ON THE GOLDEN COAST

Hokitika Guardian, 18 August 1925, Page 4

ON THE GOLDEN COAST

MEMORIES OF HOKITIKA. THE COMING OF THE DIGGERS. FAMOUS OLD-TIME SHIPS. (Rv • Tiurnatrlc” in tlio N.Z. “Herald.”) AA'cstland. beautiful Westland—Hut » u iiderness : its entire population only a lev scattered -Maoris and here and die re an adventurous pakoha; Horn the line of perpetual snow on the Southern Alps, with the exception of a, few pakihis (open country), tho whole district was one immense forest ; and the coast, from Farewell to Jaek--on?s Uav, fringed by tho white laee of the wide ocean’s surf, the only harbourage given being that of certain rivers guarded by dangerous and intricate bars.

And into tins beautiful hut wildly inhospitable country at the call oi (hdd! Gold! trooped the diggers in their thousands, sonic crossing the ! j._r|, ,\||is by sundry passes, tramping it through country so wild and broken that, liardv men though they "etc. many dropped by the way and died. Others again, and by far the great majority, arrived by sea —some by the MeMcckan and Blackwood boats from Australia, to make precarious landing by tender through more or less uticinirtered channels and thus up river to the v.h'arvc» and safety ; others again ill small coasting steamers capable ol negotiating the bar, packed as sardines in a tin. From every direction they came in their hundreds and thousands, often hnll'-a-dc«en shiploads a day until in 1866 the wilderness of a few months before carried a population of 50,000 souls. And, what a transformation! From end to end of ‘the toast” as it is called by all good West landers (and you will foul none more clannish in this Dominion) those roving bands of miners prospected and dug; through the great lores!a and the lew open lands, on the mountain sides a i’d tho sea beaches, they roved and digged and delved until in a lew short years this unknown land was roadecl and tracked and charted from end to end. Somes lines quoted by A. J. Ilarrop, M.A., in his honk on the Coast express this perfectly:— - Wlnit days of cheerful toiling, what wild uproarious nights, Wind happy days, what glorious nights wore; then : Such mirlh and merry making, stick drinking and such lights Old mate! such times, they never come ng’en. Wild as were those days, and wilder t !:e company, nevertheless, I rout the most reckless times of all "the’ Coast” was ever law-abiding and generous; there were no murders and knifings; men loaded with tho week's wash-up travelled unarmed; ihe murder of Dob--on, the surveyor on the hanks or I lie Givv by the Sullivan gang was the work of out landers, not oi AAeslc: casters. THE OLD-TIME PORT OF HOKITIKA. As Hokitika was tho venire of the diggings and the capita! town, it is quite easy to understand that this river occupied a large place in the Dominion’s marine history: as many as nO vessels, sometimes three deep, have tied up at the wharf at one time: S'UiOO people take a lot of Reding and every pound had to come by sea. The bar could .give passage to vessels up to lot) tons; larger vessels had to he lemlered a risky business rotitot inics —in that open roadstead. lime are the names of some ol these old-timers. McAlerknn and Blackwood boats (carrying mails and passengers to Melbourne, about the size ol Karnwa); Albion (her epitaph was ‘'Run clown and sunk in Sydney Harbour”): Alhambra ‘the favourite, lost cm l !i" Auslralian coast: tec give a slow piston speed to her engines she carried gearing on her screw shaft); Omeo (as shew as a funeral, subsequently transformed into a windjammer); Goihen-i-erg': Claud Hamilton (the captain id this vessel one stormy trip came In a strange end, his cabin with himself inside. was washed overboard) ; Ringnrooma (a few years ago she was purchased from the Union Steam Ship Company, reconditioned and renamed Danina : she was lost soon afterwards in Japanese waters) ; Tararua (the subject of the terrible wreck on W’aipapa Point i ; Banvnn; Aruwata (now a hulk in Wellington) ; Uangitotn (wrecked on the Otago coast; Among the small steamers were tho well-known old Aucklanders, Phoebe (broken up), Airedale, Lord Ashley and llu 1 Wanganui cattle boats. Egmout, .Joint Penn, Wall.ibi mill St. Kil la. CONNECTION WfTH NELSON. Although Hokitika was the port of the diggings, Nelson was the metropolis. Connecting that town with Hokitika, Edwards and Company, ol Nelson, ran a licet of steamers (Anchor l.iuei; Nelson (the first to cross the bar, Christinas, ISO I, Captain Leech.); hruc-e (Brute Bay is named after her); Charles Edward, Wallace, and Kennedy. The last at least is still going strong. It was by means of these passenger and cargo boats that, communication with Nelson was maintained. James C liesitey and Company’s lino of wind,Runners (all brigantines or schooners) : Zephyr, Captain Connortan old opium clipper; she is mentioned by Lubbock in his book, ‘’The China ( lippers” ; wrecked on the T asmanian coast; at one time she carried passengers to and from Melbourne) ; Prosperity (lost on tho Queensland coast) : Aborigine (lost at Hokitika): Alary Bannatyne. Westland Steam Tug Fleet: Seabird; Circe ’.a beautiful model, run by a I famous (dil seadog named Priest);' Sarah and Mary. Lizzie Guy (wrecked j on New Zealand coast). Other well- | known vessels were Isabella, Elia Firth / !-he was trading to the Kainara at late as 1915) : Isabella Anderson, Spray, Lady Don, Garabaldi (the old steamer Yarra, converted) ; Alert, Ben(Teugh (thi-s craft once scandalised the shipping comnnmily ; over-running her tug, she poked his funnel over-hoard ; and rigid on the bar. too) ; Clio (carried coal for J. J. Craig, now a barge in Auckland Harbour); St. Kilda. barI quentino (she loaded with kauri piles I from the Kaiparn—used in carrying out Sir John Condo’s harbour improvement scheme) : Clyde, Captain Gibbons (the little schooner which, one stormy evening took the Grey bar “all on her own,” tying up safely at the wharf unaided—and the river in Hood, too) ; Alary Ogilvie (lost at Norfolk Island) and many, many others. Quite a number of tugs can be remembered ; Persevere (wrecked). Yarra, Challenge. Lioness (piled up at the Grey), Titan (dismantled at the Bluff). Of all that fleet of vessels which fed the hungry diggers, they are but a memory now : tho days of 'Ho and the China clippers; when windjammers were still a power on the waters, those lovely little ships which, with white wings widespread, came swiftly up and dared the deadly bar. with holds .crammed full of tucker for the eager dig- , gers. 1 WHEN FREIGHTS WERE PROFITABLE. In those early days the bench at the j hack of the town presented a sight ( unique in the world’s history; it was , a veritable graveyard of ships wrecked - when attempting the passage. A view of the “knacker’s yard” at Brown's Island now will give some idea of what r that beach looked like in ’65 and ’66. c The Oak Rosella, Sir Francis Drake, 1

Xow "calami, Titania, Montezuma, i. atermnn—to mention a feu - —lay together in a shattered tangled mass. With Ilnur up to IMotl a ton and candles a "hoi)” each, .shippers would take any risk; they say they would run I hem ashore if no other way lay open. The lale Moil .T. A. Ilonar told the present, writer that he many a time stood on guard all night wifli a shot gun in his hand watching his precious tinker hags unloading from a stranded vessel, With the completion of the Hoki-tika-(!rey railway in the nineties, the shipping then retained hv the port died a wav to very little, the final representatives of the tugs and such like harbour craft being the Waipara (wrecked at Okarito) and .lane Douglas. lint lhe papers si ill advertise the running of the Anchor l.ine boats from .Nelson, Imr, oh dear! how shorn of their glories—from the days when each of those little cralt (about 1 lift tons) would make .CoCO in clear profit every trip; and this figure is given by one of tlir* old-time owners of those hoots.