CHAPTER II
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CHAPTER II.
ABOUT a week after my arrival at the diggings, Fitzgerald arranged a party for the Lammerlaw Creek; so we made up our swags and took the road, he leaving his business in charge of his partner. We were a pleasant company; first, Fitzgerald himself, a man of good old Irish family, tall, powerfully built, and a splendid workman with either pick or sledgehammer. His eldest brother is described in the life of Napier as having been the bravest and most powerful officer in his army; while another is considered the ablest writer and speaker on political questions of New Zealand; the church, army, and navy being severally adorned with the eloquence and gallantry of the remaining brothers. Fitzgerald has since been himself appointed to a very high position in the Canterbury Province, which he fills to the satisfaction of all. The second of our party was, and still is I believe, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and had been for some years a tutor there; a most upright, good-hearted fellow, who had since risen to a position of even higher responsibility than his friend Fitzgerald. The third was an Oxford Graduate, who, being a clever carpenter, accompanied us chiefly in that capacity. A son of the late Archdeacon of Akeroa, a fine young fellow, only a year or so released from the Christchurch Grammar School, with the writer of these recollections, completed our number.
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Under the superintendence of Fitzgerald, we worked on the Creek for about three months, getting very fair gold, though the great labour and expense necessitated in fluming off the water consumed more time and money than we could recover out of the claim. Every stick of timber we required, and this was no small amount, we carried over hill and vale, some three miles, and paid one shilling a foot for every piece of sawn material fresh from the pit.
It might be interesting to those who have not happened to meet with details of this sort of life, to describe the way in which our first piece of ground was worked. The creek, when not swelled by heavy rains, was some fifteen or twenty feet across, though occasionally, as in our part, it narrowed considerably, and ran through a little gorge of rock not above 7 or 8 feet in width. We had two waterfalls, one at each end of the claim; the one above being only 4 feet in height, while the lower one, which fell out of our ground into that of our neighbours' beyond, was nearly 15 feet.
Our object was to make a "flume," or aqueduct, which should carry the water of the creek above our heads, and allow us to work in the bed of it below. We first made a dam across the creek with large sacks, of which we bought 60 or 70 at two shillings each; filling them with soil, and sewing up the ends. These we stamped well down, tier above tier, from bank to bank, and strengthened with sods or squares of turf, filling up every crevice. In this way we raised the
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creek water, at the little fall above-mentioned, to the height of some ten feet.
Meanwhile, our Oxonian "chips" had prepared three boxes or sluices, open at both ends, each 12 feet in length, 2 in width, and 1 in depth, made of inch boards, riveted underneath, with small strips of wood nailed across. We now planted props or posts in the bed of the creek, upon which we fastened boards, taking care to have them so nearly on a level with the summit of the dam as merely to allow of a slight fall for the water in passing through the boxes. The boxes were then placed upon the supporting boards, the joins being stopped up with bullock hide. An opening being now cut in the dam of the same width as the mouth of the boxes, the water was forced into its new channel some 14 feet above our heads, till it arrived on the lower side of our ground. Here we had prepared a race or ditch to receive it and carry it away, till it fell over the rocks at the lower fall into our neighbours' ground below.
Then began the real business. Our cradle was set, our tools put in order, and we began to take up the ground in the bed of the creek to get down to the bottom, where the heaviest gold always lies in "pockets" or rock holes, and crevices. Having scarcely any water to bother us, and our dam holding very fairly, we got the best we could out of the claim in about six weeks, when, finding our next bit of ground not so good, we agreed to return to Wetherstone's and see if anything had turned up during our absence. Having "squared up," we struck the
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tents, packed our swags, and soon found ourselves again in the bustle of Wetherstone's busy street. Here the party broke up, Fitzgerald returning to his business, and the rest separating in different directions.
After a little while I found that billiards by day and "chimes at midnight" were not a bad prescription for relieving one's pocket of a tendency to plethora, so I went to work, and for the first time in my life earned a working man's wages. For three days I "did duty" on a puddling machine at the rate of 10s. a-day, until the "gaffer," finding me not equal to the others, who were all old hands, gave me the "sack." The owner of the machine, seeing that I was willing enough to work, and not over weak, gave me the billet of outside porter to a wholesale store belonging to him, of which I soon had almost entire charge.
