CHAPTER II. Episodes of the Dunstan Rush...
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CHAPTER II.
Episodes of the Dunstan Rush. --Campbell's Gully. --The Old Man Range. --The Molyneux. --The Nevis. -- Snow Poles. --Scurvy. --Frostbite.
MR. H. W. ROBINSON, now Resident Magistrate at Oamaru, was the first Warden of the Teviot Goldfield. He afterwards held the same office at Clyde, and later still at Naseby. The episodical events narrated in this chapter have been obligingly contributed by him, for the purposes of this History:--
"It was, I think, in the winter of 1864 that it was reported that there were 500 men snowed up at Campbell's Gully, and the question was how to get at them. The numbers were exaggerated, and the danger of starvation where they were was not perhaps so great as was thought. Still the hardships were great enough and the outlook sufficiently dismal for the poor fellows who saw themselves surrounded with snow in that remote region. Many of them made their way over to the Teviot and others to Alexandra. Relief parties were organised at the Teviot and at Alexandra. It will never be known how many men were lost on the ranges in that dreadful winter, but the number at the time was estimated at 30. I was at Clyde--not long removed from Teviot.
"One incident of very tragic interest was the case of a party of four men who started together for Alexandra. First one lost heart and soon he dropped behind. Then another could not keep up, and he had to be left by the other two. These two kept on manfully together until they also could proceed no further and took shelter from the storm behind a rock. The weaker of the two could not keep on his feet, and his friend lifted him up when he fell and propped him against the rock, trying all he could to keep the poor fellow from yielding to the drowsiness which he knew meant death. At last the faithful friend could keep him up no more. He sank down and the other had no strength left to rise him. Still the last man kept himself up--at length day dawned and the storm abated--and the solitary watcher by the
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dead saw that he was within a quarter of a mile of the shanty, where all could have been safe if only they could have seen and reached it.
"The bodies of the three men were never brought down, but when the track was once more opened they were found and buried where they lay--(at least I believe such was the case). There was no inquest, but I held an informal magisterial inquiry at Alexandra. I remember I was greatly struck with the manly demeanor of the survivor whose statement I took down."
Several of the men who perished in this disastrous storm were buried in one common grave, on the side of the range at Deep Creek, on the road between Roxburgh and Alexandra. At this place a number of packers had located a camping village, which from its position was called Chamcuni, and the rude remains of which are still to be seen. A roughly carved stone commemorates the resting place of the men who fled from Campbell's Creek only to lose life in the bewildering snowdrift.
"The same winter there was a rush to some gullies in the 'Old Man' Range, somewhere about the head of the Earnscleugh. A curious incident in connection with this was the subject of an assault case heard at Clyde. The assault arose out of "removal of land marks"--the old cause of quarrel--and blows were exchanged and some blood let flow--on closer enquiry it appeared that the place where the fight occurred was five feet deep in snow. I naturally wanted to know how the ground was pegged, and was informed that the marking was done with tussocks carried to the spot and laid on the snow. At this enquiry I was credibly informed that some men were working in the bed of a little creek in one of the deep gullies under the snow which formed a sort of arch over their heads--the water in fact flowing in a snowy tunnel.
"The first rush of miners to the Molyneux was in 1862, when Hartley and Reilly startled the people of Dunedin by bringing in 87 lb weight of gold as the result of one winter's work. The eagerness of people to go was almost beyond belief. 1 was in Dunedin at the time and remember seeing a waggon loaded with men's swags--for the freight of which, at a high rate each, it was said the carrier was to get £600.
"The hardships of the way and the want of necessaries on arrival have been often told--how flour was sold at 2s 6d a pannikin--and how the very floors of the homestead at Galloway Station were torn up and sold to be made into cradles.
"When matters had settled down a bit the miners spread themselves along the river, getting gold almost everywhere on
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the beaches, and following it in until they stood up to their thighs in the stream 'blind dipping.'
"The people made themselves dwellings in many instances by scooping out chambers in the sandy banks. Some of these were by no means uncomfortable, especially when they took the trouble to sink small shafts from above to serve as chimneys. I remember one of these in particular which was surmounted by a very neat chimney top, built of the sandy sods, and with the date 'A.D. 1863' sharply cut upon its surface.
