THE FIRST RUSH TO THE WEST COAST GOLDFIELDS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2902, 16 February 1886, Page 2

THE FIRST RUSH TO THE WEST COAST GOLDFIELDS.

♦ — Ac the luncheon to the Governor at th« Masonic Hall, on the 4th inst., J. I). Lance, M.H.R., who accompanied the Governor to the Coast and was also a guest at the luucheoii, narrated some interesting facts in connection with the first rush to the West Coast goldfields, which we find in an interview with the InaDgahua Times reporter, when ou his way home, he enlarged upon as follows. Tho facts will probably be remembered by the pionepr « Russians" to this part of the Colony. It was in February, 1865, that the news of the discovery of gold in Westland became generally known in Dunedin and Christchurch, and about the middle of the month the advance guard began to move from Christchurch. A week or so before, Mr Lance, whose sheep station is situate about 50 miles from the City of the Plains, in the direction of the head of the Teremakau, then the only available overland route, got wind of the imminence of the rush and shaped his arrangements accordingly. He got up butchers and bakers from Christchurch, and laid in a large stock of provisions. On the 13th February, 1865, the van of the migrants reached the station. The first °batch consisted of about five hundred diggers. The men spread their tents rouncTthe homestead, and were able to procure their supplies from the storekeeper on the station. At daylight on the following morning the army moved on the journey, and in this way, in the space of six weeks no less a number than thirty thousand men arrived at atid departed from the station en route to the West Coast diggings. Only a faint idea can be formed of the magnitude of the commissariat arrangements required to provi-aon such a vast number of ea«er, hungry men after a fifty-milo tramp, but everything was so systematically |ilanned that there was abundance f>r everybody, served without delay or hitch of any kind. It is *i s . °£ meutiwij aud Mr Ltmce

relates it with great pride for the miners as a class, that not one of that great army of men sought to evade the rules of the station. Payment for everything required was fixed at the lowest possible scale, and it was left entirely to the honour of the men whether (hey paid or not. Notices had been posted at the station intimating that those who had the means were expected to pay, but those who were without money would not be denied anything. When, however, the accounts were gone over at the end of the six weeks, Mr Lance states the amount found to be outstanding was a mere trifle, almost every one of that vast crowd having honourably kept faith, and paid for everything obtained. In the face of such an experience Mr Lance, not unnaturally, speaks in the highest terms of praise of the character of the digger. It may be mentioned in this connection that Mr W. Beilby, hotel keeper, of Reefton, was one of the first five hundred men who reached the station from Christchurch, en route for the Greenstone, and he fully confirms everything said by Mr Lance, if indeed any confirmation were necessary.