EARLY DAYS ON WEST COAST

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 126, 25 February 1928, Page 5

EARLY DAYS ON WEST COAST

OLD TRADER’S STORE AT GREENSTONE THE BOOKS RECOVERED Mr. E. A. Batt, of Hataitai, who lias just returned from a holiday on the West Coast, lias brought with him a relic of the early gold mining days in the form of a storekeeper’s books from the old township of Greenstone. Curiously enough, dates in them coincide with the diamond jubilee, which is now being celebrated on the West Coast. Greenstone, in the ’sixties, was a township of 15,000 people, mostly miners and diggers, the majority Europeans, but including a number of Chinese. Some of the latter prospected on their own, while others worked for Europeans, A large store which supplied most of the requirements of the population was run by two men, Messrs. Keech and Maloy, and the two books which have been preserved indicate that at least one of them was a fairly well educated man, for the writing is good, the spelling uniformly correct, and the figures accurate. It was a very simple form of book-keeping, and evidently many of the diggers were given credit for considerable periods, for here and there are shown credits for sums varying from £lO to £4O. In some instances the surname is entered, in others it is “Cockey,” “Tom,” “Jerry,” or whatever cognomen the individual was known by. Even some of the Chinese appeared to have been given considerable credit. Only in a few cases were quantities of supplies entered, the entry simply being coffee Is., sugar fid., but a few detailed entries show that cocon was 3s. lb., butter Is. 6d., a pair «1 boots 255. The store was evidently a universal provider, for the entries include needles and thread, nails, wire, clothing, and there are at least two entries recording the sale of a coffin, so possibly the storekeepers acted as undertakers when the necessity arose. The books which have been recovered are somewhat dilapidated, but when it is recalled that upon the gold “petering" out the owners of the store put their hats on, picked up their swags and walked out, leaving the stores, furniture, and pictures on the wall, to go to rack and ruin, it is remarkable that anything is left at all. Gradually the township was deserted uiitil to-day there is only one house actually in occupation. The books had for long years laid on the counter where they Were left bv the owners. Tourists visiting the locality had torn out a leaf here and there as curios. The first pages recorded transactions of August,. 1808, so are in keeping with the diamond jubilee celebrations which commence on the West Coast to-day. There is still the stream from which the Maoris secured most of the greenstone from which thev made their axes, weapons and ornaments, and which gave its name to the township which now no longer exists.