1871 - Money, C. L. Knocking About in New Zealand [Capper reprint, 1972] - CHAPTER III

       
E N Z B       
       Home   |  Browse  |  Search  |  Variant Spellings  |  Links  |  EPUB Downloads
Feedback  |  Conditions of Use      
  1871 - Money, C. L. Knocking About in New Zealand [Capper reprint, 1972] - CHAPTER III
 
Previous section | Next section      

CHAPTER III

[Image of page 21]

CHAPTER III.

THERE was staying at the same hotel with me an old gentleman who had been one of the first settlers in the Province, and whose wife was called "The Mother of the Settlement." He often spoke to me of some quartz rocks that he had observed cropping out of the bush in parts of his station, which was situated in what was called the back country, i. e., close to the ranges which divide the east from the west coast of the island. I at last determined to go up to those parts and have a look, for, as my readers may have heard, quartz is the mother of gold, and where-ever there is an abundance of it gold may reasonably be expected to exist somewhere in the neighbourhood. While I was endeavoring to form a plan for this purpose I unexpectedly met with an ally.

Rowland Davies, son of Archdeacon Davies, was at this time in Christchurch, and having been a digger in Australia, and a wanderer on the face of the earth, was very naturally as ready as myself to give the place a trial, more especially as Mr. Dampier, the squatter above-mentioned, spoke of the actual discovery of gold in the same neighbourhood by the former owner of the run. In addition to this recommendation as a mate, Rowley, as I afterwards called him, saved my life, or at least arrested a very painful and dangerous illness, by prescribing for me a strong remedy. Though he was then personally almost a stranger to me, he lay on the floor

[Image of page 22]

of my room for three nights watching me until I began to improve, and afterwards gradually brought me round.

Soon after my recovery we made our plans, and were much assisted by Mr. Dampier, who agreed to supply us with whatever meat, flour, or other necessaries we should require while prospecting.

All being arranged, I made up my swag again and started for Mr. Dampier's house, some twenty-five miles from Christchurch, at a place called Salt-water Creek. I was to remain here, by Mr. Dampier's invitation, for two or three days, until my new mate, who was at this time holding an appointment under the Canterbury Government, should complete his arrangements for resigning it, and should join me. My host was the representative of perhaps the oldest family in England, and could trace the line of his ancestors to Sir Guy de Dampier, who most indubitably did "come over with the Conqueror." He had a charming wife and daughter, and I spent three days there very pleasantly--the more so, as it would be the last taste of civilization that I should enjoy for some time, though I little thought then how long that time would be.

At this period servants of any description were not easily to be obtained, and I could not help comparing the readiness of the true lady to work cheerfully when it was required, with the squeamishness of those whom Thackeray would have brought under the head of "female snobs." I was strolling through the garden on the morning after my arrival, and came suddenly upon

[Image of page 23]

Mrs. and Miss Dampier, with tucked-up skirts and bared arms. They were in an out-house, where, upon a slab table, Miss Dampier was peeling potatoes for dinner, and the old lady, as "jolly" as good health and good living could make her, washing clothes in a huge tub. Miss Dampier was a capital cook, and many a time, a few months after, did I look back to the cutlets and piquante sauce at her father's hospitable board, prepared by his daughter's fair hands.

At the end of the fourth day Rowley made his appearance, and after a last night in sheets and a good breakfast in the morning, we started, having some relics of Mr. Dampier's table for lunch, in the shape of spiced beef sandwiches, lined with Chutnee.

As our swags were a fair specimen of the usual burden which every man carries in the colonies when on the tramp to a diggings, or for a week's prospecting, I will briefly enumerate the contents of one of them. The blankets did duty as a carpet bag, holding pieces for patching, buttons, needles and thread, etc., tobacco, matches, and tucker, the latter comprising almost anything within the province of food. The roll of blankets was made as tight as could be, and tied with blades of the flax plant, so as to keep the contents from falling out; a couple of strings, also made from flax blades, secured the swag to the shoulders of the bearer; a shovel was attached to each swag, and a pick, tin dish, and billy were also part of our load. With these we trudged away all the first day, on a metalled road, which got us a little into training, and, after two days'

[Image of page 24]

walking, arrived at the hut of a shepherd on Mr. Dampier's old station, where we stayed for a few days to sew our tent and make a few other preparations for prospecting the Virginia Valley, a few miles off. At the end of that time, with plenty of flour, soda, tartaric acid, and sugar in our swags, and some mutton, we scaled the hills and reached our scene of operations.

