THE DAWN OF WESTLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1920, Page 1

THE DAWN OF WESTLAND.

GREENSTONE AND GOLD

(From Christ’s College Magazine.)

From tlie shore of Hokitika [ gazed at tlio hundred miles of the Southern Alps standing out upon the sky, with “Aorangi,” the mighty Cloud Piercer, monarch of them ali. The sun was setting in a cloudless sky, with wonder_ fill color effects unsurpassed elsewhere in the world. It is impossible to describe adequately the marvellous variety of those tints as the color changed from yellow to orange, from orange to crimson, then deepened to exquisite shades of purple and saffron, and even to a curious, greenish blue. The glorious scene with that almost ethereal green fading behind the goal, stirred the imagination—it left behind the outlines of the epic story of Westland— a story in which those elements of green and gold are as closely connected as they were in the gorgeous sunset I had just witnessed. THE AGE OF GREENSTONE. When Ngahue, pursued by the vengeful Hine-he-a-lioanga, fled from the ancient home of the Maori race, Hawaiki, he took with him his precious stone whaipu, (green jasper). Seeking a place where ho and his jasper might be safe, be found in the sea this island, Aotearoa, (the northern island of New Zealand), and lie thought lie would land there. Then he thought again, lest he and is enemy should he too close to on,, another, and should quarrel again, that it would be better for him to go farther off with his jasper, a very iong way off. So he carried it off, and at length arrived at Arahura, (on the West Coast of the Middle Island) and he made that an everlasting place for his jasper. Tile greenstone oil the West Coast caused much blood-shed in the tribes of the Ngataihu, and many expeditions crossed the wild passes of the Alps. They crossed over via Arthur’s Pass and returned to Canterbury via the AVbitcombc, for the foliowing reason. [a going down the Otira Gorge they had to swim three deep pools, and it was only in line weather that it was possible to swim through them. They were not under any circumstances to he stemmed when each Maori had sixty lo seventy pounds of greenstone on his hack. Hence they returned by the Whitcombe, which, although a longer route was easily crossed, anil abounded with game. The last time the Ivaiapoi Maoris made use of the Passes was n few years before the Europeans arrived. when the North Island natives invaded the South Isiand, lighting and eating all tlieir enemies. The young men of the tribe were all away oij the West Coast searching for greenstone and they were hurriedly recalled. The messengers sent up the Kakaia Valley met them at Whitcombe’s Pass. Ihe precious greenstone was instantly abandoned. and the expedition hurried home. When the enemy did arrive, they marched in triumphantly, hut were slaughtered almost to a man. THE AGE OF GREENSTONE MERG-

TNG INTO THE AGE OF GOLD. .Tames Mack-ay received instruction in April 1059, to proceed to the West Coast to purchase the country from the resident natives. Great difficulty was experienced in the negotiations, and the Maoris refused to sell the land beta eon the Grey (Mawliera), and Hokitika. T?ivers, as this was the very centre of the (greenstone district, and guarded by the laws of “Tapu.” In 1860, however, Mackay re-opened negotiations, and a tangi was notified to take piece at the Lagoon Settlement, near Okarito. . The scene which the long procession through the wild regions of the Coast must have presented, beggars description. The evergreen bush, flaming with the rata blooms — “Flowers that with one scarlet gleaiii Cover a hundred leagues, and seem

