CHARLESTON
Many of the innovations introduced emanated from a Bermudian, Cato Dickenson, who had served his apprenticeship in the Naval Dockyards of his country as an artificer; a well-respected man who later was house steward at the hospital.
Magnus Mouat died at Lower Hutt on 18th October, 1934, aged 90 years, and is buried at Karori. His wife died at Lower Hutt in July, 1926, and is buried beside him at Karori. Their family was five sons and one daughter. Gilbert Harper died at Nine-mile Beach in 1882, and is buried at Charleston. He had not married. His age was 38 years.
As the principal source of the gold was the tailings from the workings about Charleston, brought to the sea by the Nile River and cast upon the beach by the tides, the quantity gradually lessened as the mining was reduced, until at last the supply was too small to make the beach-work profitable, so it ceased. To-day no beach-claims are worked regularly, but one or two nearby farmers do occasional combing as a side-line.
In comparatively recent years Powell & Co, worked elevators, or “blow-ups,” on the greater portion of the Nine-mile Beach from the Totara River to Parson’s Hill.
The West Coast has been proverbial for clannishness and the comradeship that regards neither creed nor class; and nowhere was this spirit more in evidence than among the Shetlanders of the Nine-mile. To-day, scattered throughout the Dominion as they and their descendants are, that spirit exists unimpaired, defying the miles, and the passing of many moons; the people of the Shetlands remain one great family.
A portion of beach adjacent to the Totara Lagoon was once, about 1888, the scene of a mild rush, and the locality became known as “Larrikins’.” It was short-lived, and little mining was done, although much labour and capital were expended, the water being brought in from Virgin Flat, about half-way between there and Addison’s Flat. The original “rushers” were L. Levy, Jerry Mullins, Percy and Alf Craddock, George Hurburgh, Alf, Fred, Ben, and Jimmy Parsons.
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