Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/97

Rh leaving the rest of the party at the Buller. When Reuben returned to Nelson,—as he humorously puts it in a pamphlet published by him some years afterwards:—“Nothing was then said of the madman from Victoria; they were all very anxious to have some conversation with the madman, as they chose to call me. Many who were the first to stamp the expedition as a costly hair-brained enterprise, were now the first to ply their avocations, and hurry to the new-found El, Dorado.” The gold brought up by Waite was exhibited in a jeweller’s window in Nelson, and this was the first mention of the Buller goldfields. Waite’s subsequent history as a pioneer of the West Coast goldfields is worthy of a special chapter, and should limit permit, I will refer more fully to him at a later period. Of late years he has been residing at the junction of the Inangahua, where I last saw him about a year ago in excellent health and spirits. He was one of the first men I met at the Buller in 1866. He had then a run, which he obtained from the Nelson Provincial Government, of some 6000 acres, upon which the diggings known as Waite’s Pakihis were discovered. All around was at that time becoming a flourishing goldfield. Mr Commissioner Kynnersley was the Government factotum, and had a carte blanche to lay off townships and make roads. He was a man of great enterprise and endurance; but the damp and discomforts of the coast in those days told on his constitution, and he died in Melbourne some years afterwards a martyr to consumption. Mr Kynnersley was succeeded by Dr Giles as Resident Magistrate and Warden, who had charge of the Nelson South West goldfields for many years, and who is now acting in the same capacities in Westland, and is Chief Commissioner of Lands at Hokitika. Westport was a stirring township at Christmas 1866, and the first newspaper, the Westport Times, was published on the 22d22nd [sic] of December of that year. Three bank agencies were opened about that time, and miners were very prosperous on the terraces to the north of the town, some five or six miles distant, and on Addison’s Flat, about the same distance to the south. Before the appointment of Dr Giles as Resident Magistrate, Mr Kynnersley had to attend to the duties of the whole district extending as far south as Cobden, where there were a number of civil, as well as Warden’s cases to attend to. He was consequently absent from the northern parts, frequently for a fortnight at a time, and there being no gaols there established, the manner in which justice was meted out to those charged with drunkenness and more serious crimes was ludicrous in the extreme. One man was charged with stealing four shirts from a drapery establishment in Westport. He was given into custody, but no magistrate could be found, and the Sergeant of Police remanded the prisoner from time to time on his own account. After a second remand the prisoner was prompted to question the sergeant’s authority, whereupon he was admitted to bail, again without authority, bail being fixed at £40. At last the prosecutor provided sureties! These were truly the primitive days of Westport. Court affairs were even carried with a higher hand at Brighton, for in the absence of the Magistrate, Mr James Payne, who was Clerk of the Court, passed sentences as the spirit moved him, never, however, inflicting lengthened punishment, as the prisoners were necessarily locked up in his own office and sleeping apartment. Mr