subsequent development of the West Coast, I will endeavour to give the uninformed reader some idea of the present state of that part of the country, to show how rapid is the progress of any place where gold is discovered. I will also make a few remarks that may be beneficial in some degree to those who, never having yet ventured to seek their fortunes in new and unexplored regions, may at some time determine to cast their lot amid the energetic pioneers of some of the new gold-bearing districts. ”

“ From this time we may say that the Grey district, formerly pronounced useless, has proved to be a first-class gold-field. This is an example of a good diggings being left for a long time unworked, through the inexperience of men who pretend to go prospecting. Several parties, as I before observed, had been up this river for what they chose to call prospecting, and this is a proof of how much faith is to be placed in the opinions and experience of those sort of people, many of whom call themselves practical diggers. ”

“ To our misfortune, we were sixteen days going up to Nelson; the little vessel stood the buffeting of the waves first-rate, though never since I have travelled to the West Coast have I been to sea in such weather as we had that trip up to Nelson. For several days we were hove-to, and our craft drifted down to nearly off the Grey River. One night we were so close on rocks that we could almost touch them. If we had gone on them at that time nothing could have saved us, and there would have been, I am thinking, no more gold hunting for some time on the River Buller. ”

“ When a place is quietly settled, it steadily improves itself, and such I think the Buller will now be. It has great natural resources, such as no other part of the province possesses. It has a good harbour, and close at hand stands a vast mountain of the finest coal in the world. There are thousands of acres of country yet unexplored for gold and other minerals. There is a large tract of good land along the coast, running either towards Cape Foulwind, or north towards Mokihinui; and both sides of the Buller River, as far as the gorge, are capable of growing anything. ”

“ Nelson, thank heaven! has still some men who, if once seated in office, will handle the reins of power with benefit to the people and credit to themselves; who will, by carefully guarding the welfare of the subject, materially advance the interest of the state; whose first and greatest task will be to uproot and cast away all paltry pettifogging; and who will hold the public interest at heart, and have sufficient foresight to see that in advancing the prospects of the province they also advance their own ”

“ But such is the world, more especially the Nelson world, where in striving to pick up a penny, they invariably drop a sovereign. Greedy to a fault, but unwilling to expend that which is necessary for the advancement of the place, they lose the golden opportunity, which for years may not again come within their reach, and then for ever pine over that which might have been accomplished but for the niggardly save-all propensities of their ruling powers. ”

“ I may as well state here, that the Buller Maoris first brought gold from the Karamea. They used to take provisions from the Buller to the Karamea on their backs, and bring back as much as fifteen or twenty ounces of gold as fine as flour. How they saved it I cannot tell. All that a Maori wanted was flour, tea and sugar, and tobacco. He could get everything else, and live where a white man would starve. My opinion is that the whole coast, from Wanganui Inlet to the Buller, is more or less auriferous, and will eventually be worked. ”

“ Reader, forgive me for thrusting upon your notice a private grievance, though still a public one, for hundreds of those men who by their exertions have helped to keep Nelson out of the mire are interested parties. My object has been to expose another instance of the paltry policy of the Government. While greedily grasping the revenue derived from the labour of a large population, they fail to extend to them the just privilege of a public right to the land from which they partially derive that revenue. ”

“ I have seen lots of wheat that was grown by Maoris when I first came to the coast, who adopted a very primitive style of cultivation. There was no ploughing or digging; the seed was merely thrown down, and a large bush harrow, drawn by four or five Maoris, with two women riding on the brush to keep it down, was all the cultivation thought of. This was at the Grey. At some of the old camping grounds up the Buller I have seen oats, and wheat, and vetches, that have been shaken from a potatoe-bag or something else, self sown, growing as finely as if they had been on cultivated soil. ”

“ I have often wondered that men having families have not been up there, for there is gold close by that would keep the pot boiling, and some of the finest soil in the Province of Nelson, with nothing but fern and flax to clear, which could be done with a lighted match, and there is plenty of feed for cattle and pigs. In the immediate neighbourhood is plenty of white pine, rimu, and birch. The Maoris who used to carry up goods to the Lyell had a patch of potatoes just here, and, instead of carrying any up in their canoes, used to stay and get some as they wanted them. ”

“ There is a plant or shrub growing in various parts of this colony, and commonly to be met with nearly all over the West Coast, named “coarimika;” if the leaves of this are plucked and eaten, or made into tea in a similar manner to mint tea, it will be found an admirable cure. Many people, of course, who are well acquainted with the vicissitudes of bush life, may very likely be aware of these simple remedies, and laugh at the idea of their being mentioned here; but it is for the benefit of young beginners who know little or nothing of the bush that I write ”

