Old-time Echoes

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 8, 20 May 1893, Page 10

Old-time Echoes

SOUTHLAND IN THE SIXTIES

(Oommunicatei).)

Your Old-time Eclaoes, copied from the Wakatipu Mail, relative to events of twenty-five and thirty years ago, are read with much interest, not only by people of younger birth, but also by those who played a part in the days of lang syne. Invercargill has a history, yet unwritten. Let me refer to a few names and transactions of the very early sixties. I believe John Blacklock was the first auctioneer in this place. His sales were principally of merchandise. "Very shortly afterwards Mr Peter Dalrymple, of Appleby, obtained an auctioneer’s license. He sold a large mob of cattle brought from the north of Dunedin by Mr George Peel. The sale was held in a small paddock at the east end of Tay street. Mr Dalrymple sold several other lots of cattle during ’6l and ’62. In the latter part of ’6l W. H. Robinson, from Melbourne, commenced business as an auctioneer and commission agent in Tay street, about where Price and Bulleid are now. He was a jolly fellow, and—in the absence of Gordon McClure —was the lion of the company in Wentworth’s hotel —the “ Old Royal,” in the early sixties. Gordon McClure, a gentleman just then settled at Ryal Bush, was a born wit and humourist of the most enjoyable kind, and it was a treat to listen to the sparkling shots exchanged between him and Robinson, which kept the company in roars of laughter. Poor Gordon was lost at sea shortly afterwards in attempting to go round to the West Coast diggings in an open boat. The next firm of auctioneers was Carey and Gillies, who built the Prince of Wales saleyards and stables, and for some time did a very large business in horses, cattle, and sheep. Draught horses were frequently ran up to £IOO and upwards, by advances of £5 at a bid, and riding horses at up to £75 and even £BO, and scarce at that. A feature of these sales was that the cash was very often drawn from the pocket of the buyer and counted over directly a horse fell to his bid. Business was then done pretty much after this manner. The writer bought a riding pony in the yards on Saturday for £6O, and on the following day—Sunday, I regret to add—sold it for £7O, the money in each sale being promptly paid. Cattle were sold at very high prices—dairy cows at up to £26; working bullocks at from £4O to £6O a-pair; beef from 60s to 80s per lOOlbs. Pat cattle were often sold by the mob at £25 and upwards per head. Mr W, G. Rees, before gold w r as discovered at Wakatipu, ran his sheep on the sites of Queenstown, Franktown, Arrowtown, Ac., and when the diggers presented themselves in considerable numbers with plenty of gold he was obliged to open a butchering business, and soon getting through his own fat sheep at eighteen pence per pound, had to go elsewhere to purchase fat stock. He bought 40 fat bullocks from the Five Rivers Plains Station—then Wentworth’s —at £35 per head, and in driving them over the Devil’s Staircase, or near by it, on the way to Queenstown, something startled the leading cattle and turned them downwards into the lake, all being drowned. Owing to the precipitous and rocky nature of the ground the drivers were quite unable to turn the cattle from their descent to the water. The loss to Mr Rees was serious, and inconvenienced his business in the supply of meat to the diggers very much, as at that time it was no easy matter to obtain fat stock. The first cattle sale at Wallacetown was conducted by Carey and Gillies, before Felling’s hotel or yards were built. Between 70 and 80 mixed cattle, pretty lively on their legs, were rounded up and kept by horsemen on the plain —there was no fencing on the Wallacetown plain then. Auctioneer un i buyers were also on horseback.

The cattle were offered by Mr Carey and quickly run up to £l4 per head, at which price they were knocked down to the late Robert Hamilton who was then just beginning to extensively improve Morton Mains. A similar lot of cattle ■would not make over £3 a head now. This was the first of a very large number of successful stock sales held at Wallacetown, after Felling’s yards were built, during the sixties and seventies, and nearly up to the time that the Wallacetown Junction saleyards were erected. At that time large numbers of full-grown bullocks were consigned from Australia to Carey and Gillies, and sold by them oft' shipboard at £l4 and £ls per head. Sheep were also largely imported and sold off-ship at thirty shillings each. The late Hugh McLean, then of Benmore station, bought a great number of imported sheep at these high prices, which, together with a very large and unexpected percentage of deaths from change of climate, tutu, and other causes resulted in a very heavy loss to him. In 1863 town property in Invercargill changed hands at good values, and several large buildings were erected in wood, nearly all having since been destroyed by fires. Carriage of goods and stores to Kingston for a short time went up to £9O a ton. The roads, where anything had been done towards making them, were deplorable, and carters and bullock-drivers alike avoided them and drove through the tussocks wherever they could. The road to the Lake diggings at first was via Half-way Bush (Macintosh’s), Mataura, and Waimea Plains. The North Road via Winton was not then available.