To set the hills on fire,” hung upon the mountain side, and covered the plains to the very margin of the narrow sands with a dense jungle. The low-lying lands were thick with the verdant growth of the flax, its long stalks shooting upwards, throwing out scarlet blossoms in the flowering season, and attracting the beautiful Tui to gather supplies of honey. The bellbirds, whose fairy music, “breaking the silence of the seas,” charmed Captain Cook and hs men, were there in hundreds. As Cook wrote, “the wild melody of their music is like that of small hells most exquisitely tuned.” Try to imagine now, the file oi Maoris and pakehas proceeding to this other Eden—the representatives of the then Queen of England following the Chief, Werita Tainui, and the whole ot his family, men, women and children, in close marching order. As they trav. el led southward by the sea, or along native tracks , not one, not even Mackay himself, (shod in his sandals of flax), had the faintest idea that “gold, yeilow, glittering, precious gold!” of the value of millions and millions sterling lay scattered" beneath their weary, tired feet, as they trudged upon their long, long, journey. The details of the purchase were arranged at Okarito, and the deed was sierned at Greymouth, “under the shining sun” of the 21st day of May, 1860. For three hundred sovereigns was bought the Golden Coast, which m fortv years was to yield over twenty-six millions sterling of gold alone. Little did the mebers of the picturesque group present at the signing of the deed, dream that the land on which the\ stood would within a few years be a scene of excitement and activity—that the seven and a half million acres ceded to the pakeha was to produce a golden harvest, at which all the world should wonder. THE AGE OF GOLD. “Bright and yellow, hard and cold Molten, gravon, hammered and rolled , Heavy to get and light to hold, Hoarded, bartered, bought and soldStolen, borrowed, squandered, doled, Spumed by the young, but hugged by the old , To the very edge of the Churchyard t mould!”

On the. threshold of the then inhospitable regions of Westland, tlm Herald who mot the adventurer was Death. The names of the victims were legion. Among the more conspicuous were Whitcombs, who perished in the surf of the Teremakau river mouth; Townsliencl and Mitchelmore, who were lost on the Grey bar; Hewitt and his two men, who.went down in the depths of Lake Moana. An obelisk, with a simple inscription to the memory of these men, stands in the Hokitika cemetery, overlooking the blue sweep of the Coast—so fair, and yet so treacherous. But there is another and heavier list—- “ Some thero he that have not memorial”— who perished unmissed in the rivers, and the snow, and the forests. Hardships, however, could not allay the gold fever once it had gained a hold in the minds of men. ‘When the fact of the gold discoveries was fuliy established, they came in thousands from Otago, from Melbourne, from further afield. Sailing vessels and steamers crowded the Hokitika river, and soon the Coast was alive with prospectors, diggers and camp followers. The beach to Hokitika was like a great main road—horses and riders, pack-horses and their drivers, men with swags, waggons drawn by horses or bullocks —all toiling onwards to the great centre of this new El Dorado.

The town presented a wonderful scene of bustle and activity—shops and hotels bad sprung up as if by magic. Trades and professions of all kind had made their appearance. In the streets the English language could he heard in all its principal dialects, as well as German, Italian, Greek and French, and several other languages. Carts were unloading and loading, and sheep and cattle were being driven to the yards; there was shouting and hell-ringing, deafening to the passers-by; criers at every corner of the principal streets, which were filled with people—the whole a scene almost Oriental in its ever-clmnging, multi-coloured elements. Such was Hokitika in the golden days of 18(55 and 1866.

Rush gave way to rush, with .startling rapidity. First the AVaimea was opened up, then the Totara. The Ara. liura gave phenomenal returns: rushes swept up to Kunieri and the Eight Mile (Woodstock), became big in the records of gold-finding. it seemed as d the more men that came from overland and from overseas, the more wealth there was for them to earn. The "Waiting Spirts” had cause to rejoice, for deliverance came to them faster than they coulcl ever had dreamed in their ancient prison houses. Suddenly there came the boom lrom Okurito. Away scampered the rush, and lo! vast msses of gold were won from the most famous of the liclds of that most glorious time. Further south went the beacon lire of successful search. It was the time for the poor man and he faced the splendid prospect, enduring, braving working, sharing with his mates, squandering with all the world. As it has been in all the gold fields of which the world had any record, so it was with this gold-field. That which was won lightly went lightly for the most part, and without hesitation or difficulty, or diminished hope, for the losers went out to ask Fortune for more chances, and got them. AVhp shall deny that the Greenstone and Gold Ages of AVestlnd have not the elements of an enthralling story ? This land of hope and glory—“a land fresh from the hand of its Maker, formed in all the wild prodigality of natural beauty”—is a veritable fairyland in its wonder and romance.