A TRIP TO THE WEST COAST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 47, 23 February 1878, Page 2

A TRIP TO THE WEST COAST.

[Bt«F."J HOKITIKA XO KoMARA. Being desirous of seeing as much of the country as possible I decided on making the journey from Hokitika to Greymouth overland, meeting the steamer at the latter port, so a few minutes after 9 o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the 7th inst., I had secured a box seat on the royal mail coach which ran as far as Kumara, there transferring its mails and passengers to the tramway which connects the new diggings with Greymouth. Our driver "Dan "—for such I learned was his name as we drove through the streets of Hokitika where he was hailed by many persons who entrusted him with parcels and commissions— proved to be a skilful handler of .the ribbons and an excel'ent fellow, who was brimful of information regarding the places through which we passed, which flowed from him freely upon his being judiciously tapped. He was also an accurate judge of distances. This I discovered

shortly after leaving the town, for the road is narrow, and we met numerous vehicles, and the result of my observations was that if Dan could find room to Bpit betwaen the box of his own wheel and that of a passing catt or coach' he was perfectly satisfied. This clobb shaving made caa a little nervous at first, but I soon became accustomed to it, and before a quarter of nn hour had gone by, I reposed the utinoat confidence in Dan's steering. The road was well formed, well metalled, and passed through Borne very picturesque bosh scenery, and in a short time we arrived at the well-bridged Arahura river; on the bank of which ia a small township, the most prominent feature in it beiDg extensive stockyards, where the live stock that are driven overland from Christchurch by the road which we bad passed a abort distance back, ore offered for sale. When I am travelling by coach I always like to spin nlong at a good pace, and experience has taught me that the best way to ensure this ia to discover your coachman's pet grievance — coachmen invariably have grievances — and' every now and then to revert to it. The result is sure to be that the horses have to Buffer, and are called upon for a few minutes to do at least an extra mile &n hour. I soon discovered Dan's sore point. Just after crossing the Arahura we met first one]coach and then a mother, either empty or carrying pethapa one passenger each, and I could not fail to notice that no friendly greeting passed between tbe drivers, but rather that each looked as though he would like to take off (ho other's wheel if he could only accomplish it without injuring his own vehicle. "It seems to me," I said to Dan, " that there are a good many coaches on this road." " Good many," replied Dan, "I should just think there are. There's room for two, and there are seven running. Two Btarted from town before ua this morning j we have already met two coming from Kumara, and before we've gone another mile we ahall meet two more." (Thiß waa accompanied by a vicious cracking of sLa whip, which produced a preceptible effect on the capital team he waa driving.) I bad been right in my conjecture then, and from that moment I felt that so far aa our rate of travelling was concerned Dan and his horses were in my power. Ifc was a pretty drive for a few miles further through den«B bush, some of which had been cleared, and the ground roughly but securely fenced, and, as Dan told me, plenty of grass seed had been sown, but apparently all to no purpoae, for the soil was poor, and scarcely a blade of grass to be Beep. Agricultural country "is certainly was not, but a great portion of is was to be, or bad been, turned to account in another way, as I was- soon to learn. Very shortly we arrivod in a email valley with a very muddy stream flowing through it, the narrow flat on each Bide being covered with heaps of boulder stones. This was " Piper's Flat," where once there was a lar^e mining population accumulated. Not a soul waß now io be seen, but there were signs of life, for at a distance of two or three hundred yards we could see an enormous hose playing on the face of the hill, the soil of which it was alowly but surely washing away to the foot, when it had all to pass through ripple boxes, where the gold it contained waa secured. There were" several parties, we were told, working among the low hills, but none of them wera to be seen from the road, from which, with occasional exceptions, the view waa shut out by the bush. There was n peculiarity about the boulder stones which, as I have said, lay about the valley in irregularly shaped heaps, that gave to the landscape a strange appearance. They had all turned a dull red color, and made the place look like a huge brick- field where the bricks hnd been piled up ready for carting away. To what this was owing I ana uot in a position to say. "Daa," my guble, philosopher, and frienJ, said it was produced by a very fine moss, which iv the course of time covered tbo etonee, but I Lad neither the time nor the opportunity to examine them, and, therefore, can. offer no opinion of my own. I had been such a bore to Dan in asking all sorts of new cbum questions that°our rate of travelling had somewhat diminished, so that after passing Piper's Plat, I thought it might not be amiss to give him auo:her gentle reminder as to the coach competition. " Does it 'often occur Dan," I asked in the most innocent manner, "that the coaches are so little patronised as appears to be the case with the four that we have met to-day?" The whip cracked about the off leader's ears, and the wheelers took the hint at onco as Dan angrily replied, "Often occur? 'Why'Vtj the regular thing. What ' else can you expect when there are seven coaches doing the work of two ? " The irritation kept up for nearly a mile, at the end of which we reached the funny little collection of houses known us Stafford Town, which consists of a serpentine street on the side of a hill, comprising chiefly pub-lic-houaes, as a mutter of course, bat boasting also of a church or two several shops, arid a public library.' Here we patronised an " hotel" f r a few minutes, and then were off again, the place of changing horses, the township of Waimea, being a couple of miles distant. The country we passed through was interesting to a degree from the strange appearance thatlmcl been imparted to it by the host of diggers by whom it had once been peopled . "It looks as though ifc had been up-

