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194 not be allowed an extra allotment or two, having been the pioneers of the place; still not having applied for an increased area, Cassius was fairly entitled to it, having marked out the ground. A little later Price apologised to Revell, and was let off with a severe lecture.”

Reviewing Preshaw’s first Christmas in Old Westland it was not a very happy one. The fact that stern necessity compelled him to contemplate (and on Christmas night, too), the possibility of having to defend his life—and his bank’s property—and in so doing kill, or be killed, was far from being in accord with the principle of peace on earth and towards mankind good will. Truly this Yuletide was very hectic and the amount of liquor consumed was enormous.

John Hudson often spoke of the “Christmas Party,” as the diggers and storekeepers who arrived at Hokitika by the Nelson and Wallaby were called, and of the seasonable celebrations they indulged in—mostly at the expense of some prior arrival, who now was “on the gold.” He mentioned, too, the fact that at this time two Maoris who had been digging at the Hohonu, hearing of the rush to the Hokitika River immediately jumped into a canoe, and coming down the Taramakau River actually crossed the bar and paddled sixteen miles south to the Hokitika River, which they in turn entered and proceeded to the rush. “They were gold-crazed,” said Hudson, “and