THE FOUNDER OF MURCHISON

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1929, Page 7

THE FOUNDER OF MURCHISON

. A BUSH DICTATOR. FEARLESS AND SHREWD. In view of the interest aroused in the earthquake-stricken district of .Murchison, and the sympathy so widely extended to its settlers, much of it fortunately. in the most practical way, the early days of the township, which was then called Hampden—a name hanged to Murchison because of the existence of another Hampden in the iouth Island—will have an interest, inys. the Wellington “Post,” and it is fortunate that in Mr Ernest Hould, of 174, Willis Street, there is one who is able to give some remarkably clear-cut reminiscences Of the days when Murchison was being hewn out of the dense, dripping West Coast bush.

THE LURE OF GOLD. There were in 1879, when Mr Hould ns a boy of twelve knew “ Hampden,” no police nor Court there and what authority there was was centred in the person of one man, George Moonlight, a picturesque figure, who controlled everything in the district. Just how he came to Hampden is not known to Mr Hould, but once, addressing his son and young Hould, he said: “You hoys are lucky. You don’t know how lucky you are. When I was nine years f age T had no home, and I had to tramp fronj York to London, where 1 shipped as a cabin boy to South Africa and then went to America. I have been everywhere round the world, and I have never been inside a school in my life, but I don’t think either of you boys would ever manage this business as well as I do.” The beginnings of Moonlight’s success in Murchison are mysterious, but it is certain that it was a spirit otf adventure that led him there in the first place, and the hire of gold. He is known to have done a great deal of prospecting, but rarely worked his claims for long, preferring to tell everyone of his good fortune, and sell the miners what they wanted on the new strike. Certain it is that he prospered exceedingly.

A MASTER MIND. Tall and lithe, well set up though not bulky, he was as strong as he was fearless, a fine looking man, and he was, says Mr Hould, the master mind of the whole mining district, a striking personality whom having once met 't was impossible to forget. He owned a large hotel, outbuildings, fine dairy, and store, barns, stables, and blacksmith’s shop, all cut out off timber pitsnwn from the bush, which then covered the whole of the flat where Murchison is to-day. The first hotel, which was near the banks of the river, was washed away in a flood, but as his establishment grew he found work for all who came by. Two pit sawyers were kept busy adding to the premises as the business grew, and as the miners drifted in and the settlement spread, his strong personality beame acceptrd as the guiding spirit of the commun- ’ ty. His authority was never ques--1 ioned, largely because he had his ow methods of dealing with offenders.

A TOUGH CUSTOMER. “I saw him oil one occasion, whe" 'here were some*twenty men in his 1 ar,” said Mr Hould. There were a lot of rough customers on the diggings a those days, and these men became obstreperous. He told the barman to top serving liquor. The revellers demurred, and the language was “thick,” but Moonlight, single handed, 'md them all out of the bar in a minute, hitting right and left, and lien stood on the verandah, fronting f,l em, listening to the things they were going to do with him. Then they enmit him again, hut men fell all round i’im. .After five minutes of it most of l he trouble-makers had black eves and niddy noses, and all of them had h° ' nough of it. “That’s enough, George,” ‘ignalled victory for him. Numbers made no difference to him. If a man got drunk and troublesome ! ’o became judge, jury, and warder, and ■•entenced him to “twenty-four hours in the sacks.” This consisted in slitting the bottom of one sack, through which the man’s head was thrust, pull ing another sack over the feet, and f hen the sacks were strongly stitched together round the man’s middle. Dur

ing his sentence he got nothing to swallow but the sour milk from the calves’ pen. That worked on the worst of them.” LONELY RIDE WITH GOLD. “ There was gold in Murchison in those days. I have seen miners come in and throw down from five to twenty ounces of gold on the counter. “Weigh that, George,” and Moonlight would weigh It and announce the result, which was credited to the miner. I can remember the bump the chamois leather bags made' on the counter. Sometimes two or three would come in together, and dump their little bags down. .Moonlight used to handle enormous quantities of gold, and never had nor seemed to need protection. When he had what he considered a load worth taking to Nelson, generally from £ISOO to £2OOO, he did not announce . his plans, but would.simply be missing at breakfast, away on the long ride to the bank.

“Everything that Moonlight handled turned to profit. He was a business man to his finger-tips, and, though he helped many ‘ broke ’ men -who stopped, at Murchison, either with outfits, food or employment, it all seemed to come back to him. At his farm on the Rapahannock Stream, a name brought with . him from America, he insisted upon everyone, even the children; doing their share of work. Ittobk two days to go through the hills to this farm at Maruia. We boys were sent out there, and began by killing wekas as tame and plentiful as ifowls in a farmyard, so that, we could use their drumsticks as bait for eels, but we were soon put to work treading down the fodder for the winter in the dray and later on the stack, a work An Avhich even his little daughter Totti had to take part. Everybody had to work, and work hard, in the real old pioneering way, Moonlight harder than any, but at the end outlie hard day’s work Moonlight lay clown, but did not sleep, slipping away the same night hack to Hampden.

A TRAGIC END. “It seems strange that such a successful man sfiould die of starvation, but that was his end. His manager at t he Ifarm, a most successful farm, too, was Mitchell, known as ‘ The Whale,’ nd deservedly trusted by Moonlight. )nce, when the talk turned on what would become of Murchison when the old was clone, Moonlight, turning to ■Mitchell,- said, ‘ Well, when that happens,. we know where to go,? these two having found -signs of a rich strike near ihe head, of the Matakitaki River, .fter the death of his wife, things eased to prosper for the once intfalble Moonlight, and lie and Mitchell, fter his business had failed, set off for heir secret El Dorado. Mitchell tells ow he was sitting in their tent there, lending his clothes, when) i Moonlight cent off with his pick and shovel. Mithell later event off in another direction, and at night, wliern Moonlight failed to return, went for help and searchers. Moonlight was then fiftyeight years of age, and practically in full strength, as he always had a rear ve of endurance above other men. f Tie search parties were out four weeks before they found his body, and the ■igns were that he had only been dead mr days, and had died while strugling along. He could have had little food, as lie wandered away from the watercourses and weka country. He was found five miles from Edgar’s acommodation house on the Owens Stiver.”