"Most of these dwellings were however placed too low, and when the river rose, as it did very suddenly, most of them were swamped out.
"One of the most interesting and least known of mining districts was the Nevis. When first I visited the place it was in winter, and the snow was from a foot to eighteen inches in depth in the Nevis valley. There was a considerable population, and plenty of disputes. I was kept there three days--busy all the while. There was no accommodation to be had for money, but the one constable stationed there had a tent in which he made me welcome. As for my horse, there was no stable, but I got him covered with bagging and sheltered to some extent behind a sod wall. The residents simply let their horses go, to take their chance. There was no building to hold Court in, only a tent of single calico. This, when I entered it, and got in a table and a chair, seemed at least clean, for the earthen floor was hard frozen, and a kindly Irishman brought a bullock hide for my chair to rest on. All went well, though coldly enough, until the people who quickly filled the little tent to suffocation had been a little while in the place. Then the ground began to thaw, and the clean floor became noisome, filthy mud; the hard, stiff bullock hide became soft and flabby, to say nothing of its stinking, and the legs of my chair sinking down into the swamp I had great difficulty in keeping my position. Not a bit of board was to be had to put under the chair, and I had to manage the best way I could by frequently shifting the chair.
"The life of miners at the Nevis was a very hard and desolate one, living in so remote a place with absolutely no 'social privileges,' not even what Mr. Bird o' Freedom Sawin had in prison, 'a one-hoss stern-wheel parson.' Yet during four years that I continued to visit the place the same men seemed to stick to it.
"There was one gully known as the 'North Pole,' where two men worked all the summer; when winter came, and work was not to be thought of, one of them moved into Clyde, but the other elected to stay where he was and watch the claim. He accordingly made an arrangement with 'German Charlie' at the Nevis Ferry to take him provisions once a fortnight, as weather would permit, one bottle of rum being always part of the packload.
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"That German was a very bold mountain traveller, and on the very last occasion that I visited Nevis he volunteered to be my guide on the return journey. I believe if I had attempted the journey alone I should have been lost, for there was a frightful storm and the track was entirely obliterated.
"The first snow poles were put up on the track from Tuapeka to 'the Portuguese' (Captain Macil's) below Miller's Flat; these were only Manuka poles. A similar lot were erected over the Knobby Range, most of which were pretty promptly pulled down. Some were cut down and burnt on the spot to boil billies, and some were carried into Alexandra to make ridge poles and rafters for tents. Afterwards some stone pillars were erected, roughly built of the schist rock.
"After the horrible winter of 1864, it was decided to erect on Campbell's Gully track substantial snow posts built round with stone, and as a further security, because in the blinding storms no man could see from one post to another, it was proposed to connect these posts with strong galvanised wire. This it was thought would, when the snow was deep, be of great assistance to travellers in guiding them from one post to another. A contract was let and reported as completed. Mr. Coates, Mining Surveyor, went to inspect it and found that the snow and sleet had frozen on to the thick wire and broken it down, and that it lay in short lengths on the ground. He picked up a piece about two feet long and brought it with him to Clyde and showed it to me. I sent it to the Secretary of Goldfields at Dunedin. When summer came again the wire was gathered up and brought down off the mountains and sold for what it would fetch. 1
"The hardships which the miners had to endure in the early days of the Dunstan were very great, not the least being the entire absence of fresh vegetable food. Flour and bacon were the most portable provisions, and on these they chiefly subsisted, with the consequence that, like sailors in similar circumstances, they began to suffer from scurvy. In the Dunstan Hospital there were forty beds; all were full, and several patients had to be billeted out in the township of Clyde.
"Another serious difficulty or trouble of the adventurous miners was frost-bite. Cases were not uncommon of men losing portions of their feet. I have not heard of any cases of late years. The last I know of, that was at all serious, was that of Mr. Flynn at Naseby, who lost half of one foot and some toes of the other. The half of the foot simply mortified and came away. But he recovered and is still at Naseby and at work."
