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20 Wm McLevie, joined the Great Majority. But in the 1860’s and the seventies, the men mentioned above were all well-known business men, officials, and clergy that any country might well be proud of. I have written these few lines on the sudden impulse after receiving the newspaper which has brought to my mind so many memories of the past. Perhaps, at an early date, I may again visit the Coast.

“I spent some of the happiest days of my life in Hokitika, and never met as sociable a people anywhere else. Most of them were very successful in business after they left the Coast.”

Wm. EVANS.



Sir Julius writes, inter alia:—

On the morning of April 21st., 1865, we started early for Hokitika, along the beach, which, during ebb tide, offers generally fine travelling ground on a hard sandy bottom. The whole way appeared like a great main road rather than an ocean beach. Horses and riders, pack horses and their drivers, men with swags, waggons drawn by horses or bullocks—the whole a picture of earnest activity—proved that we were advancing towards the great centre of the goldfields. At the mouth of the small Waimea river, distant about five miles from the Teremakau, we found a settlement of small extent, consisting of about thirty shanties and canvas houses, mostly stores and public houses. There the road leaves the Coast for the extensive diggings at the head of this creek. A similar but larger township was found at the mouth of the Arahura, which we passed after a march of a few hours. The nearer we approached Hokitika, the more the traffic became animated, and when we at last entered the city of yesterday we could not conceal our astonishment that, in so short a time of only a few months, such a large place could have sprung up, which being literally built on sand, seemed at the same time healthy and clean. The principal street half a mile long, consisted already of a large number of shops, hotels, banks and dwelling-houses, and appeared as a scene of almost indescribable hustle and activity. There were jewellers and watchmakers, physicians and barbers, hotels and billiard-rooms, eating and boarding houses, and trades and professions of all descriptions. Everywhere the English language would of course be heard in its principal dialects, as well as German, Italian, Greek, and French and several other tongues. Carts were unloading and loading, and sheep and cattle driven to the yards; there was shouting and bell-ringing, deafening to the passers-by; criers at every corner of the principal streets which were filled with people—a scene I had never before witnessed in New Zealand. Hundreds of diggers “on the spree” and loafers were everywhere to be seen, but principally near the