The valley was about a mile in width, and three in length, having formed the bed of an arm of the sea in the days when New Zealand was nothing more than a group of small islands; a creek flowed through the valley, winding over a small beach of shingle. The hut in which we were located had been the residence of the former manager of the run. It consisted at this time of only one small slab hut, with four bunks and a chimney; a couple of hundred yards away was an old wool shed, and also a small stable, both in ruins, while sundry turkeys, geese, and cats, that had been left behind, looked upon the neighbourhood as their home. The run had now been attached to a larger one bordering upon it, and together they formed the property of one of the largest sheep owners in the Province.

We stayed here some weeks sinking holes in the sides of the hills and in the river beds, but finding nothing richer than iron pyrites and rubies so small as to be of no value whatever. Quartz was plentiful enough, but none of it auriferous; and we were thinking of giving up the search in that locality, when we learnt from one of the shepherds that men had been

[Image of page 25]

sent by the Canterbury Government to prospect the valley, and the head of the Hurunui River, which ran through Mr. Dampier's station. Shortly afterwards, as we were returning home one afternoon, we met some of the party on their way to the tent. The boss was a fine fellow named Howitt, whom I afterwards knew well; he was a relative of the well-known Australian traveller, who had volunteered in the expedition sent after Burke and Wills, those noble but unfortunate men who perished on their return after having been the first to successfully explore the great Australian continent. He and his party had also been unsuccessful, though they had travelled a long way up the Hurunui River, and had tried the ground that we had been prospecting (the Virginia Valley), and the rivers in the neighbourhood. He said that in a very few weeks the time that Government allowed him would have expired, and that then another party would be raised and placed at his disposal for the purpose of making a good track up the east side of the dividing range, in order to see what sort of country there was to the westward. In that part of the island, even as late as 1864, there was not supposed to be a white man, according to a statement made by Mr. Long Wray, of Nelson, in a capital little pamphlet on New Zealand; but this was not entirely correct, as will be seen.

Meantime, Rowley and I made up our minds to spend a week or two at the head of the South Hurunui, and there endeavour to push on over the saddle, and be the first to reach the West Coast.

[Image of page 26]

I must here record one little episode of our visit to this solitary valley, where we had been, if not fortunate, at least comfortable and contented with our quiet life. One day, I had stayed at home while Rowley went out to work by himself, and I of course was to have a feed ready for him on his return in the evening. At this time we were nearly out of flour, and had been without meat for some days; so I was sitting over the fire smoking and wondering what I could concoct out of such crude materials as flour and sugar, when the cackling of geese arrested my attention. These, as I before mentioned, had been left behind when the valley was deserted by the former owner of the run. We had frequently seen them about the out-houses, and in the bed of the creek, but, fearing they might be required by the new owner of the property, had hitherto abstained from disturbing the even tenor of their lives. At this moment, however, the sound of their cackling came upon my ears with an irresistibly attractive tone. Seizing my sheath-knife, I rushed from the hut. A few minutes of frenzied pursuit, a little flapping and shrieking, and I returned to the wharry with a magnificent goose under my arm. I slew him and plucked him in a trice; and, cleansing out a big iron pot I found in the place, I popped him in. At this season (early in September), there were nearly all the vegetables we could wish for in the old gardens attached to the hut, even to sage and mint, etc., so that I had fair materials for a good cuisine. I filled the big pot with vegetables, packed neatly round my bird to within three inches of

[Image of page 27]

the top, and for seven long hours I kept the contents slowly simmering. I leave the reader to imagine what a dinner we made that evening, and how we even toasted one another in the soup a la naturel, better, as it seemed to us, than the richest turtle that ever graced the board of the Freemasons' Tavern. It requires a man to work hard and live poorly for a week or two to know the extacy of moments like these. I have marked the memory of that with a very white stone.

A few days after this aldermanic feast we were trudging along over the boulders of the Hurunui river bed, and in three or four days had our little tent pitched in the snow, less than half a mile from the glacier-covered ranges in which the river rises, and from the summit of which avalanches were constantly falling with a roar like artillery.

