The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1926 BISKS AND HARDSHIPS.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1926 BISKS AND HARDSHIPS.

With the Kumara Jubilee in progress, tales are being told and retold ot the risks and hardships of the early days whan in the times of the ■■rushes” the whole Coast was invaded by people from far and near. The newer neural ion of to-day will have a difficulty in visioning the far off days of (if) years ago when Westland was roadless, and the seeker after gold had to make his way as best he could by beach or river bed, or through dense forest to flue place where the latest rush had set in. There are many interesting accounts on record of those first days and instructive and engrossing reading they are. By the time Kiimara was in being, roads were being pushed up and down the Coast. There was a long round about road to Grcymouth. ft passed through Stafford and GoldshorouglT and on to Kumara. Then it crossed the Teremakau river, am 1 by Greenstone and Marsden found its way out to Grcymouth—a very long day in the coaching trip. The through road was in existence before Kumara was discovered, and when the “rush” set in, the road became the present Main Street of the town. In those days there was a very large population up and down the Coast, and the men ■eager in the pursuit of gold and ninny far from qualified in the work of the miner, took risks which often brought accident or other disaster upon them. Of hardships there were many, for in the remote planes food was often short, and the protection from the boisterous weather was afforded generally by canvas. In the times of the earliest pioneers when tl« Coast was trackless.

he pathfinders were ever encountering

dangers. Bisks of all kinds had to bo taken, and many were overtaken with accidents. The obelisk in the Hokitika cemetery is a record of four of the earliest exploners who gave their lives in the discharge of their ilutv to spy

ml the land. There must be manv

nameless graves up and down the Coast, for the unwary were caught

ilten in the treacherous river cross.

mg.s—never to lie beard of again. Such was the pioneer spirit—taking risks well knowing the dangler, but willing to accept what fate had in store in the hope of a life of adventure which would carry them to affluence and 'comfort for the end of their days. That spirit is extolled very often. Perhaps we are prone to believe that it is dead. But it is not so. Given the conditions the race invariably responds to the call of the times. In the Great War we saw the spirit at adventure exemplified in another direction. Ihe spirit is but dormant. It needs awakening. Were another

’■rush” to break out it would spring into life again. The hibernating period would quickly pass, and the magic of the gold fever would infect the community at large. Gold rushes are few and far between the world over, hut ivbe rover the situation we know the stamina of the people to respond when a fresh discovery is made. The Klondike was the strongest ease in mind of inhat the prospecting miner will en-

dure in the chase for gold. There were privations no less exacting in some of the “rushes” in Australia where heat and drought took the place of the rold and snow of Xorth America. It is typical of the race to face clanger and difficulty stout-hearted, when there is a n?al call. And who would have it otherwise? The pioneers were worthy of the race and of the times, Theirs 1

'"as tihc sacrifice that- ours’ might bo tl:i? reward. All honour then to the band of pioneers who remain to-day to remind us of the days of gold when risks and hardships were the daily lot in order that this promising country might be opened up and usefully developed.