CHAPTER I
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KNOCKING ABOUT
IN NEW ZEALAND.
CHAPTER I.
THE afternoon of the 1st July, 1861, found me enjoying a dinner at Blackwall, being the last I should partake of on English ground for at least a considerable time. I bade, however, "dull care begone," and merrily pledged my dear father in a very decent brew of "cider-cup," trusting that we might be permitted to meet again after perhaps the lapse of years. I had no brilliant future before me, no pleasant little sinecure to look forward to in a new country, upon which to build up prospects of ease and "dolce far niente;" but a world to face for the first time, with no more powerful weapons than the love of adventure and a constitutionally sanguine temperament.
A passage paid, first-class, in an emigrant ship, and the smallest note the Bank of England issues in a corner of my waistcoat pocket, together with a hetero-
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geneous collection of clothes, one of Key's cornets (a present from my father, to enable me at least to make a noise in the new world to which I was bound), and a silver watch, were all my personal property as I stepped on board the "Royal Stuart" at Gravesend.
After the usual bustle, caused by the parting of friends, the lowering of boxes into the hold, and a general disposal of people into their various berths, had subsided, we found ourselves in the saloon a society of twenty persons, the majority of whom were under the rather juvenile age of twenty-five years. Half of the entire cuddy berths were occupied by a wealthy Canterbury squatter, who, having been one of the first working-men in the settlement, had taken such good care of the pence that the pounds tumbled into his pocket. His wife, sister-in-law, niece, children, and their nurse, accompanied him, and formed a little court of which the worthy man was autocrat. Three young fellows and myself revelled in the luxury of a stern cabin, with two fine windows, a bath room, and other conveniences. One of these, C------, was a clever, gentlemanlike fellow, who had entered Woolwich en route for the service; but, having unfortunately acquired a penchant for opium-eating, had found himself so shattered in health as to render any hopes of a military career out of the question. After recovering from the baneful effects of the long-continued indulgence, he had determined to try the rough life of a colonist; and, as he said himself, "knock the nonsense out of his system." He had dined at my father's house a few days before
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we sailed, and was liked by every one, so we at once formed a close intimacy, which I, for my part, shall feel proud to continue as long as we both shall live.
Feeling a dearth of excitement or amusement in our little world, we, that is to say C------ and I, organized a weekly journal, and placed at the door of the saloon an editor's box of formidable dimensions, with a huge slit in the lid for the insertion of any contributions offered either by passengers, emigrants or sailors. Among these we could boast of some talent that neither Fraser nor Bentley need have blushed to own on their staff of contributors. Narratives of Mont Blanc ascents with Albert Smith, from one of his fellow-travellers; comical episodes of life and character, from a handsome pianoforte playing young Heidelbergian; articles on the constitution and political history of New Zealand, from the pen of Mr. Hall, one of the leading statesmen at the present moment in that country; papers on duck and wild-fowl shooting, stalking, etc., by an "Old Shekarry;" together with scraps of original and burlesque poetry, on dits of local interest, and a goodly array of jokes, conundrums, and answers to correspondents, stretched the modest little couple of sheets, to which we had at first confined our ambition, to eight well-filled pages of foolscap, published every Saturday afternoon in a leather binding. They were passed from the "cuddy" to the second class, thence to the "house on deck," then to the emigrants and sailors, and afterwards returned to the editor's office, in time for the removal of the old and insertion of the
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new paper. No personalities were permitted to appear, and the entire tone of the journal was essentially one of good-fellowship.
Finding this succeed after the first week better than we had anticipated, we started theatricals, concerts, and other amusements, twice a week; in which every one, from high to low, assisted more or less; and in this way our voyage was rendered at least partially free from the intense ennui which is the chief ingredient in a long trip where there is scarcely a change of scene from shore to shore. Such were our sources of occupation, and we became, moreover, considerable adepts in catching albatrosses, sea-gulls, whale-birds and molly-mauks, by means of long threads of cotton flying out astern in the breeze, in which these birds became entangled and were easily secured by an expert "angler."
Passing the Line was accompanied by the usual traditionary ceremonies, which now-a-days are familiar to every one; and after an agreeable passage of 97 days, we rounded the southern point of Nova Zealandia, anchoring a day or two after in Lyttelton Harbour, the port of the Canterbury Province.
Except that the hills in the back ground are not equal in height to those at the Antipodes, one or two of the small towns on the coast of Cornwall, surrounded on three sides by green ascents, would give a very good impression of the picturesque little town of Lyttelton.
C------ and I were among the first who landed; and after visiting the post-office we struck straight across the country, and up the face of the steep hill behind
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the town. After reaching Christchurch, we walked back the same way; being a distance of sixteen miles, over rough ground, which was not a contemptible tramp after three months on ship board.
There was not, on the whole, nearly so much difference as I expected to find between the manners and customs of New Zealand and those of the "old country."
