ADVENTUROUS LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4417, 20 February 1930, Page 2

ADVENTUROUS LIFE.

COOLGAIRDIE” SMITH DEAD.

HERO OF WHITE HORSE RAPIDS. Vancouver, January. 8. Another link in the long chain of Empire adventurers, immortalised in Kipling’s “Lost Legion,” has been severed by the death, in retirement here, of Archibald Erskine Smith, better known as “Coolgardie” Smith, a few months after his fellow-Australian co-adven-tiu'cr, Frank P. Slavin, former heavy-weight boxing champion of (lie world, who also took the “final count” in Vancouver.

Born in Launceston, Tasmania, on May 1, 1807, sou of a prominent civil engineer, Air. Daniel Smith, “Coolgardie,” after a period on the West Australian itields, went to South Africa, where he took part in the Jameson Laid shortly after he won the light-heavy-weight championship at Johannesburg. “Coolgardie,” a chum of Bob Service, followed the trail of 1898 t<> the Klondike and had the distinction of being the first to shoot the notorious White Horse rapids in 1898. Coining out over the Chileuot Pass, he settled in Vancouver a.-, a mining broker. Air. Slavin was i-luse in his footsteps and devoted himself to expert mining journalism.

Air. Smith was widely acclaimed in North America for his exploit in shooting the White Horse. Many doubted if it was possible and when he succeeded hundreds of others essayed the run, many paying the extreme penalty. Air. Smith took iii the Oregon rush on his way south from the Yukon. His wife, whom he married in Portland, held for many years the position of market inspector and was president of the Federated Women’s Clubs of America. There were four children —•Archibald Erskine, junior, Hunter Evans, Henry Stein end Christina Margaret. His second wife, who survives him, is living in Vancouver.