NOTED PIONEER PASSES

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1930, Page 2

NOTED PIONEER PASSES

CONSTABLE JEFFRIES. COAST RUSHES RECALLED. • - > (By Telegraph—Per Press Association A ' WELLINGTON, Aug. 28. Tliere passed away yesterday morning at his residence, Majoribahks Street, in this city, ex-Cnstable John Jeffries, who was once a familiar figure on the West Coast Goldfields, and 1 a man wliose long; life almost covers the history of New Zealand as a British colony. Mr Jeffries, . whoso father was an employee of the New Zealand Company, was born at Nelson on. the 23rd of May, 1842, his parents having arrived by the ship London in the previous February, and, accordingly, he had reached his 89th year. On the occasion of the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to Nelson, the late Mr Jeffries was presented by the late s Bishop S-uter to His Royal Highness as the first white child borne in New Zealand. In the far-off day ' of/his early manhood there were fewer openings for young men .and so young Jeffries was early attracted to the Police Force, then tinder the jurisdiction of the \ Provincial Government. Accordingly he joined the force at the Wftkamarina, shortly after : the discovery of gold . there in 1864, A year later, adyeni’tufe teriipted him to Otago, where he served as mounted constable, incidentally participating in the escort of gold’ from the Dunstan Diggings to Dunedin. At that time, Burgess 'and , Kelly, two.' of the men who subsequently were hanged for the Maungatapu murders near Nelson, were serving a sentence in the Dunedin Gaol for highway robbery and Constable Jeffries recognised them a year later -when he was travelling up the Grey Valley a few days before the murder of George Dobson. 1 v In 1866, Constable Jeffries returned to Nelson, and being on terms of friendship with Mr Kynnersley, the then Resident Magistrate, Warden, and Commissioner of Police for Nelson and the Southwest Goldfields, he was persuaded by that gentleman to go to the West Coast, where, in addition to his duties as a Mounted Constable he was appointed Collector of Goldfields Revenue for the Grey Valley Division, including the Upper Jnangahua, which afterwards was called Reef ton. In 1869 he was ap-

pointed Clerk of Resident Magistrates end Warden’s Courts, and war placed in charge of all of the police stations —half a dozen in all—in the Grey Valley, which then was populated by a motley gathering of alluvial goldminers, oalled In those days “Dig*

gers,” '> - - In the year 1872, Constable Jeffries placed in charge of the Reefton Police Station, where h® remained until 1878, when he was transferred to Charleston, In 1891, he was placed in charge of Piet on, and there, he officiated as Clerk of Resident

Magistrate's and Licensing Courts, Agent for the'Public Trust Office and later a Valuer for the State Advances Office, Subsequently he was transferred to Takaka, and finally to Port' Nelson, where he was stationed when the time came for him to retire

on ; superannuation, after he had served 41 years, and had attained the age of 65. For more than 25 years Mr Jeffries had resided in Wellington. To the last, liis memory was unimpaired, and he was full of interesting reminiscences covering a thrilling period of New Zealand history. He was a veteran member of the Order of Oddfellows, having joined that Order in Blenheim in 1863.

The late Mr Jeffries, whose \ wife died in 1916, is survived 'by . five sons and two daughters; namely: Mr William Jeffries, of' Hokitika; Messrs Arthur and Frank Jeffries, of Wellington; Messrs. J, K. and James Jeffries, of Lower Hutt; Mrs Torbit, of Wellington, and Mrs Van Houtt, of Raglan.