“ What a splendid example for some who roll in luxury, knowing little and caring less what others endure who are in reality making fortunes for them to their own loss, and who afterwards are the first to spurn and trample on the hands that held them up. ”

“ There are others, again, who, as soon as they hear of gold being found, are off to the spot directly, and if the gold-field should not turn out any good, are the first to create a disturbance for the sole purpose of robbery. The towns on the West Coast are crowded with these ruffians, though luckily they are getting to be pretty well known now in spite of their shipping about from place to place. ”

“ What open-hearted candour! what glorious resolves, if only carried out. Surely such estimable men, who place such value on their given word, could never break it, and let their generous resolves sink into oblivion? ”

“ Greymouth and Westport have also sprung up in a similar manner, and various other townships, though not so large, still of considerable importance—places where men in the early days have been lost while endeavouring to penetrate, and almost died from starvation; places where, in fact, the Maoris had never set a foot, are now the bustling centres of valuable mining districts, where some of the finest machinery in the world may be seen, and where mining appliances have been carried to a state of perfection hitherto unapproached in any of the neighbouring colonies. ”

“ I write this to shew what risks the pioneers of a gold-field have to go through, and I may state that I have frequently been detained on the bank of a river for a day or two, without food or blankets, on account of a fresh. But these are common vicissitudes in the adventurous life of the gold-fields, and things that every man expects when starting for a journey across the country, or going on a prospecting expedition. In the month of January, 1865, I supplied a party with provisions to prospect up the Grey River. The party consisted of white men and Maoris. ”

“ When the diggers on the old diggings up the river had settled themselves down, they dug a piece of ground and planted cabbage and other vegetables, and brought down some to the Buller; indeed I have seen some fine large cabbages at the Buller free from blight when there was scarcely a cabbage to be got in Nelson. Again, at the junction of the Inangahua with the Buller, about thirty miles up on both sides of the river, there are fine fern flats, and what will be some day in that locality a payable gold-field, when provisions are procurable there at reasonable rates. ”

“ If sowthistle cannot be obtained, young fern tops, plucked and cooked in the same manner, will also answer the purpose. But as there are now plenty of gardens on the West Coast diggers cannot want vegetables, which they should use freely. The next disease, diarrhoea, is often brought on by a sudden change from coarse, hard diet, to rich and abundant living, together with the use of liquor, that the person for months, very likely, has been unaccustomed to. ”

“ After I had settled my business in Nelson I again returned to the coast, the name of which was now beginning to spread far and wide, and the population was increasing accordingly. The next diggings were again found by the Maoris—ever restless, they seemed to be proud of being the first to find the gold. This was the Totara Creek, about twelve miles south of Hokitika, and was very rich. My bullocks, dray, and horses crossed to Hokitika, long before there was a house in Hokitika, to take goods to the Totara. The only shelter that was there was a small tent or store belonging to Messrs. ”

“ Oh! none can really appreciate the luxury of a good meal, unless they have sorely suffered from the want of it; not merely for a day or so as some of our easy gentlemen may chance to do while sporting—that merely sharpens the appetite—but for weeks and weeks, as often fell to our lot in the early days of the coast. The diggers had scattered themselves along the coast with the Maoris, getting mussels and other native food. The Maoris deserve great praise for the help they gave by bringing in lots of eels, nikau, pipis, &c., which they gave away freely to the pakehas. ”

“ I saw by this it would be an easy matter for a man to rob me, and go over to the Nelson side of the river and grin at me, so I made it my business to inform the Superintendent of Nelson of the circumstance. The Superintendent promptly sent down constables, with Mr. Blackett as Commissioner; this, I believe was the cause of the town of Cobden being laid out. What the gold diggings in the Grey district have been, almost everyone in the province knows. The town of Greymouth sprang up as if by magic—faster even than Hokitika. ”

“ It is, in point of fact, paying for a right that is useless, and which, instead of being a private right, is in every sense of the word a public one. Another person having a licensed run on the coast has received compensation. ”

“ Many of these people have therefore gone away in disgust, to seek some other and more congenial spot; having made their money in the district, their wish was to settle in it, so that they would be enabled to grow their own provisions, start prospecting in the more difficult country where it is impossible to go without some rendezvous near at hand, and then in unpropitious weather they would always have their own homes to return to, with something at their backs to help them through their difficulties. ”

“ There are a few who are good and willing, but their efforts are futile when coupled with and marred by the sleepy and dogged action of others; and the sooner certain stalls of the Government stables are swept out, and cleared of the stagnating influence of accumulated rubbish, the sooner will the working of the whole machine assume a healthy and beneficial aspect. ”