Page:Discovery of the West Coast Gold-Fields Waite 1869.pdf/11

11 As, however, the Maoris were sanguine, I determined to try my luck. Two men started from the Buller to the Grey when they found I was likely to send a vessel down there, and these men pretended they had discovered the gold; another man, named Hunt, pretended he was the discoverer. When I arrived at the Grey, I found these fellows loafing amongst the Maoris. It was not these men who found the gold at all, but the Maoris; yet the former had the impudence to ask the Government of Canterbury for a bonus; in fact, I believe Hunt did get a bonus. As I have before stated, the Maoris had gold in their possession, which they had found at Teremakau long before Hunt was at the Grey. But I am going out of the straight track, so I will return to the chartering of the Thames.

Captain Garnes was in Nelson when I arrived there from the Buller, and I was about to charter him for the trip, but speaking to two or three about going down with me, the news soon got spread, and there being a great many diggers in Nelson at the time they wanted to go with me. The steamer Nelson had just then arrived from England, and the croakers were about to wind up the Nelson and Marlborough Steam Navigation Company, and would have done so had it not been that I offered to engage the steamer. Well, the company took her on, but would not charter her unless I would guarantee forty passengers at £3 per head. When I went with the money for more than forty, I was told that all over forty must pay £4 each; but with perseverance I managed to get them for £3. Perhaps it will be said, this has nothing to do with the opening of the gold-field; but I have written it to show through what penny-wise and pound-foolish ways Nelson has been brought to what it is, instead of being, what it ought to be, the grand emporium for the West Coast. But I suppose in the course of time the people of Nelson will become awake to the fact, that they must do something for the country, and not expect (as has hitherto been the case) that the country will do everything for them. Many other places have suffered severely through neglecting to take advantage of the golden opportunity when it offered itself, and doubtless Nelson will pass through the same fiery ordeal, to suddenly awake a fresh and different place.

Well, we started in the good steamship Nelson, from Nelson, in the middle of July, 1864, with a cargo of provisions, and every requisite for the diggings. From my long experience on goldfields I knew exactly what was wanted; the diggers took no tools (as it was only a prospecting trip) or provisions from Nelson, and were satisfied with my prices for all that was wanted. I may state, by-the-way, that things are higher in price at the present day on the coast than when I first went there. The Government of Nelson, finding I was going to the Grey, gave me a contract to procure for them forty tons of coal as a sample from the Grey coal mine, so I called into the Buller, and got two canoes, and B 2