THE SNODGRASS CUP COMPETITION.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1924, Page 4

THE SNODGRASS CUP COMPETITION.

“THE J’JJOVJXCK OF WESTLAXD--ITS HISTORY AXI> KESOnU.’ES.’’ (By Ethel Malpav;, Orey mouth Technical College, awarded equal second). Seorners of despair and fear Who roughed iL hy "did lo lorest, craggy fell Aia! through swirl nl roaring river, for many and many a year Dolly fared the face of Death find bore it well.. —Cornelius O' Began. Sneh acre the pioneers of Westland tin- men who intituled its prosperity, and who made the story of Westland more fascinating than that oi any other province of Xew Zealand. 1 hey have long since gone to their rest, nut as long as New Zealand endures, their names will never be forgotten. Be cause of them the story of the West Coast was not merely a history, it was a romance, a> romance of terrible dangers bravely faced, of a great struggle lor gold, and of nights spent in Inrgettiug what they had undergone and had to undergo on the morrow. I.otig before the white man came to the wild, desolate shore ol this part ol New Zealand, Westland was the scene of many a Maori struggle, and about those Maoris many a pretty legend is remembered. A way out in the* Pacific Ocean lived 11 iue-tu-.i 1 ioanga, the possessor of t lie Whniapu. or greenstone, and Xgalme. the owner of nonDni. oi 1 obsidian. T 1 heso two lived peaceably until a bitter quarrel am e between them. Xgalme left the island and journeyed to Xow Zealand, finally reaching the West Coast ol the 'South Tslau, where he deposited his stone at Aralnira lie then returned lo his island home and superintended the building of a licet ot canoes, eliiol among them being the Aruwu ami the lailitli. With these canoes, and accompanied In- his Maori friends he again let! lor Xew Zealand. The next we hear ol these brown people is that towards llnend of the eighteenth century a porI ion of the Ngahaiiu tribe, called the Xgauhairangi lelt the Wanganui and

sailed in their canoes to Dreensione. Another portion of the same tribe hallowed them, and the first Maoris, with Hie exception of a few women ael children were massacred'. The cruel Maori struggles cimt in lied i mil about ISM I or iS3A tv lien missionary iullnenec brought about lhe ir end. Thus ended the first period n| lun.iau existein.e on the Coast. I'.elore dealing with the auveul if the while men. let us look at Die J'liieulties I hey .had to face. l"p till IS-111 this Coast had been, to the rest of the while settlers in Xew Zealand a sealed book--a laud of which they had heard but of which they Knew nothing. Formidable dangers faced the first explorers. but i bey quailed not. Duty called to them to find out wh r. iiuy could of tliis barren hind, and ‘.ley obeyed the call. l uijici.ei ' aide e.icst. nialU'd together with supple-jacks, rushing torrents of I'oannug water, a land barren of animal and vegetable food, were nothing to make (belli hesitate. Accordingly in IB(.i[ Heapliy and Brunner, the lirst explorers of the West Coast journeyed from West Wanganui lo Crvou-lniie. win're they found a small fibe ol Mao.--. '11...iourney was n.-oompli-liod mi foot, and tin: route taken was licit along the Coast The. e men were .he /ii -1 to explore Westland, lint l hey \.e'.v not the lirst white men Lo see lids land. Cellini a. be for", in Ifilt!, the famous .Dutch navigator. Ab-.d Tasman, wrote in his diary : “Toward ■; mam we saw a great laud to the west of us, risen high.” The high land they siw was the Southern Alp:., while uominuiing them "a- .lorang'.* the "Cloud Piercer " Brunner and Heaplty, on their return, reported that the Const was

wild and ban-el! •nd the harbours unlit- l’oi fie,'- ig 't!"o. Brunner then made a iourney li.t himself and sailed up the Urey Diver. The next explorers were the McKays. They left Nelson in IBAB and were sent for the purpose of finding Boclb’ort, a surveyor, "dm was exploring the southern boundaries of the Xelson province. They were -successful. and together with Bochfort, continued their journey to

