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this phase Mr. Leo Northcroft, one time editor of the West Coast Times, and father of Colonel the Honourable Mr. Justice Northcroft, D.S.O., V.D., writer of the introduction to this work, tells us: “Field after field was opened with amazing rapidity. From Martin’s Bay in the south to West Wanganui in the north could be seen the tents and fires of the gold diggers, Captains of vessels sailing along the coast would notice a continual line of fires, each of which indicated parties of miners. Prospectors pushed up the rivers and streams, poured over terraces and hills, almost invariably meeting with a rich reward.

“Hokitika was the scene of the first great rush; and for a time numbers predominated there, Kanieri, Eight Mile, Big Paddock, Blue Spur, Waimea and numberless flats and gullies