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 They were too excited to eat dinner and they waited on until 3 p.m, but no friend arrived, so they sent Pat McEnroe down to the pub to see what was wrong. Pat returned back about 4.30 and told the rest of his mates how they had been had by some spalpheen. Their hearts dropped to zero. The poor old fellow swore all sorts of things on his life and Dan McNamara, the principal spokesman, said that if he ever crossed his path, then he would make a hole in his trousers with a shot gun that large, that Ferguson the tailor, would never be able to patch it.

In latter years when a Greymouth syndicate brought out Carmody and party’s claim (The Garry Owen), thus had in charge a Mr Wylde, who purchased a dredge from Otago and had it erected in front of the Shamrock Hotel. But time proved it was not up to the old standard of the water balance and to-day it is rusting to pieces and this claim disbanded.

There is still plenty of gold in the flats of Addison’s, but until a cheap system is available for removing the large amount of deposit that is covering the black sand, it will not pay to work the gold.

Addisons was populated to the extent of some thousands before road or track was made. To reach it from the two seaport towns, such as Westport and Charleston, everything had to be packed to the miners with pack horsesehorses [sic] and swaggers. To give you some idea of how foodstuffs, etc. was conveyed, one leg packer by the name of Paddy Walsh, was known to carry an 18-gallon keg of food on his back from Westport to Myles McPadden’s hotel at Addisons on a hot summer’s day, and all he received in payment was his walking time. I am informed by some of Paddy’s old friends that when this swagger labored along under the weight of the 18 gallons, when he came to every creek that crossed his way, he would take off his swag, lean over the waters of the creek, take a good swig of aqua pura, wipe his sleeve across his mouth, turn to his swag with a saddened eye and repeat in a solemn whisper, “Thou art so near and yet so far.”

Packer’s Point, at the South Spit at Westport, was the starting place for the Flat, and on getting on to the pahikis, the swagger had to follow beating tracks until he got to his destination.

The Government, which was in those days Provincial Government, began to make the roads and bridge the rivers between Westport and Charleston. In 1868 Addisons was going in full swing. Large wooden buildings for hotels, stores, etc., were being erected. The remains of one of the old buildings are there to-day, and that is the Shamrock Hotel.

Phil McEnroe was the second owner of that hotel, Phil having left a baker’s shop at Charleston to take on hotelkeeping at Addisons. He also carrying, butchering, blacksmithing, and baking in conjunction with the hotel. The McEnroe family left Addisons some 20 years ago to take over the Britannia Hotel at Wellington, and it was in the Capital City that Phil, like Dick Seddon and other notable men, was laid to rest.