Mawhera, (Groymoulh). I p to tliis time the Maoris had refused to sell the district between the Urey and the Hokitika Divers. However, the arguments of the explorers prevailed, and the Hrcymouth tribe, headed by Worita Tainui left ■ Oroymouth for Hokitika. As fhe people tramped over those weary miles, through the dense forest, they little thought that underneath their feci was gold to the value of many millions of pounds. The Maoris rested nl Hokitika under Hie shadow of the great Aorangi. and the explorers, accompanied by Die chief, went to Bruce Bay and further on. to Jackson’s Bay. in order to murk the reservations for Die .Maoris. They then returned to Mawhera, and in I8A!) the deed .was drawn, by which West land, for Die sum of £BOO passed into the hands of the pakehas, only a few ra-

sorv.itions at certain points i-c-nminiujc for tlio Maoris. In l s ny l.ooiiard I I:ii’(> •i’ succeeded m crossing, for llio first time, the Southern Alps, the course lie followed being the Itnriiniii River. Ollier explorers followed. French. Smurf, and Pay. explorin'; the southern portion "t Westland. Fn I SOM Whifeonihe. with his servant attempted to cross the Toreninkau. The etuioe. however, was extremely small, and W'liiteomhe was drowned, his death being the first to occur from accident. In this year death exacted a heavy toll of other explorers, Ffowitt being drowned in Lake Brunner and another being swept away at the month of the (drey River. In 18b(j, Dobson, a stirveyor was murdered !>y the Burgess pane of outlaws, and Ids death added another to the list. Tn (Tie Hokitika cemetery there stands an obelisk to the memory of these men. the lasting sign of a nation's gratitude. Their work is done, hut the results of their work will endure till the end of the world. Towards I SCO gold was discovered at the Termakau, hut it was not until 1865 that this metal was found in payable quantities around Hokitika. Gold! Tlie name sent a thrill round the world, and the famous rush began. At the south this metal was found, al Hokitika, and the Tereinakau, at Darkey's Terrace, and it seemed iliaf a great belt of this previous substance stretched from the north to the south of the province. Greymouth sprang into being. but it was at Hokitika that thousands of diggers collected. A town sprang up in a few days, a canvas town is is true, but at one time its population was greater than that of anv other town in New Zealand. People poured in from Australia, from America, even from England, and at one time there was ns many as fifty ships in the harbour at once. Streets were formed, and. as timber was plentiful, shops were built in a few days, and gradually small wooden houses took the place of the touts. Hokitika had reached its zenith. Hotels, nuni-

Bering a hundred, billiard saloons, amusement halls of - all kinds served to make the miner empty his pockets of iiis hard-earned cash. Just out of the town thousands of miners risked their lives, working feverishly through the day. arid squandering their gold, just as feverishly in the night. Field after field was opened up, and each small stream yielded its store of rich treasure. Those were wonderful days, when the turn of a spade would mean wealth to a man, and when scholars, clerks and miners, worked together on the same footing. Their pleasures may have been such which to-day would not he tolerated, but few of those men regretted their hard life, and if any are living to-day their thoughts must always go hack to the grand, glorious days when tlic province of Westland was in its infancy. With all this wealth being extracted from the earth, it was only natural that outlaws and bushrangers should he attracted to the Const. Many and many a miner, if ho were alive to-day. could tell of the dark and terrible deeds committed by these human vultures. Many a miner, leaving the fields with his fortune was held up at some dark corner and relieved of the treasure he had won, by the sweat of his brow, from the boson ol .Mother Kerlh. Ai last these atrocities reached a climax. In 1800. an explorer, in the person of Dobson was mistaken fol' a miner and he was foully murdered by the Burgess gang. All the Coast was horrified and indignant, and si.-ra measures were taken to punish the culprits. They wen- etciiiually captured and all the gang, with the exception of Sullivan, who turned Queen's evidence, was hanged. The prosperity of Hokitika continued till about |x7|, soon after Westland va> l or.stii tiled a province, t p to this time between twenty and thirty million pounds worth of gold had been obtained. However, the supply ol gold could not lasi forever, and seven or fight years after the nisli. Hokitika began to deiline. until to-day it has a population-of only inhabitants. Xo one, on seeing the quiet deserted streets of the town to-day, would have thought that fifty or sixty years bark i: was a bustling, growing town ot thousand- of inhabitants. U rev mouth. on ib,- other band. did not grow nearly so quickly as did Hokitika, but it did not decline as rapidly. Its harbour is to-day much better than that of Hokitika, and it eon tains twice as manv inhabitants.