We were snug enough in our tiny home. Behind us half a sheep was suspended from the branch of a big tree, that had lain where it fell for many a year; the up-torn roots formed a fine break-wind, under the shelter of which we ensconced ourselves. Here we remained a fortnight, and, though for some days of that time we were unable to light a fire or stir out of the tent, being in fact almost snowed up, we managed during the few days of better weather to prospect most of the creeks in the neighbourhood, though with no success as regarded any discovery of "the colour." I am myself of opinion that the bed-rock on the eastern side of the dividing range is at so much greater a depth

[Image of page 28]

than that on the west side, as to render it unlikely that it would ever pay for the labour of sinking for a prospect, but time will shew.

We returned to the home station, where we stayed a few days to recruit, and then made preparations for joining Howitt, who had by this time started for the Teremakau saddle with a fresh party from Christchurch. Crossing the Hurunui River from Mr. Dampier's home station, we ascended a low range, and, passing Lake Mason, struck across a hill at the head of it which overlooked Lake Sumner. This was a lake of considerable size, through which the waters of the North Hurunui pass, entering at the upper end and flowing out some miles below into a wild gorge, out of which they descend into the plains of Canterbury. At the foot of the hill, and just at the junction of the Hurunui with the waters of the lake, we found a diminutive wharry or grass hut, just big enough for four persons to crawl into and pack close; near this was a "mi-mi," or shelter of a different description, to be used as a safe repository for flour and other necessaries, besides paper or any articles that might attract rats. We recognised these at once as belonging to Howitt, for there were bill-hooks with the government mark on them, surveying materials, and other things, in the recess; so, though still early in the day, we made up our beds in the little wharry for that night, that we might make the 25 miles the next day with the greater ease; this would take us to the foot of the saddle, where we expected to find Howitt. With this

[Image of page 29]

intention we were about to retire early, when we were surprised by a voice on the hills above us. We "coo'ed" instantly, and after a few minutes were joined by one of Howitt's party, with sixty pounds of flour. His arrival was of course a great help to us, as he had been up to the head of the North Hurunui, and knew the best fords and shortest cuts. The next evening, after crossing the river some twenty times, we reached the slab hut at the foot of the Teremakau saddle, so called from the river that ran down from it on the west side. Here we soon had a good fire and a billy of "skilligolee" to warm us up, while the bacon, dough-boys, and tea were being got under weigh. Howitt himself came over in the morning from the west side of the saddle, to meet his commissary and supplies, and to help in carrying it over to his party. He was not one of those paper-collar bushmen, who expect their men to do every thing while they look on, but always took his share of work or of tucker as one of themselves, and consequently gained more respect and esteem than would have been conceded to the strictest master, merely as such. He gave me my first lessons in bushcraft, such as a knowledge of edible herbs and roots, modes of crossing rivers, snaring birds, and many other invaluable "wrinkles." After crossing the saddle we left Howitt and his party, and pushed on through the bush; though unable to do more than a short distance each day, on account of the steepness of the forest-covered spurs over which we had to climb, forcing our way through the dense undergrowth which caught our swags at every step.

[Image of page 30]

I can never forget the exciting moment when we first reached a point from which we could see the windings of the river Teremakau, which stole like the silver tresses of some ancient dame over its time-worn bed.

I do not think I am mistaken in believing that, with the exception of Mr. Leonard Harper, a son of the Right Rev. Bishop of Christchurch, who went over with a party of Maories some years before, Rowley and I were the first white men who reached Lake Brunner from the east side. A few Maories were in the habit of going over every year, by tracks only known to themselves, to see their friends at a pah or village on the Grey river, and with them Mr. Harper made his journey to the sea coast.

The river as we descended of course became wider and deeper, so that we were compelled to seek for fording places, which we had learnt by experience to choose at the bars or beaches above the falls, where the current was not so strong nor the water so deep as below the rapids, and the footing was therefore far better.

Rowley and I now agreed that, after reaching a good place for our first camp on the Teremakau, one of us should push on down the river, trying the creeks as he proceeded, while the other returned to the nearest station for more tucker, in the shape of flour, tea and sugar (meat, of course, was no longer to be thought of, though, thanks to Howitt's lessons, we could get ducks, crows, and wood-hens in abundance).