About this time, though almost a "new chum" myself, I was much amused by a trio who arrived in the township and put up opposite my "shanty." One of them was young Reid, my musical fellow passenger, whose talk was all of Bonn, Heidelberg, and student life in Vaterland, and who played the piano and sang remarkably well. He, like myself, had tried station work and had left it for the diggings, bringing up with him from Dunedin two young fellows just landed, twin sons of an artillery colonel, and just the lads to get on when the home rust was rubbed off them. Their costume first struck my attention. They had each a pair of leather shooting gaiters reaching to the thighs, velvet coats and waistcoats, and fur travelling
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caps, and looked altogether very much like gamekeepers. In a place where open shirts, moleskin trousers tucked into long boots, crimson sashes tied round the waist, and tall American wide-awakes, were the prevailing attire, it may be imagined that birds of such feathers were likely to be noticed, if not admired.
I gave them a hand in putting up a heavy canvas tent that they had bought on board the vessel in which they came out, and which they had been compelled to bring up on a dray. This having been done, and some bunks rigged, they laid in stores and prepared to "dig." I started them to cradle some "headings," or dirt thrown out of deserted holes, which had not been considered worth washing by the lucky boys who had originally sunk them and made their little "piles."
They knocked out in this day as much gold as sufficed to make them afterwards two rings, and then, for that time, gave it up. One of them walked down over the snowy ranges shortly afterwards with me to Dunedin, where he made a good living for some time by shooting ducks about the Taeri and selling the birds in the town.
In the meantime poor Reid, who did not care about pick and shovel work, was rather at a loss for employment, so on the first Sunday after their arrival I went round the township to see what was to be got. For some time nothing turned up that was at all suited to his talents until we found ourselves in a large room of the Ballarat Hotel, kept by an ex-maitre d'armes in the French service, who was the best fencer, I believe,
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in the colonies. He had two most lovely children, and many an hour I spent there in the evenings, enjoying their innocent and affectionate ways, so great a contrast to the scenes around. In the room there was a pianoforte, and before we had been there two minutes Reid was hammering away at the "Marseillaise" with tremendous energy. This gave me a cue, and I at once spoke to De Loree, and finding that his regular pianist was absent at this time, and was doubtful of returning, proposed Reid to him. After hearing Reid's best song, "Who shall be fairest?" in which he rivalled Sims Reeves, De Loree offered him at once fifty shillings a week and board and lodging, his duty being merely to play for two hours every night except Sundays, the rest of his time being at his own disposal. He accepted this offer at once, and I got up a party the next night to come and see him through his "first appearance."
The room was crammed with diggers of every colour and nation, and though more than half of them were in a state of conviviality, order was very fairly kept. Now and then an excited Irish boy would try a little roaring on his own account, and with much gesticulation ask for a chorus. Reid's expression of face on these occasions, or when summoned with a clap on the back to "Give us 'The rattling boys,' lad," followed by a real Irish whoop, was a thing to remember. The look which the beautiful danseuse bestowed on the ruffian mob who forced her to execute one pas seul before her execution could not have been more deeply pathetic. The evening, however, passed off favourably,
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and Reid soon became deservedly popular. I never saw him again, but I feel no doubt that his talents and bonhommie must always ensure him a friendly reception in any society into which he may be thrown. In the meantime I had started, on my own account, a circulating library, which paid me very fairly and returned a good percentage to my employer.
But I began to be gradually sensible of a constitutional longing for change, and wrote to Christchurch mail after mail for English letters, not wishing to leave while any chance remained of my receiving them. On one occasion I rode over to a "diggings" some miles off (Waitahuna), and by the merest chance happened to ask at the Post-office whether any letters were lying there for me. The answer was, "A bundle," which, it seems, had been accumulating there for some months.
After the receipt of these letters, I determined to delay no longer, but to make a start. I therefore set off with one of the amateur diggers before mentioned, and, after two days heavy tramp in the snow, arrived in Dunedin, from whence, after a sojourn of a day or two, I reached Christchurch in safety. Here I thought I deserved a spell, so I opened my boxes and assumed again the garb that is supposed to be indispensable to a gentleman in this 19th century. A month of good living and amusement soon gave me fresh desire for change, and I began to look about for an opening.
