Page:Discovery of the West Coast Gold-Fields Waite 1869.pdf/10

10 ! sitting down in the wilderness to study the art of starvation from the leaves of a cookery-book. What a splendid example for some who roll in luxury, knowing little and caring less what others endure who are in reality making fortunes for them to their own loss, and who afterwards are the first to spurn and trample on the hands that held them up. I almost despaired of one man, who was so weak when they brought him in to the Buller that I did not think he would recover, but by a little care we brought him round, and to this day he is grateful to me for the attention shown to him, which I value more than the above £5.

Early in the year 1863, a lot of Maoris came to the Buller overland from the Grey. I say "overland," although their style of travelling from the one river to the other was by going up the Grey or Mawhera in a canoe as far as the Little Grey or Mawhera-iti, and up that river to its head. There they would haul up the canoe out of the way of the freshets, and walk over the saddle; on the other side they had another canoe, which they always kept there, and thence they went down the Inangahua into the Buller, and down the Buller to its mouth. These Maoris had with them some very nice pieces of gold, which they said they had got in the Grey district. After I had sent parties out to prospect, by supplying them with provisions, about the Buller district, I wrote a letter to the Superintendent of the Canterbury province, asking what bonus he would give for the discovery of a payable gold-field on the western, or Grey district of that province. Four months afterwards, or thereabout, I received an answer that the Government was not prepared to give any bonus for that district, as it would be of no benefit to Christchurch! However, before I had received the answer from Christchurch, I had made arrangements with the captain of the cutter Thames to go down from Nelson to the Grey, but while he was getting his vessel ready for the trip, the Havelock diggings opened; and as he got plenty of work for the vessel there without so much risk, he kept her in that trade. We were also left without a vessel for the Buller, as our old trader, the Gipsy, had been wrecked on the coast, and her crew compelled to follow up the beach until they arrived at the mouth of the Buller river; consequently, I had to walk overland to Nelson, carrying with me a heavy parcel of gold, a distance of 150 miles, in the month of June—the very depth of winter, over a fearful road that is beyond description. It may help to form an idea of what it was like, when I state that it was a perfect treat, on coming to a river, to wade through and wash the mud off our legs.

While I was in Nelson, preparing for the voyage to the Grey, a letter was brought to me by a Maori chief, named Tamati Pirimona, from the Grey, stating that they were anxiously looking for my vessel. I also received one from Mr. John Rochfort, to the same effect, but giving me poor encouragement about the gold.