New Zealand.
CHAPTER XVII.
I had not been in Nelson many days when I was ordered to “Wakamarina,” a new diggings some forty miles distant. I did the journey on horseback, crossing the Maungatapu Mountain, the scene of the diabolical murders committed by Burgess and party in 1866 (particulars of which are given in another chapter).
On reaching Havelock I found all bustle and excitement. Diggers were flocking in hundreds from Otago and other parts of New Zealand. The diggings were twenty miles from the township, at a place called Deep Creek, but were not sufficiently extensive or remunerative to support a large population, which dwindled down to a mere handful on the discovery of the West Coast goldfields, in the latter part of 1864.
21st October, 1864.—Gold having been discovered in payable quantities on the west coast of the middle island[1] I was ordered to take a run down by the steamer Nelson, leaving on the above date, to have a look at the place and report upon it. Arrived at the “Buller” on the afternoon of Sunday, the 23rd. A miserable looking place it was; only two buildings, both stores or shanties, kept respectively by Messrs. Martin and Hodges. Found a good many Maories camped about; was amused at seeing a Maori lady wash her baby, a little thing a few months old, which she took down to the river, and dipped several times; the child took it kindly, and although the water was very cold it cried but little; she slung it
- ↑ Extract from an address delivered 8th October, 1862, being the anniversary of Captain Cook’s first landing in New Zealand, by Julius Haast, President of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand:—“Hitherto great confusion has prevailed relative to the island, which is called both the Middle and South Island. The appellation Middle Island is a mistake, as the size of Stewart’s Island precludes it from being ranged with the two others. The most eminent geographers of Great Britain and of the continent of Europe—such men as Arrowsmith, Keith Johnston, Petermann, Hochstetter, &c.—call it always the South Island, while in New Zealand, even in official documents, it is called sometimes by the one and sometimes by the other name. In order to avoid further misunderstanding, would it not be appropriate to give this island the name of Cookland? for, so far as I am aware, no country visited by that illustrious navigator has been so designated.”
