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198 place, in a decayed stump, it being generally considered that the thief had hidden it there.

Proceeding again with Larnach’s story, he notes that “The population at the Grey had now been considerably reduced, many diggers having moved to the Waimea. Men were also leaving good claims at the Totara, Saltwater and Greenstone, in order to proceed there, as many parties were obtaining rich finds and the field was said to be a second Gabriel’s Gully.”

Of this rush Preshaw, in “Banking Under Difficulties,” states: “At this time roads were so bad that packers found great difficulty in getting from the beach to the Waimea, a distance of five miles, but reckoned twelve.” Several diggers, whom I presume to have been unfortunate, took to packing, and amongst others was Charles L. Money, known as “Charley the Packer,” and from whose book, “Knocking About in New Zealand,” I have extracted the following: “At this time the road from the beach up to the township, a distance of twelve miles, passing, as it did, the whole way through bush and thick undergrowth, and crossing and recrossing the creek every hundred yards, was in a condition perfectly inconceivable to those who have not been to the great rush on the West Coast diggings. Roots of all sizes, torn and mangled into a sort of macaroni squash, and when large remaining a hindrance to