Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/31

Rh their trousers (whare kuwaha) thigh trousers, and Mackley’s boots (parairai), Maori for flax sandals. (Mackay had no boots; he wore flax sandals.) Having completed the marking out of reserves northward to Poherua, the reserves from there to the Grey were next fixed on the ground. On the 21st May 1860, the sum of three hundred pounds (£300) was paid to the resident natives in full satisfaction of all their claims; and the 7,500,000 acres, comprising all the land from Kaurangi Point to Milford Haven on the south, and extending inland to the watershed range between the East and West Coast, finally passed into the hands of the Crown. (See Note, page 21.) On leaving the Grey the results of all this labour were nearly lost, as, in crossing the river from the settlement to the north side (now Cobden), the canoe, in which were Mr Mackay and six Natives, upset. Mr Mackay had the land purchase deeds, field books of reserve surveys, the sextant and prismatic compass, and £100 in gold in a leather despatch bag, but he managed to swim with them until he reached the upturned canoe, and finally landed in safety. The Government afterwards grumbled at the slovenly and dirty appearance of the deeds and papers, but probably had they been aware of the fact that these documents had paid an involuntary visit to the bottom of the Grey River, they would not have complained.

Messrs Mackay, Mackley, and the ten Collingwood Natives then went on their way up the coast towards West Wanganui. On reaching the Buller (now Westport) they found a party of twenty Europeans who had arrived in a vessel from Canterbury in search of gold. (Mr John Rochfort had found it during his survey.) They were dissatisfied with the prospects obtained, and wished to return to the civilised world again. Mr Mackay, having completed the fixing of the reserves at the Buller, agreed to pilot this party up the coast to Massacre Bay. With two or three exceptions in the shape of old bushmen, the Canterbury grass plain men were very bad travellers, and Mackay, fearing they would meet with some accident on the dangerous rocks and rugged precipitous points between the Wakapoai River (Heaphy) and Kaurangi Point, determined to strike overland from the mouth of the Heaphy River, crossing the saddle between it and the Aurere (Collingwood River). This journey was safely accomplished. Each man carried fifty pounds’ weight of provisions on starting from the Buller, but it was found necessary to consume the loads of some weakly members first, in order to enable them to keep pace with the remainder of the party. Mackay, Mackley, Small, and one Native led the party, and carried their fifty pounds of provisions per man, besides blankets, etc., intact, from the Buller River to the saddle as a stand-by in case of need. On sighting Collingwood all hands were put on double rations. The Provincial Government of Nelson gave Mr James Mackay a bonus of £150 for defining the track from the Rotoiti plains viâ Maruia to the mouth of the river Grey, which enabled Mr Julius Haast (now Dr Von Haast) to travel through and report on the geology of the country.

At the end of 1860 James Mackay and Major John Lockett did a considerable amount of exploration between the head waters of the Takaka-Karamea (Mackay) and