legislation in 1881 curtailed their entry. Chinese merchants had businesses in Greymouth and Hokitika and branches at various goldfields. (There doesn’t appear to have been Chinese miners at Gillespie’s but some anecdotal reports indicate they worked the waterways up at the Forks and McDonald’s Creek.)
1878 - In February the West Coast Times advised that Okarito had suffered an invasion of fish with the beach covered in all kinds and sizes along a 3-mile length.
The haul was said to be a godsend for the half-starved residents. In view of the fact that these small settlements lost no time erecting a church, perhaps this phenomenon could be seen as a gift from on high.
1880/81 - The New Zealand Post Office Directory showed that Gillespie’s Beach had one church, two hotels and a population of one hundred.
1883 - On 16th June a newspaper item that Gillespie’s Beach residents intended to apply for a cemetery reserve which, if successful meant that Okarito folk would lose the subscription that would’ve been forthcoming from that area.
1884. The Superintendent of Westland visited the area and in his report published on 12 December in the Grey River Argus said:
“At 9am arrived at Gillespie’s and went round the district with Mr Ryan who had been busily engaged in clearing and planting a large field of potatoes and who is in fact one of a number who exhibit a disposition to settle down in these districts and make it a home. At this beach there is a large water-race which has been built in the most substantial manner and capable of carrying 30 heads of water which will afford an increased supply for working the numerous leads of auriferous sand at the back of the beach. There are about 40 men at work a number of whom accompanied the Superintendent
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