A Reminiscence of the old Thames.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3390, 3 November 1879, Page 2

A Reminiscence of the old Thames.

By Ybbdant.

Hunting in the recesses of my memory the other day when musingly inclined there came back with, realistic vividness; . ,_ an event of the olden days of this gold-: \ field—its golden age I might term it. I refer to my recollections of the pegging onl ' of the Golden Crown claim. . If my memory serves me right one Sunday; in ■ August, in the yield of grace, 1867. the ■•' attention of the camp of hardy pioneers was attracted by the wailing of a young . and good looking pa tire woman who was-" ' undergoing chastisement at the hands t of a drunken old Maori, known to us by the biblical soubriquet. of " Jeremiah." I believe he got it from his frequently visiting the grog shanties and calling out "haeremai." Well this sodden old son of Ham was thrashing the wahine till a young pakeha named Louis Lewis, who was standing near at hand, could'nt restrain his indignation longer, " and went for the aforesaid ''Jeremiah," - treating him to a lively experience of the English method of pugilism. The two were speedily arrested for a breach of the peace—l am not sure but that the redoubtable Barney Furlong of blue mountain parrot fame was the at resting constable—and taken into the awful. presence of James Mackay, Esquire, who, as Goldfield Commissioner, combined pret'y near all the offices of the civil Government of the new goldfieli in. T himself. Louis Lewis was mulcted in a penalty of £5, which was paid, and when Jeremiah was fined a similar amount for drunkenness and disorderly conduct, he looked tremblingly from the relentless bench to his friends, who acted the rdle of the general public. " Jerry " had not the money to pay the fine. " Well you'll have to go to the lock-up." After consultation with his friends, the prisoner pro* posed that if he was let off, he

would open his Und which lay between the Waiotahi and Moanatairi Creeks. On this the commissioner lent him t" firer'' to be deducted from the first money coming to him. A few days after—early in September—the new accession to the goldheld waa declared open, and at 8 o'«lock James Mtckay, with a small red flag, which he pitched near the All Nations Hotel, declared the . ground open. No sooner had he done this than .Robert Workman pat in his peg ..: just alongside the flag, and began to peg out the Golden Crown claim towards the - hill. The late Walter Williamson waa

pegging oat on the opposite tide of the hill, and when carrying his line of land* marks across the range, found Workman pegging in the ground he intended to include in his boundaries. T" After some

dispute the two agreed to amalgamate > ' their interest!, and the Golden Crown— .:. or Williamson's claim ai it was thM called—was their property. When they commenced work encouraging prospects were soon met with, and it was not till the July following that the rich pitch wu ' discovered, but|E will not bore you with writing of what you already know. Such „J. \ then is the history of the pegging oat of the celebrated Golden Crown claim. \T;