ANOTHER HOAX BY THE NOTORIOUS HUNT.

Grey River Argus, Issue 115, 6 October 1866, Page 3

ANOTHER HOAX BY THE NOTORIOUS HUNT.

CAUTION TO MINERS,

Mr O'Leary, the person who, with others, has been made the victim of Hunt's scandalous impositions, has called upon us and requested us to re-publish from the Okarita paper the following account, which he trusts may operate as a caution to miners against similar misrepresentations as those wliich. induced him to undertake a dangerous journey : — The first time I ever saw Hunt was at Invercargill, on or about the 2fth April last. I afterwards saw him. at Riverton on the 28th. His party and mine^-ten of us— started on the 30th for the Paihi diggings, and we all stayed there till about the 16th of May. In that interval Hunt and I got very intimately acquainted, and, while in conversation, he ofter observed that he intended to take the men he was wi+h back to Bruce Bay and work a gully in which he had got some very rich gold. The gully was spoken of as that, which caused the Bruce Bay stampede. He then told me the prospects he had got. They aiibrdod such great inducements that I asked if 1 could be admitted as one of the party. He told me that he would ask his mate Sam, and on the 15th of May Sam and he called me out privately, and told 'ine that I could be admitted into the party under certain restrictions. Having- stated them, I agreed, and we arranged to meet in Riverton on the 32nd, intending to sail for the West Coast on or about tiiat time. Hunt told me that he was short of cash; that he had some in Okarita which he had sent for, but he did not know whether it would arrive or not. I gave him a cheqne for £10 on the Bank of New Zealand, Invercargill, as lent money, on the understanding that he would use it if his own had not arrived. I got to Riverton on the 22nd, and was told by Sam that Hunt had gone to Invercargill, and that the day for sailing had not been fixed. I proceeded direct to Invercargill. When asked when he would be ready to start, he said that he wished to postpone the day, for two reasons — first, because he expected his brother from Auckland to join the party ; and, second, because his money had not come to hand. He said he would, under any circumstances, keep us no longer waiting that the 25th, but that he had had a misunderstanding with Sam which he would require to have, setteled before starting. Jn Riverton, on the 27th, we met Sam, and although I saw notliing against it, Ids explanation did not satisfy Hunt, who thereupon threw up the agreement, and refused to join the party, proceeding afterwards to tho Paihi diggings. On the 4th June he was summoned by Sam in the R. M. Court for a debt he was owing, and on the following day I told him I was inclined to go into the cutter whether he would go or not. He told mo that I could not do amiss by going, but that, without him, we would not find the gully ; and he agreed that, if we started, he would joiu us in eight Aveeks from that date, or, in the eA'enfc of his failing to do so, that he would leave a note for me at a private address wliich I named in Okarita, informing me of the situation of the gully. Sam and he Avere reconciled, but lie would not come in the cutter, giving as his reason that he had bought a share in a claim on the Pailii diggings. He seemed, however, to be eager to get to the West Coast as soon as he could. I suggested the propriety of sending some "tucker " for our personal wants, but he said he was in difficulties- through his money not coming, and through having to borrow to pay his accounts. I asked him how soon" he Avould go to the coast provided I bought the tucker for him, and he said he would join us, if all went well, in four Aveeks from that date, and he Avrote me out a list of stores Avhich he considered equal to 16 Aveeks' tucker for himself. He further asked me for the loan of £5 to pay a publican's bill in Riverton, and, although that amount and what I paid for the tucker I intended to have kept for pocket-money, I agreed, on his assurance that he would hasten to the coast with the money he should receive. With the consent of the owner 3of the cutter the tucker Avas shipped, and on the same day Hunt shook hands Avith some of the (nvners and with me, thanking me for the assistance I had given him, and repeating his promise of meeting us on the coast. At the time of agreeing to purchase the tucker, he also gave me, in writing, directions to leave the cutter at the lagoon on the left-hand branch of the Pareka. On the faith of these repre-» sentations and promises by Hunt, Aye accordingly sailed, leaving Riverton for the Pareka on the Bth of June. From a verbal statement by the writer of the aboA'e, it appears that the party reached the Pareka on the 13th of July, and from that time to the present there has been no appearance of Hunt or his letters. During the time they have been in the river they have prospected the creeks, gullies, and terraces, keeping as closely by Hunt's directions as they could, but found no trace of payable gold, and from the character of the country on the north side of the Pareka, Avhere they Avere, they believe it to be non-auriferous, Hunt's story to the party Avas that on the ground for which he applied as a prospector he- averaged three pennyweights to the dish for the first ten dishes he tried ; that he directed the croAvd near to the ' gully, expecting to see his brother and mates there before him ; but that, not finding them in possession, he led the croAvd further on, and subsequently " sliddered." One among the other discreditable features of his proceedings is the fact that to "Black Sam" he owed his escape from the locality, and from the hands of the infuriated croAvd, and that same Sam Avas among the number of his dupes in this adventure.