The most entire civility was shewn to all strangers on arrival; the welcome greeting given by tradesmen or others with whom we were brought in contact was perfectly sincere. People in general dined, drank, and dressed much the same as those we had left behind; and on the night of our arrival, Farquhar, one of my fellow-passengers, invited some of us to a champagne supper, very similar to many a college "wine," and most creditably prepared by Julian, the worthy landlord of the "Mitre," which of course ended, like all jolly meetings of the kind, in furious fun and subsequent fog. We were all rather amused in the course of a day or two to hear of the niece of our worthy squatter before referred to being engaged as chamber-maid at an hotel in the town, that gentleman having turned her adrift to shift for herself. Being a plucky young lady, she, in colonial phraseology, "shaped" so well, that before a year was over she had married a gentleman holding a respectable position in the town, and has now been for some time a happy wife and mother.
At this time there were wonderful reports from the diggings, which had been discovered a month or so
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before we landed, and I should have gone there instanter, but that I was anxious to obtain letters with enclosures "of a pecuniary nature" from home. While awaiting their arrival, being somewhat stranded for want of means, I presented a letter of introduction with which I was provided to Mr. C. Wilson, a gentleman who resided a few miles from the town of Christchurch, and entered his service as cadet, a position which I soon found utterly foreign to my taste. This military designation of cadet was applied to any young fellow who was attached to a sheep or cattle station in the same capacity as myself. He was neither "flesh, nor fowl, nor good red herring," neither master nor man-In consideration of his "education," he was permitted to reside and take his meals with the master, but was sent to work with the men--the essential difference between the latter and himself being that they were paid for their labour, whilst he was considered sufficiently rewarded in having the "honour" to drink his "pannikin" of tea at the boss's deal table, where he was not half so comfortable, or half so much at his ease, as the men in their tent or hut. However, after a pleasant enough week at Cashmere, enjoying all the comforts of an English residence, we rode up to the station one fine morning, where we were to remain till shearing was over. A few words may suffice to give the reader a general idea of a station. There was the usual manager's house, with a loft for the accommodation of the hands who preferred it to the woolshed, where the sheep were shorn and the wool
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packed in bales for transmission home. There was the stockyard, a square enclosure with high posts and rails, into which the cattle, horses, &c, were driven when required for milking or other purposes; besides a hut or two for the shepherds about the run. There were the various out-houses, pigstyes, &c, that are the adjuncts of most dwellings of the better sort in the colonies. A mile or so distant was the pool where the sheep were washed, approached by yards (i. e., passages and squares composed of hurdles or fences) leading to the dip, an enclosed floor, resting on a pivot, which, when filled with sheep tilted up, and shot the unsuspecting "jumbucks" into the water below.
In Mr. Wilson's neighbourhood were other large sheep farmers, and a public-house was being erected on the other side of a large and rapid river, flowing down over enormous boulders, a few hundred yards from the manager's house. The run itself was almost a perfect level, being on the Canterbury plains, but on the further side of the river Mount Peel rose some thousand feet, with wooded gullies breaking its smooth sides. A small kitchen-garden attached to the house afforded a few luxuries, such as young potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables, but no fruit of any description.
After a few weeks up here, the washing and shearing being ended, I bade an affectionate farewell to Mr. W----- and staff; and having in the meantime obtained the letters I had been expecting, with their very acceptable contents, I put an old railway rug on the top of one of the wool drays, and went down to Christchurch on my
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way to the "diggings" in Otago, the southern province of the island.
I took my passage at Port Lyttelton in the "Julia Ann," a small craft of some thirty tons burden. We were fifteen passengers in number, and, as the hold was pretty well loaded with stores of all descriptions, and not of the most odoriferous character, and as also two large dogs were chained in it during the whole of the trip, it is scarcely to be wondered at that, although usually a first-rate sailor, I should have suffered somewhat on that occasion.
Before many hours, however, we were out of our misery, and found ourselves drinking cocktails, concocted by a flash barman, in a worked dress-shirt with alarming studs, at the bar of the Provincial Hotel, Dunedin, at that time the capital of the southern settlement.
The town was filled with some thousands of men, and the most lugubrious reports were in circulation. By the accounts heard on all sides rheumatism, fever, and ague were prevalent, the weather was frightfully bad, and the country flooded. To go up the country to dig for gold seemed to be merely going to dig one's grave, while, in addition to all this, the scarcity of gold was loudly asserted by most of those who had returned from the diggings.
I had always a great idea of the wisdom of the young lady who, when warned by her mother against balls and other dissipations with the assurance that both her father and herself had seen the folly of such
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things long ago, replied naively that "she wished to see the folly of them too." So, in spite of all I heard, I started the second morning after my arrival, with my rug and blankets on my back (such a bundle being called a "swag"), and found myself in Gabriel's Gully in a day and a-half.
It was, as the favorite novelist of my boyhood might have remarked, towards the afternoon of a fine day in summer that two travellers might have been seen skirting the summit of a line of hills which overlooked a town that gleamed snow-white in the plain below. The town was surrounded by a vast net-work of holes of every shape and size, with heaps of variously colored gravel beside them, stretching away as far as the eye could reach, till they were hidden by the turn of the valley. This was Wetherstone's Gully, called after one of the first men who found gold in that locality, and who was, I believe, a shepherd--"Gully" meaning nothing more than a strip of ground lying between two hills, and having a "creek" flowing down its centre. One of the two travellers might have seen some three-and-twenty summers, for the down was scarcely yet visible on his cheek. This youth was no other than your humble servant.
