Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/229

Rh So important a centre had Hokitika now become that it was meet that on May 3rd, 1865, there should appear Old Westland’s first newspaper, the West Coast Times. “But before this time Hokitika was a considerable town,” states R. C. Reid in “Rambles on the Golden Coast.” “Along a sandbank on the north side of the river, running parallel with the sea, a long straggling street had sprung up as if by magic. . . . . This was called Revell Street. On each side of it were temporary erections, some of timber, some of canvas. Nearly every other one of these canvas or wooden tenements was dignified with the name of hotel. The usual features of a big rush were visible. Drinking, fighting, gambling, all the means resorted to by those who got their money easily in the first flush of a new goldfield, were conspicuous by their presence. Many hotel keepers at this time must have literally coined money. . . . . Many stories have been told of the extravagance of diggers on the early goldfields of Victoria. We have heard of ‘Champagne Charlies’ by the score, and have seen some of them. But we question if there were many better opportunities in goldfields’ history of making a small ‘pile’ quickly than was afforded in the ‘shilling nobbler’ days of Hokitika. General pool, at a pound each, with 5/- a life, was a nightly occurrence amongst dozens of lovers of the