EARLY OTAGO

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 25, 16 June 1939, Page 6

EARLY OTAGO

SCENES ON THE GOLDFIELDS . SOME INTERESTING LETTERS First-hand accounts of conditions on the Id fields in New Zealand an; los frequent than we could wish. In 1802 two brothers named Walker, men of education, were in New-Zea-land seeking their fortune. Copies of their letters have bene made available to the National Historical Committee by relatives, which throw "he most vivid on the life of the digger. x\,s one might expect in a gold-rush, there was crowding competition for worthwhile claims and very high prices for provisions. Flour was 9d a lb, sugar Is 3d a lb, and bacon 2s fid a lb, while the essential tools of the miner's trade were even more disproportionately overvalued a pick selling for Ids (>d. a. .shovel for 10s and 6s was the price of a 'tin dish The brothers were continually finding new gullies full of men, or else of old holes, proving that the ground had been, tried already. In spite of the large number of people scattered over the hills of the Dunstan diggings, more or less independent of organised government, there was a surprising, ly high standard of public order r.nd even good fellowship, though there was definitely a spirit of every man for himself, which would allow a chance companion to perish alone if he should be unlucky enough to lag behind on the march. The brothers Walker soon gave up prospecting and themselves went into business as storekeepers. The hazards of gold, mining were certainly great e r than the mere stress of wind and weather. A. young man, had his nose bitten by rats while his arms were immovable from rheumatism, though "he managed to frighten them away by shouting and blowing and yelling at them" Conditions were bitterly hard at the diggings: "The river rose 10 feet last week and stopped aill the work, ing; people in England make a fuss about Lancashire distress; why -omc of these poor fellows on the river have but one meal a day, and that ! Very often nothing but flour. Still they say northing. Perhaps they are wise because if they did there is nobody to help them.'' LOYAL ENTHUSIASM IN EARLY DUNEDIN According to the letters of the Walker brothers, Dunedin celebrated the marriage of Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VII, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark (which took place, on 10th March, 1863) wfth a suitable pomp. On HOth June ''Triumphal arches were erected in different places down the main street. A bullock was roasted whole in the 'Octagon,' a large open, piece of ground in front of the church. I went to see it when it was nearly done and it did not look at all inviting. It was all shrivelled up to abou* half size. There was a. sheet of galvanised iron hy way of dripping pan. Casks of ale were set abroach in tbr« street by patriotic publicans with suitable toasts painted on them. But this was not the end of the jolj lity. "There was a, grand procession . . . The only music obtainable for the procession, was a set of bagpipesThere was a free dinner to all comers in the provincial saleyards, consisting of roast beef, plum pudding, beer and wine. The scene was something terrific.** CANTERBURY PILGRIMS AND OTHERS The Canterbury settlers gave the name of Pilgrims to all who arrived in the first four ships—the Cressv, the Charlotte Jane, the Randolph, and the Sir George Seymour.. The Pilgrims, according to L.G.D Acland were imbued with the small farming ideas of ,the Englishmen of their day. It was the influence of the Prophets, or Shagroons, men who had left Australia after the ruinous droughts o? J Sol, which introduced into Canterbury the Australian fashion for large 'jastora,! holdings. There was vet other class of sett >rs in early Canterbury with an appropriate nick* name. These were the men who could r-Tord to look down their noses even ;■ t the Pilgrims, because they had Sf ttied in Canterbury before the foundation of the Church of England colony in ISdO. They Ave re located principally in Banks. Peninsula, 'though .families like t!.<:. Deans brothers had already begun, the settlement of the plains.