Before concluding 'the history ol Westland, it is only natural Dial we should mention some of the great men iioiiueeted with iis history. Diehard John Seddou, the greatest stale--man. Xew Zealand ever possessed, would never have come here Iml, lor the goldrush. His inline is connecled with Tvumnra, which town he made his home. He obtained a seat, eu the I rnvineia.l Council, and later on. a seat in Parliament. Among Hi" tilings he advoea' "1 was a railway line to link up the East and West Cnasls, lmfc tinwas only one of the many planks in his platform. He died in HHKi. “full of years and honours.'' and as some would have said, lie died in “bill harness."' when he was returning to the land he loved. Tins lirst Magistrate to hold office in Westland was Bevel!.

whose name is commemorated in the chief street of Hokitika. Before him. however, came Sale, who held 'he reigns of power during the “rush." A tall stately man, educated at an English School, and ai Oxford, lie was a stern but just. man. iHe type who was needed during those wild days. Xo

doubt some of his rulings may have been harsh, and no doubt lie wax disliked by some of the people, blit on the whole a better man could novel have been chosen for the hard ta-k ot administering hist ice in the- early six ties and seventies. After his iehoui was over he returned Home, but ratne to \ev Zealand again, accepting a professor's, diair in tbv Uta.-c l pm • site. If Westland were to have ry\.c::D colours for its emblem, < ■ day., it would seem that t!i" two mo.-t lik< D to be chosen would be green and gol-i. In

tin' older days ir was the green of ila greenstone and the yellruv of lla gold which representeil the weall.h oi Westland, while to-day the green ol ihe forest trees, and the yellow oi lla

butter and cheese are symlmlical of its present day wealth. Ureal '-•ins ol gold have been torn out of Die earth in (die days gone by, and it is unlikely that a great amount remains. Besides coal, copper and tin lodes have been discovered. l"p till the prcseiil time they bate uni been found In payable quantities, but there is no doubt that away ill I lie- moil ntains great seams of these minerals are hiding. Arsen if and antimony, two other useful minerals have al.-u been discovered in rmineetion with gold mining. Platinum, indium, and quick-silver, three very rare and valuable metals, have aDo been traced on the Coast. Platinum, about six times as valuable as gold, has ln-eii found in the Papamas. especially in conjunction with indium. Another metal recently discovered is molyhenmm. which gives the heauD'ful colour to line blue porcelain. This metal, which is extremely soft, has been found in payable quantities in Die Ten Mile Creek.

Apart from the mineral resources of Westland, the province i- also rich in timber. Ilium, white and silver pine, totara. rafa and innumerable other trees are found in great abundance, and millions of feet of timber are exported to Australia and to Europe. The lumbering industry has not yet reached its greatest height, hut in the coming years, will be the means of bringing much wealth to tins fair couu-

Agricultuial farming oil the 'West Coast will never be carried (.11 very extensively. Its climate, for one filing, is against it, and the rugged hilly nature of its configuration is unsuited to the growth of crops. However, dairv--1 amiing lias been tried, and lias been found to lie very .successful, a large amount of butter being obtained each

year. One of the greatest assets Westland possesses is its scenic beauty, which lias never, until now. I seen fully appreciated. ff only it were advertised a little more, tourists, instead of going to Switzerland and other European countries, would find the beauty of Westland was equal to. if not greater than the beauty of other countries. A magnificent range of mountains, overtopped by Alt. Cook the “Cloud Piercer," beautiful forests of trees and ierns, huge awesome glaciers, and clear rushing streams, are found together in such profusion ns is never found in any other part of the world. Add to this a warm temperate climate (with perhaps a little too much rain), and people will then realise why the inhabitants of Westland think that this little spot is “God's Own Country.” With the opening of the Otira Tunnel t now era lias dawned for Westland. East and West are now linked up, and with increased facilities for transporting her products Westland should go ahead by leaps and hounds. i.s the romance of Westland, and its resources, and if tlio.se hardy old pioneers, now each in his narrow cell forever laid, could only ri-e and view the charming, prosperous province. they would say. in unison—‘•Well Done. Westland!”