Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/108

88 sojourn, and thrill when listening to their tales of “Dick” Seddon, “Big” Revell, Reuben Waite, “Honest John” Hudson, the elusive Albert Hunt, stormy petrel of the diggings, Gentleman George, Ah Sue, the wily Chinese, and many other characters who played prominent parts in Old Westland’s Golden Drama. Yet after all these stories had been told, the conversation would always swing back to “Jimmie” Mackay, and the famous sale.

Of course this took place about five years before the arrival of this party of men, and Mackay had left the district. Still, the natives who had sold were still there and their version was eagerly sought.

It was generally considered impossible for Mackay not to have known of the gold. The Oakes brothers and Messrs. Harper and Locke had reported it to the Canterbury Provincial Government three years before the sale, the Nelson Examiner had actually published the fact that the Maori brothers Tarapuhi and Tainui had found it “in abundance” in 1858, and most important of all, Mackay’s friend, John Rochfort, had reported its discovery at the Old Diggings a year later. Again, Mackay was a Goldfields’ Warden, and as such was known to have a good knowledge of the metal royal. Further, Von Haast and his assistant, James Burnett, were on the spot, and surely, if only for curiosity, must have panned