Acting on this agreement, we made one or two good

[Image of page 31]

stages, and camped on a fine, open bit of shingle, out of reach of any but a very high flood. Here Rowley left me and started for the station, which, it would take take him several days to reach, owing to the roughness of the track, the crossing and re-crossing of the rivers, and the density of the undergrowth through which he had to scramble, added to our ignorance of many shorter cuts and better tracks which we afterwards found out.

The first thing I did was to erect a little hut with bushes, etc. I then planted a stout sapling on a prominent part of the river bed, out of reach of floods, for a direction post, surrounding it with large boulder stones; on this I hoisted a red flag, torn from an old Crimean shirt, and also fastened to it a blade of the broad flax plant pointing towards to my rough little dwelling. These and other employments, such as baking my dampers, or "beggars on the coals," exploring the creeks that came tumbling down the wooded precipices on every side, snaring wood-hens, mending and washing my clothes, kept my time fully occupied; while an occasional dip into my only morsels of literature, a few numbers of Household Words, or a piece of the old newspaper I had brought in my swag, formed an agreeable intellectual excitement during the half-hour in which I smoked my evening pipe. This I did by the light of a good bush-fire, that danced and flickered on the trees and scrub around me, and showed the only living animals that formed my society--grey bush rats.

[Image of page 32]

I will here describe the process by which Howitt had taught me to snare wild-fowl. The sport, as far as ducks were concerned, was simple enough. There was a species of grey duck with white bills, often described as the whistling duck. They were to be found at any time among the rocks, in creeks, or in the river itself, and, being very tame, were easily knocked over with a few stones, the only requisite being to keep below them, and throw up the stream.

For the capture of the wood-hen, however, very different measures were employed, in which considerable caution and patience were necessary. To describe the process a la Mrs. Glass: first cut two light sticks, one a few inches longer than the other; to the end of the shortest suspend, by a thin strip of the flax plant, a robin, or other small bird, newly killed; attach to the end of the longer stick a running noose, also of thin flax. When the game is first seen, take no apparent notice of its movements, but, holding the stick to which the robin is attached in the left hand, and the one with the noose in the right, dangle the robin a short distance from the ground, tossing it in the air to give it a semblance of life, and dropping it suddenly at times, as if in the agonies of death. This will sooner or later attract the attention of the wood-hen, and it will approach cunningly in order to seize its prey. Remain as motionless and unobservant as possible until it is within two or three feet of the bait, then slowly advance the right hand stick, and the moment the out-stretched neck of the wood-hen is seen through

[Image of page 33]

the noose, jerk the stick upwards, and the game is yours.

With crows a different plan again is used, one stick only being necessary; to its end attach a noose, not hanging down as for the wood-hen, but so fastened as to extend beyond the point of the stick, and in a line with it. The crow being very similar to our black bird, and seldom flying further than a few yards at a time, is generally found in low bushes, hopping from bough to bough. Noiselessly insinuating the snare between the leaves of the bush in which he is disporting, advance it gradually towards him, whistling or chirping at the same time, while he is occupied in listening, give the wrist a gentle turn, and all is over.

Nearly a fortnight passed, and as my mate shewed no signs of returning, I determined to follow him, even should I only obtain one pan of fried chops by the expedition. The weather was awful when I started, and I was anxious to get over the saddle and some way down the Hurunui as soon as possible, before a heavy "freshet" should descend and prevent my going either way.

On the evening of the second day I reached the old slab wharry that Howitt had built some way down on the east side of the saddle. I was surprised to see the smoke issuing out of the dilapidated chimney; but, concluding that it was Rowley on his return, I coo'ed loudly, and rushed in with a yell of welcome. I was received in a most warlike manner by two human beings, utterly unknown to me, whose astonishment was certainly equal to my own.