rooted by mammoth piga," said one who was seated beside me on the box. But the pigs that had done such work must have been, not only mammoth ones, but very intelligent and scientific pigs, possessing a very large amount ofengineering knowledge, 'i hrough the gullies, along the sides of which we travelled on an excellent road, there had at one time evidently been narrow water-courses, but their beds had been considerably widened by the banks being dug away for some chains on each side, and now, for miles, there was nothing to be seen in t valleys but huge heapß of boulders; not a particle of soil, ior every scrap of that had been washed away, nothing being left of the acres of bush land that had been torn up but the stones which we saw, and the thousands of ounces of gold that had been taken out, and were now—where ? Spread all over the world; in the coffers of the banks; in the shape of coin, enabling many to live in luxury or to indulge in expensive follies, or, when bestowed in charity, bringing joy and gladness to houses where a sovereign was a rare sight; glistening in the hair and on the necks' and arms of the high-born dames attending Eoyal Courts; on the tables of rich men; in the scarves and on the fingers of pampered young swells who never knew what a day's work was, and who would be incredulous were they told what labor had been expended, what risks had been run, what anxious moments had been spent by those who had so distorted the face of Nature in obtaining the precious metal that was to find a final resting place on their manly bosoms. Away up the hill sides to right and left of us were works of which an engineer might feel proud had he been called in to aid in their construction, but he was not, for the past experiences of the hardy practical diggers had stood them in such good stead that, unassisted by special training at school' or college, they were able to overcome the numerous and grave difficulties by which they were beset in their search for gold. Oue hundred, a hundred and fifty, two hundred feet above us were to be seen on the hill sides water races one over the other, the immense height that they were above our heads showing from what a distance they must have been fbrought for water to be procurable at fsuch an elevation. Then there were tramways that might almost be described as aerial, so frail and slight appeared the supports on which they rested. These were for the purpose of removing the boulder stones from the hill sides, whence came the earth from' which the gold was extracted. This earth is taken out and lodged in '-paddocks," or in other words, huge slabbed basins capable of holding as much soil as a party of three or four men could take out in a fortnight. This is washed out when the " paddock" is filled, and the stones are wheeled away, perhaps a couple of hundred yards on these tramways, at some places 40 and 50 [feet above the level of the water course, and then upset from the tiny trucks in which they were carried until they formed a lofty pyramid, or in some cases a continuous wall, such as had in one or two places to be removed to make way for the road on which we were driviug. A busy scene iudeed this must have been at one time, but now all was silent and deserted, not a mac to be seen, not a sound to be heard except the rattle of our wheels. I have been so engaged in noting the strange and interesting sights that presented themselves to us that I have omitted to state that we changed horses at the Waimea, where we also tried and approved of the Hokitika brew, which was handed to us by a barmaid, of whose nationality there could be no doubt, for, like most of the Hebes on the West Coast, there was an unquestionable brogue in all she uttered. ,'After passrag through the digging country we were once more travelling through bush, -where, unlike the district we had left behind us, there was nothing to show that man had ever set foot except the road and the telegraph wires. Under the influence of the peaceful scene and the heat of the sun we all began to grow meditative, if not drowsy, so it appeared to me to be time to rub a little more salt into my good friend Dan's sore. "Ifc must form a cheerful sort of life to drive an empty coach over this road day after day." I remarked. ' By golly, you're right there," quickly replied Dan, "but ihat's what some of them are doing, but if they will run seven coaches where there ought to be only two how c m it be anything else?" The whip wa3 plied fiercely as he spoke and the " tchick " and " sh, sh," with which he concluded were so pregnant with meaning to the horses that they trotted along gaily until W0 arri ved at Jv-umare, where, with no little regret I said good-bye to Dan, than whom'it would be difficult to find a better driver or a more agreeable companion.

(7V> be continued.)