Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/32

20 Wangaro Rivers, and discovered Mount Lockett, Mount Peel, and the Diamond Lakes, although in the month of December they were caught in a snowstorm and had to retreat. The furthest point south attained in this expedition was in a straight line (if prolonged) with the general direction of the Waimea mud flat.

Mr James Mackay’s last exploring expedition to the Coast was in 1862 in company with Messrs John and Arthur Knyvett, when they blazed a saddle track line from the Upper Aurere (Collingwood) to the mouth of the Heaphy River. On this occasion Mr Mackay left his companions at the river Karamea (Mackay) and marched from there to Westport in one day.

Mr Mackay paid some visits to Westport afterwards as Resident Magistrate and Warden, but finally left the West Coast in July 1863, on the outbreak of the war in Waikato. Since then he has done little in the exploring line. His services during the Waikato war were principally confined to getting rebels to surrender, taking possession of rebel arms and ammunition, capturing some Maoris for various offences, and subsequently opening the Thames goldfields to the general public. Mr Mackay, after an absence of twenty years from Greymouth, again held the office of Resident Magistrate and Warden for that district in 1880 and 1881.

Mr Alexander Mackay, who accompanied and assisted his cousin on two of his exploring expeditions, held the office of Native Commissioner until 1883, when he was appointed Judge of the Native Lands Court.

Mr Samuel Meggitt Mackley, who accompanied Mr James Mackay in 1860 along the coast south of the Grey, settled in 1861 at Waipuna plain in the Upper Grey district, where he took up a sheep and cattle station. He was the first European occupier of land in that district, and is now the holder of a valuable homestead and property, and is as comfortable in every respect as a good settler can be, and as he deserves to be, as the pioneer of the agricultural interest in that portion of the Colony.

Mr John Rochfort is by profession a Civil Engineer and Surveyor. His first colonial experience was gained on the Australian goldfields. He then came to Nelson with other members of his family, and settled at Rewaka. Mr Rochfort in 1859 entered into a contract with the Provincial Government of Nelson to perform certain surveys on the West Coast. In that year he accomplished a feat unparallelled in the history of surveying in this Colony, that is, he managed for many months to carry on his work in a dense forest country without stores and provisions, other than the indigenous natural productions of the district. In surveying the Buller River he had the misfortune to lose all his stores by the upsetting of a canoe, but nothing daunted by this accident, he successfully completed the duty he had undertaken. Mr Rochfort was the discoverer of the coal seams at Mount Rochfort, near Westport, and he also was the first to find gold in the Buller River bed, and on the West Coast. Mr Rochfort was for some time attached to the Canterbury Survey Department, but of late years he has been connected with the Survey and Engineer departments at Nelson.

Dr Julius Haast can hardly be looked on as a West Coast explorer, as he merely