[Image of page 34]

On the evening of a miserably wet day, in the heart of a country generally considered the road to "nowhere," to come suddenly upon two strangers ensconced in an old hut was sufficiently startling; but I have thought since that my garb and air, with my trousers tied round my neck, my hands full of bleeding birds, an Adamite condition as to legs (which habit I had acquired from Howitt, who travelled constantly on bare poles), and the startling whoo-whoop! with which I leaped in at the door, like harlequin through an advertisement of cheap clothing, was far more calculated to upset their nerves. They afterwards gravely assured me that their imaginations depicted me as a savage in his native wilds, with the blood of the captured birds, which he was in the habit of devouring raw, crimsoning his hands, and with a possible inclination for the tenderest portion of the nearest human!

Mutual explanations, however, soon made us good friends, and I shared their skilligolee--the best thing a man can take in the bush when wet through and very hungry--with hearty pleasure at having some one to spin a yarn with again over the social pipe. They had set out, they told me, with the determination to reach, if possible, the Buller River, which runs into the sea on the west coast of the Nelson Province, a long way north of the mouth of the Teremakau.

In vain I described the immense difficulties they would have to surmount, even to reach the coast at all, and explained the risks they would run of being delayed on the way, perhaps for weeks together, by the

[Image of page 35]

rising of the river and its tributaries, to say nothing of the amount of "tucker" they would be compelled to carry with them, and the impossibility of returning if once they passed through the gorges of the river. They were in no way daunted by my accounts, but, on the contrary, were perfectly confident of success, and, like the world in general, would not heed advice, though given by one who spoke from hard-earned experience. They wished to "see the folly of it too," and bitterly, poor fellows, did they repent their determination.

I gave them all the hints I thought would be useful to them, especially about the snaring of wood-hens, which latter operation I demonstrated practically, and well was I afterwards repaid for the quarter of an hour thus occupied, for the recollection of it saved their lives.

On reaching the station, to visit which Rowley had left me, I learnt that he had sprained his foot on the road, and had gone over to Mr. Dampier's station, where our old friend the shepherd was nursing him most effectually, and that he had left a message for me, saying that he hoped to be right again in a very few days. Mr. Taylor, the gentleman to whom the station belonged, was a splendid fellow, and hospitality itself. He was most kind in pressing me to come up to his house, where his wife would do all she could to make me comfortable. I preferred, however, for more reasons than one, to await Rowley's return in the men's hut, and found McLeod (the shepherd) and the other hands first-rate companions. I became an immense chum with one of them, and he acquired from my descrip-

[Image of page 36]

tions such a passion for a wandering bush life, that he afterwards threw up his billet at Mr. Taylor's, and followed me all the way down to the coast, and round to the Buller River. He was an Oxford man, who, after taking his degree, had found himself too much in debt to hope to clear himself for some years, and was consequently now content with being a station-hand in New Zealand, on only £60 a year. Mr. Taylor told me that he was one of the best working men he had had on the place for some time, and an honest, generous, upright fellow into the bargain. Poor Charlie! His father, he told me, was vicar of some parish in the north of England, and that gentleman may possibly to this day be ignorant of the after fate of his son. He volunteered into the Colonial force in the Northern Island, and is supposed to have been either killed in action, or to have been one of three who were thrown from a dogcart, and dashed to pieces over a precipice in the province of Auckland.

Good substantial mutton three times a day was to me a hearty enjoyment and a pleasant change of diet; and, by the time Rowley came over from Dampier's and joined me, I was in rattling trim for a tramp into the nethermost parts of the earth. Away we went with the full intention of getting a long way further down than we had yet been, before returning for any further supplies. We each carried a swag about eighty pounds in weight, consisting of the necessaries before alluded to, viz., flour, tea, sugar and tobacco. The afternoon of the fourth day found us in sight of the Red-flag Camp,

[Image of page 37]

as we had called the place where I had erected the little hut and direction-post.

On mounting the low, shrub-covered terrace on which I had pitched my camp above the reach of floods, what was our intense surprise to find the two men I had met in the hut. One was seated on the ground leaning against a small tree, his legs stretched out before him, gazing vacantly into space; his shirt was open to the waist, and every rib in his body was visible, while the space between his neck and collarbone was awfully distinct. The other was standing near him, supporting himself with one hand against a branch, while with the other he fluttered a piece of red rag at the end of a stick, evidently with the intention of attracting a wood-hen, but too far gone to recollect the absence of the noose, which, of course, was indispensable to its capture. Such a painful sight had never met my eyes, I think, before, as the quiet despair of the poor fellow on the ground, and the touching perseverance of the other in his vague endeavour to preserve life. They scarcely noticed us as we approached, though it was full a fortnight since I had met them on the saddle. We, of course, saw the state of things at a glance, and set to work to boil the billy as quickly as possible. In the meantime I got some cakes, which we had baked before starting, out of our swags, and placed one before each. I feel that the impression made by that scene has done more to make me alive to the sin of wastefulness than a thousand sermons. The gradual light that came into the eyes of

