NEW ZEALANDERS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4048, 26 February 1892, Page 2

NEW ZEALANDERS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

, (''By S.H;W.)

In penning youa few lines from the borders of New' South Wales and Queensland, it is not my inleniion to give you a r6trospeot of the twentyone months 1 have been in this colony, as I notice that the columnß of the Wauubapa Weekly and Obmm have not failed to aoquiint their readers of the progress of the Waira* rapiauson this side of the water, among which tho usual shiftiness of "yours tmly" has been' duly chronicled,

You have noted that iliok Bailliel is reporting on tho Armidale Chronicle and has recently been appointed as shorthand teacher to the Technical Institute; that Percy Freeth is editing the Neptan Times, Penrith, a very decent weekly, about 80 miles from Sydney, and that Toot Blinkborne is doing likewise on another up-country, the name of which has escaped my memory, There are many Nes Zealand visitors to this district, attracted by the gold fields in the vicinity, so I often get a talk about the doings of the little Islands." A few weeks ago I chanced to run against an individual who was descanting upon'tho merits of N. : Z, in glowing terms, and closer acquaintance revealed the well known Mr A, Bullock, late of Bullock Bros,, Lamhton Quay, Wellington. It is needless to say there was a hearty shake, a long talk of old times, etc, with promises to often repeat it. He is head gardener at the leading station here, which occupation he seems quite at home at, and it enables him to carry on some mining speculations,

But speculation hero, like every* thing else, needs nothing short ot a charge of dynamite to send it along, If people do manage to get hold of anything with a good prospect in this district their, inborn selfishness predominates over everything else, and they kill the only ohances thoy have of making a rise by grabbing at every shadow and eventually losing the subBtance, A case in point occurred, here a short time ago, The gentleman, I succeeded on this paper struck it very rich in a claim he had the lease of. It was so rich that it almost drove the party off their heads. They got good offers, but preferred to work it themselves, and the orushing went up to 80 ounces to the ton, the gold being valued at 12 12 Gd per. oz. [ They got out some magnificent specimens, which were exhibited in Sydney and Melbourne, and which crushed about l|oz to tho pound of stone: most won" derful returns I An offer of about £30,000 was made and refused, also ut good offer from a Wellington (N,Z,) syndicate, and things began to get very quiet on this claim. People Socked out to see this veritable " jeweller's shop," but only the privileged were allowed to go down the shaft, and I was of course among them. To make a long story short, the 'rich gold had pinched out and nothing but about two ounces of stuff has been seen since, Now, if these peeple had not been so greedy, but had made their stone clean up between 6oz and lOoz to the ton all through, they could have sold well and the scrip would have been valuable in the mnrket. As it is they cannot now get an offer worth having, Mr Bullock is one of a party who has a twenty-acre gold and silver lease near this claim, through which there is a five feet wide reef running, and from which l£oss of gold to the ton was obtained about a fortnight ago, and the concentrates assayed 6oz gold and 50oz silver to the ton, It this party goes in for anything like methodical work they have a good thing in hand, as the claim is conveniently situated and has a road through the centre of it. The claim adjoins the Homeward Bound Company's leaso, which had a satisfactory crushing a few weeks ago, but owing to the primitive machinery on the. ground it is impossible to save the gold to anything like the fullest extent, Mr Bullock with two others obtained their lease last week'and named it tho •!' Keep it Dark" owing to having to keep it dark while .working for the ground, as the M'lntyre gold reef runs through the property, This reef has a splendid show of free gold with an assay of 50oz ot gold to tho ton in the pyrites. As a fourth of Mr Bullook's sharejs held by a Wellington (N.Z.) syndicate, of whom Mr John Bullock, of Fcatlierston Terraoe, Wellington, is one of the principals, it will no doubt be interesting for you to know how it progresses from timo to time, The party are making preparations for a start next week, and have four miners engaged to sink a shaft.. While working in the garden last week, Mr Bullock was bit on the hand by a black snake, As these are the most venomous of our reptiles, you may bo sure he lost no time in getting into town to see the doctor. An injection of strychnine had the effect of counteracting the venom, and after a few days of a' jutnpetty' kind of sen« sation through his system he became alright and is now as well as ever. Snakes are not so plentiful this year, but there are quite enough I car. assure jou, for it is not a very pleasant thing to be always on the look out for them, especially, when you are out picuicing. It is not a rare thing to hear of cattle dropping dead through snake bites in this part, Our circle has been increased by the appearance of Mr R, H. Pilmer in this town, As a representative of the " Bush Advocate," a well known footballer, and brother of Mr A, Pilmer, of Featberston, he is pretty well known in the Wairarapa, No doubt Mr Pilmer thought he was coming to a place where they were all strangers, but he was Boon undeceived, for on walking into our photographers—who, by the way }s points behind Mr T. E. Price, your Queen Street artist—be saw two football groups in aconspicuous place, of the M.F.O. and the W.R.F.U. reps, in which he soon recognised D'Arcy, Baby Perry, the only doe, Bob Thompson and Day. These, of course, led him to fossick out the erstwhile Hon. Sec. and we have not parted yet, but continue to talk over old times and acquaintances as though it were ages since I left the Waidrap,. On Sunday last there was ft gathering of New Zealanderp at ray residence in which Pilmer, Bullock and myself were the central figures. Of courso Mrs W, and the children were delighted to welcome the Maorilanders and a most enjoyable time was the result.; On Monday last, Pilmer inyjffl]i| Ijujlopk and myself to meet him at the Registrar's sijio,e to, aedst in a ceremony in which a young lady was deeply interested, We met, and after sitting beneath the British coat of arras for about quarter of an hour, in . the large' and sol.awn-fopk jng courthouse, while the. registrar ads justed the nuptial knot, we signed the book which proclaimed & H, Pilmer, of Wellington, N.Z., and' Mi O. Brett

