Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/140

106 discovered by Messrs Arthur and Docherty, and upon the development of which a considerable sum was subsequently spent, but without returning any reward to the enterprising prospectors and shareholders. So sanguine were the shareholders of this enterprise, that they had several large pieces—tons I may say—cut, prepared, and polished, and taken to the London market by Messrs Arthur and Stenhouse. Their expectations being too great, they missed the opportunity of finding a good market. Subsequent tests of the stone threw some doubts upon the quality, and though, at one time, there was a good chance of an English firm embarking in the project, all negotiations at last fell through. During the year of the Melbourne Exhibition, I had an opportunity, with Mr Arthur, of bringing this stone under the notice of several German visitors who were interested in lithographic stone quarries on the Continent. We also enlisted the support of some prominent citizens in Melbourne in the publishing business, who were willing to make a trial shipment, but the tests made by Messrs Sands and M‘Dougal at their Melbourne establishment were not so satisfactory as was expected. The samples forwarded were too small in size, and few were free from flaws of one kind or other. Possibly, however, when the large quarry is once opened out, this dormant enterprise may yet be found to be of value. But I am digressing.

We took from Abbey Rocks several pieces of this lithographic stone, and of so-called marble, as mementoes or exhibits when we returned to Hokitika. We brought with us also, inadvertently, and quite involuntarily, a following of sand-flies, which were not appreciated as an accession to the company in the steamer’s cabin, and seriously subdued the West Coast Times correspondent in a moment of poetic inspiration. He saw in the rocks the ruined abbey which the early surveyors were sentimental enough to suppose they resembled; he marked a miniature waterfall, the curling smoke from the fern cottage, the bright pebbles of the beach, the bush beyond, and the feathered songsters sitting on the boughs; he listened to the music of the waves and of those warblers; he was all but saying something about Paradise, when he suddenly slapped his ear—and missed—and swore.

Arnott Point, the next and last prominent headland in the passage to Jackson’s Bay, is distinguished by the number of detached rocks by which it is sentinelled. Beyond, the cliff’s slope down till they disappear, and are succeeded by an almost dead flat at the sea front—the longest stretch of low country to be seen on the coast. Immediately before reaching the flat frontage to the mountain range, through which flow the Haast, Okura, Waitoto, and Arawata, we see Ship Creek, where was found the remnant of wreck, which has been the subject of so much speculation and some scientific deduction. We suppose that since Captain Turnbull suggested it, and Messrs Hall & Co., of Aberdeen, confirm it, we must conclude that the wreck in question was portions of the stranded vessel “Schomberg,” carried thither by the influence of ocean currents; but with all respect to the scientific, it seems a pity we could not longer have enjoyed this maritime relic as a source of mystery and romance. It was so interesting to suppose that this wreck, with trees now growing among its timbers, was stranded here in years long past,