[Image of page 38]

both as their looks fell on the yellow pancakes, and the rush of awakened sensation with which they in frenzied haste seized and devoured them, was a lesson not to be forgotten by the most callous spectator. After slowly sipping a quantity of hot tea which we had prepared for them, and eating some more scone, they revived sufficiently to speak, though with great difficulty, both in so doing and in collecting their ideas.

Their account, as far as they could recollect, was simply this: they had been a considerable distance down the river, in fact, nearly as far as the farthest point to which I myself had pushed, and in crossing the river one of them had been carried off by the current, and his swag lost, containing, among other things, all that remained of their flour, matches and sugar. They had tried my plan of catching birds, but for some time had entirely failed in getting any; and, finding none of the plants or roots I had described to them, they had, till the day before, actually existed for six days without food of any kind. On the morning of the previous day they had succeeded in snaring a wood-hen, and had eaten it raw, but it only served as a whet to their raging appetite. Since the night before they remembered nothing at all.

We stayed a couple of hours with them, and, seeing that they were gradually coming round, gave them half our store of flour, and some tea and sugar, to enable them to reach Taylor's station without any difficulty; and, being ourselves intensely desirous to get on, we did about a dozen miles further on our road that night.

[Image of page 39]

We had turned into our blankets by the fire, and I was gazing at the Southern Cross above my head, thinking of the sufferings of the poor fellows we had seen that day, when the thought struck me that they might possibly never reach even the saddle without assistance, and that in case anything further happened to them we should deeply regret it. I spoke of this to Rowley, hardly expecting he would be still awake, but he instantly agreed with me in resolving to return the next morning to assist them in at least getting over the saddle, and within a day's journey of Taylor's. This we accordingly did, and, finding that they had quitted the Red-flag Camp, we followed till we came up to them about half a mile on, evidently unable to proceed further. They had managed to keep an old single-barrelled gun with them throughout the journey, but as their powder and caps, we knew, had been rendered utterly useless by exposure to the wet, the first sight we obtained of these poor fellows proved to us that their faculties were still obscured. The sight was most touching; one of them was kneeling with one knee on the stones, taking exact aim at a grey duck that was drying itself on a large boulder in the river. For full ten minutes he continued holding the piece and pulling the trigger down, cap after cap, till I went up and touched him on the shoulder. Rowley and I took his gun, and, carrying his swag, managed between us to lead them over the crossings; and, after a long and disheartening trudge of some days, as it was the loss of precious moments to us, we reached Taylor's, where we left them to re-

[Image of page 40]

cover at leisure, and set off, post haste, on our way back. After this we got a long way down the river Teremakau, and established a permanent camp, close to a wide opening in the hills, which Rowley, after being absent a few days for the purpose of exploring, pronounced to be a large lake, surrounded with mountains and bush. This lake had been named some years before by the finder, Lake Brunner. My mate said he had been almost devoured by mosquitoes and sand-flies, and was very glad to get back into the old river-bed again. It soon became necessary for one of us to return for more "tucker" and some tobacco, and again the lot fell on Rowley. So leaving me one morning with the rather dreary prospect before me of a ten days' solitude, he set off. A day or two after he had left I was surprised by a visit from three Maories, at a late hour in the evening, on their way to a native settlement at Kaipoi, a village about 20 miles from Christchurch. They did not prove very communicative, but, after an astonishing feed on wood-hens and fern-root, they curled themselves up each in his blanket round the fire, and fell asleep. After watching the group thus formed for some time, I crawled into my "mi-mi," and was very soon asleep also. The Maories left me the next morning, and my time after this passed much in the same way as I have before described. A week wore away pleasantly enough, in spite of the curious sensation I experienced of being at so great a distance from any human being, and even the roughest form of civilization.


Previous section | Next section