CHARLESTON
Westport. The office was on Woodpecker Wharf. Mr. Lloyd also acted as agent.
Constant Bay.—The ketch Constant, Captain Charles Bonner, in 1866. Reuben Waite visited here in 1866, in this ketch, and gave her name to the bay. Owing to Captain Bonner's early visits, the settlement became known as Charlie’s Town, amended in time to Charles Town, and finally to Charleston.
Nile River.—P.S. Result, Captain Samuel John Riley, about 1874.
Buller River.—The sealing schooner Three Brothers, Captain Joseph Thoms, 1844. The first trading vessel was the cutter Supply, under charter to McKay and Rochfort, 30th August, 1859. She landed supplies somewhere about Packers’ Point. Her crew were: Captain John Walker; mate, Captain Scott; seamen, G. Walker, F. Millington, F. Wilcox, and two natives. The first steamer was P.S. Tasmanian Maid, Captain Whitwell, 29th January, 1862. She was the first steamer to enter a river-port on the Coast.
This great El Dorado, the South-West Coast, in practically its entirety from Cape Farewell to Milford Sound, including Charleston, with all its visible and hidden treasure, was purchased by the Government from its Maori owners for £300 cash, on 21st May, 1860—about seven and a-half million acres over which, within a decade, tens of thousands roamed, seeking and finding immense deposits of gold.
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