Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/154

Rh thousand pounds at least in lifting her upon wooden blocks of timber ready to launch. During the night a flood came down the river, and opened out a new channel under the steamer’s keel. She sank down and gradually turned her paddle boxes in the sand, and at daylight was found keel up. Her fate was now considered sealed. All the clever folk railed at the owners for not cutting open her side and saving the machinery, but they replied (like the Yankee who was stuck up—“Your money or your brains.” “Blow away, mate, I guess you might as well go to New York without brains as without money”), “What is the use of old machinery and no hull?” Next morning they had the satisfaction of seeing the Lioness returned to her proper position—upright—from which she shortly afterwards was launched into her native element.

Yates (whose name is mentioned in Chapter 10) arrived on the Coast in July 1865, per s.s. Titania, which vessel was wrecked in crossing the bar, and sold next day for the benefit of the owners for £125. I was just on the eve of starting for the Grey River with Walmsley, news from that place of extraordinary deposits of gold having been discovered, being received. Yates accompanied us, and we found on our arrival such a scene of excitement as I have rarely witnessed. The few miners returning for supplies reported the new diggings to be the richest ever opened in New Zealand. The following entry appears in my diary:—“Twelve new gullies all now in course of being worked, the yields from some of which are remarkably good. The diggings are all on the Nelson side of the Grey, but as the Government of that province have no one to represent them on the ground, the port township is likely to be formed on the Canterbury side of the river, which is in every respect the better, having deep water, &c.; fine block of land; country suitable for the formation of a township. Have secured a site, and shipped timber and iron for an office from Hokitika. The miners are leaving the Hokitika district in hundreds, and before many weeks are past I expect the Grey township will be the most important on the West Coast. The bar entrance, although narrow, is in a line with the river, and is reported not likely to be such an obstruction to navigation as the Hokitika.”

Sweeney (referred to under date 10th November, 1864) did remarkably well at carting and packing. This he gave up after a time and took to storekeeping, at which he made money. Soon after the Totara rush broke out he started a branch store on the river bank, half-a-mile from its mouth, which was conducted by my old Kiandra friend, Maxwell, or “Daddy,” as he was generally known. On one of my trips from the Totara I called in to see him. I had made an early start, and found the store closed. However, I pulled the tent door aside, and found my noble “Daddy” stretched at full length in front of the counter,