Crossing Wetherstone's Gully at the highest ground, where the largest finds of gold had taken place, and which was called the Blue Spur, I followed the bend of the hills till I arrived in the centre of Gabriel's Gully. Here were canvas and galvanized iron stores, public-houses, restaurants, shanties of all descriptions
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and with every conceivable name, scattered around in all directions; while advertisements of nigger minstrels, gold buyers' prices, and placards, were flaunting everywhere. Leaving this, I made my way up the hill towards the police camp, where my fellow-passenger, Farquhar, whom I mentioned as having given a jolly supper on landing, and who had preceded me to the diggings, had put up an extensive stable, capable of holding some thirty horses; he was as hospitable as ever, and after dining and spending the evening with him, I slept for the first time "on the diggings;" and though by no means a Sybarite, I confess I would have preferred a warm bed after my tramp to the slab table with which I was compelled to content myself, every bunk and bed-place being preoccupied, and a couple of blankets and a corner of a bench being considered a lucky claim. Farquhar had a manager to conduct the business of his stable, Ramsay by name, of good family like himself, and a terrible radical who had run through everything at home. He was a man of herculean build and proportions, and was reputed, when staying on one occasion at Government House, Melbourne, to have thrashed the then champion of the Victoria P. R. The story ran that that worthy professional, when returning from the races, persisted in keeping his trap crawling at a slow pace exactly in front of the four-in-hand drag that Ramsay was driving, with the mistaken idea of taking a bit of a "rise" out of a swell; in this he proved woefully at fault, for "the Corinthian," after having civilly requested the pugilist to
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go a-head or to one side, handed the ribands to a friend beside him, alighted on the road, and invited "the man of fives". to a speedy adjustment of their differences. Anyone looking at Ramsay would appreciate the force of the "reasoning" that acted so powerfully on the champion, who speedily "fell" to terms, and, the obstructing vehicle being removed, had leisure to admire the style of his antagonist, through his fast-closing eyes, as the triumphant car of the victor drove off at an Epsom pace to Melbourne,
Opposite to Farquhar's stable was a calico store, some 7 or 8 feet high, and about 10 by 12 feet in area; a few planks from old brandy and gin cases, nailed on saplings driven into the ground, formed the counter, on which were heaped the principal ingredients of a digger's domestic requirements--viz., sides of bacon, a tub or so of butter, one or two dry cheeses, sardines, lobsters, salmon, and other potted fishes and meats, bread, tobacco, clay pipes, and piled-up boxes of Letchford's vesta matches. The whole of this extensive warehouse was about as large as a reasonably-sized dog-kennel, and had an apartment behind, separated from the front shop by an almost transparent piece of calico. I was at Farquhar's door when my attention was attracted to the store by the natty appearance and manner of its proprietor. On questioning Farquhar about him, he offered to take me over and introduce me. "You'd hardly take him for a Harrow man from his surroundings," said Farquhar; "but he is so, and one of the best fellows going." In two minutes we had
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shaken hands, and on entering the den behind the "shop" I found a party of six or eight seated round an old gin case, turned up to act as a table, and deep in "unlimited loo," which, from the piles of gold and sovereigns at the elbows of some of the party, and their generally haggard appearance, must have lasted for more hours than they could probably enumerate just then.
Never having numbered gambling among my little weaknesses, I did not join them, though made at once a "brother of the order;" but, taking a seat on the bunk, I mused on the strange vicissitudes that had brought to this place and thrown together men of such various positions in society. Here was a well-trained moustache next to me, whose smooth and wavy "fall" had been the envy of the wearer's subs in the Lancers. Opposite was the son of a wealthy wine-merchant, to whom his father was in the habit of sending consignments of tawny port and golden sherry, which enabled this worthy son to keep the ball rolling, as he said, but never by any chance to return to the old gentleman a percentage on his investments. Another Harrovian, for some years a clerk in a Government office, one of the most high-principled and perfect gentlemen I ever met, but with a bushel or two of his wild oats yet unsown, was a third; while a doctor, a trooper from the police camp (who had commanded a troop of his own in days gone by), with Farquhar and our host, made up the remainder of the group.
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In the afternoon of the day after my arrival I walked over to Wetherstone's, to hunt up the office of a gold buyer, whose brother, having been the college friend of one of my uncles, had written over about me. I soon found him, and he immediately asked me to stay with him for a few days while I looked about me. I accepted his offer, and for a week enjoyed myself exceedingly, meeting many whose histories would fill volumes with interesting matter and startling incident. Happening one day to catch a name that I remembered well, having been at my first school under a lady who bore it, and having known her sons well, both then and afterwards, I walked down with Fitzgerald from his office to the public-house whose proprietor bore the appellation so familiar to me. and there behind the bar of the "White Star" was Reinecker, not in the least altered, serving a "nobbler" to a sashed and booted digger.