°fßockhampton, Queensland, to be man and wile, :

We have just started a oliilled meat works here, aodPilnierwentoverthem this week in company with the Chair* man of Directors and gave him some very, valuable hints for the working of them, and tliere is a possibility of him accepting an appointment in connec* tion with'the works, Hope so, any way.

We have a Pastoral unci Agrioul tural Society here that 'makes' tbings hum, and you will see by the schedule i send in the paper that they offer over £IOOO in prizes for their show to he held next month, Of this amount £250 are the Government District National prizn, for distribution in tbis tliatrict. You see the cojony ia divided into so many districts—five I think—and the leading show town or society is selected as the distributing body .in that district. This is the first year-for these prizes, and our society got tho coveted honor, and next year it will go to the next best and so on. Our show ground is a model one, and has a grand stand muoh larger than' the Tauherenikau Eace Course stand, with Secretary's office and large luncheon room underneath, also publican's bar. There ia a large pavilion for exhibiting farm produce, about 20 excellent loose boxes, a fowl pavilion, sheep pens (roofed) with special feeding facilities, pig pens, and cattle yards. The latter have just been completed at a cost of about £250. Add to this a show ring, enclosing nearly an acre ot land, with a portable fence that in a few hours can be oxtended or contracted, and you have a protty good idea of our ground, Are weindabt? Why certainly I But we only owe about £l,lOO, and see the grand show we have, Besides, the buildings and improvements on the- ground are worth between i 2oooor£3ooo. Thisis what the orHoials say about it, I haven't seen one of the shows yet, but judging by the way in which ihey blow about it, I am going to be surprised, perhaps. In the Wairarapa societies the great thing appeaw to be to get out of debt, but here they work on the principle of adding to their attractions, and hang the expense, Steeplechasing and jumping contests are the rage, and, concerts and sports under the electric light at night draw large crowds, The show here lasts threo days, and this year the Brisbane foxhounds are to pay us a visit and give us a run out on the day previous and the day after our Show Carnival, It's wonderful how we bleed our paternal Government, in this country. There is not an institution but what is Subsidised. The Pastoral Society ground ia a gift from tho State, and it reoeives a subsidy on the amount of subscriptions paid. The Hospital, Municipal Council, School of Arts, Parks and Cemeteries all receive subsidies, and the better beggar the Member of the district is 1 of coarse the better the district comes off, We fare very well, There is a [ talk .of subsidising the meat export companies,,and with what little I know of tbingSjit will come off be- , fore loDg. Up to within a few weeks of the '■ present time we had the Key D, ' Fulton amongst us, but owing to the Church promising him £BOO a year J and then offering £2OO, he felt compelled to relinquish the appointment. He went to Brisbane and preichod, and also to Baliina (N.S. W), | and is now at Wallsend, near New- _ castle. The Baliina people have ' given him an unanimous call, The 1 Brisbane people want him to go back again, but I think he prefers 1 Wallsend, as| being near Syd- ! ney, It is just possible he may accept Baliina, 'Mrs Fulton ' left here for Wallsend last week, and | will travel with her husband till they are settled. Her health haß, not been j gist-class lately. The Rev. D. Fulton was recognised as the best preacher 1 heard in this district for many years, but as he was given a call here and ' accepted it while the chief supporter [ was away from the district, that indi-. J vidual withdraw his usual subsorip(ions and made things more than uncomfortable for the pastor, hence r bis retirement. . I think you will admit that this is spun out quite long enough, so in drawing it to a close I hope to be able before long to again make a written Acquaintance with the Wairarapians, if it is acceptable to them, [Our correspondent has many friends in the Wairarapa, and we feel sure that they and our readers generally will welcome contributions from his pen.—Ep. W.t).]