“The goings-on at Gillespie’s and the other nearby areas still being mined. At the time nobody was reported to be doing very well yet earlier in 1866 it was reported “that the sand at the 5-mile further north but south of Okarito was not black but yellow with gold.”
1895 - July - the West Coast Times contained a report that Rev. Father Brown narrowly escaped from drowning near Okarito, rescued by the mailman, Jock Adamson with whom he was travelling. (It was usual for a priest to visit Gillespie’s via Okarito every three months or so to perform baptisms and weddings.)
The Gillespie’s Beach settlement, unlike the much larger township which sprang up at nearby Okarito, had a relatively short hey-day, but after the busiest years, some families, including the Sullivans, stayed on to eke out a living and raise their families. Gillespie’s never matched Okarito with its police station, resident magistrate, courthouse, jail, a busy port with harbour master and bond store, 2 banks, numerous hotels and stores, its own newspaper, and a much larger population. The gold finds at both the 3-mile and 5-mile from Okarito added to its busyness. Many of those who settled at Gillespie’s were of Irish extraction and Catholic so they had something in common.
Mick Sullivan Jnr (2nd generation, farmer, hotelier, County Councillor and glacier guide) once remarked that his grand-parents stayed at Gillespie’s because they were too poor to move elsewhere. There were no social welfare payments to cushion lack or absence of income. People were and had to be charitable and willing to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate. Faith, hope and charity loomed large in the thinking of the times, balanced by the old adage that God helps those who help themselves.
In Petticoat Pioneers, Margaret Harper stated that by 1890, only about 16 families remained at Gillespie’s. The surnames remembered in the McBride memoirs were Walsh, Quinlan,
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