Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/96

76 be noted in view of his subsequent activities in Westland, that he had had considerable Australian experience before settling in Nelson, and also that he was a first-class Maori scholar, who trained natives to assist him. Being also without peer as a bushman, he was admirably equipped for the dangerous and strenuous duties pertaining to his profession in a wild and almost unknown land. It has been written of John Rochfort that, “in traversing the mighty Buller River from its source to the sea, he accomplished a feat unparalleled in the history of surveying in this colony, that is, he managed for many months to carry out his work in a dense forest country without stores and provisions, other than the indigenous natural production of the district”; for he had the dire misfortune to lose all his provisions when a canoe was upset at the commencement of the work. He discovered the famous coal seams at Mount Rochfort, near Westport, and found several small pieces of gold at the Old Diggings in November, 1859, and was thus the first to discover the existence of the precious metal in the Buller. Later he carried out a series of surveys in Westland, traversing the coastline in 1864, while the following year when laying out the town of Greymouth he named its principal street Mackay in honour of his friend and fellow explorer.