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Okitiki Terra Incognita Hokitika / Westland
Okitiki Terra Incognita Hokitika / Westland
Okitiki Terra Incognita Hokitika / Westland
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Okitiki Terra Incognita Hokitika / Westland

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This book is a compilation of copyright free newspaper items carefully chosen from the "Papers Past" website of the National Library of New Zealand.

This provides an opportunity to access a selected small, important and often bypassed selection of history written and first published with firsthand knowledge in what we might now refer to as real time. Out of respect for the long dead authors their work is presented, each in its entirety, with only the addition of a minimal amount of necessary explanatory comment. Interpretation has been avoided.

Let the original writer transport you to the time of the opening up of their new world, the challenge and adventure of pioneering and exploration. Consider and appreciate the difficulties and rewards encountered and achieved in the age where telegraph was new, steam was still struggling to surpass sail for long distance transport and when looking out for one and another was required because self reliance was not sufficient.

This compilation is more than copying and pasting. New Zealand newspapers of 1863 through to 1865 have been searched to find the relevant material that, tells of the beginning of colonial development in Westland, as and when it was happening. It presents, without embellishment or bias, real circumstances and stories of our pioneers as they meant them to be known.

This book is a sample of the wealth of the material made so easily accessible on the Papers Past website, check it out, what you find will not disappoint.

Papers Past "Copyright guide":

"The Papers Past website provides access to digitised copies of historical New Zealand newspapers. This copyright statement relates specifically to the digitised newspaper content on Papers Past. Additional information about specific papers can be found on each newspaper title page."

"Material on this website has been provided in good faith for users by the National Library on the basis that:
•the newspaper publications provided from the 19th and early 20th century are out of copyright
•in most cases digitised copies replace microfilm versions previously provided to the public
•for more recent newspaper publications (up to 1945), permission has been sought from the publisher to reproduce the material on this website"

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 30, 2013
ISBN9781310473111
Okitiki Terra Incognita Hokitika / Westland

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A valuable resource both accurate and informative.
    Thanks John
    Bev Olson

Book preview

Okitiki Terra Incognita Hokitika / Westland - John Johnstone

Okitiki Terra Incognita Hokitika / Westland

Published by John Johnstone at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 John Johnstone

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Attribution:

This book is my compilation of newspaper items taken from the Papers Past website of the National Library of New Zealand.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

I make no claim to own the original 19th century writing in this book. In fact I encourage you to do as I have done. Much of our history was actually written by the history makers and recorded in newspapers of the time. With this book I am providing you with an opportunity to access a very small but, I believe, important and often bypassed, portion of recorded history written with firsthand knowledge in what we might now refer to as real time.

Out of respect for the long dead authors I have done my best to faithfully reproduce each original work in its entirety. Except as explanatory comment, I have avoided interpretation.

I hope you will find the clarity and imagery of the original works I have compiled as fascinating and informative as I have.

As you read, let the original writer transport you to the time of the opening up of their new world, the challenge and adventure of pioneering and exploration. Consider and appreciate the difficulties and rewards encountered and achieved in the age where telegraph was new, steam was still struggling to surpass sail for long distance transport and when looking out for one and another was required because self reliance was not quite sufficient.

It is true that my work is derivative. It is, however, more than copying and pasting. I have searched the New Zealand newspapers of 1863 through to 1865 to find the material that, tells of the beginning of colonial development in Westland, as and when it was happening. Using my local knowledge I have made an effort to, without embellishment or bias, present the real circumstances and stories of our pioneers as they meant them to be known.

I hope this compilation will take you back in time and provide an insight into the reality of mid 19th century opportunity, hardship and adventure.

This book is a sample of the wealth of the material made so easily accessible on the Papers Past website, check it out, what you find will not disappoint.

Papers Past Copyright guide

The Papers Past website provides access to digitised copies of historical New Zealand newspapers. This copyright statement relates specifically to the digitised newspaper content on Papers Past. Additional information about specific papers can be found on each newspaper title page.

"Material on this website has been provided in good faith for users by the National Library on the basis that:

the newspaper publications provided from the 19th and early 20th century are out of copyright

in most cases digitised copies replace microfilm versions previously provided to the public

for more recent newspaper publications (up to 1945), permission has been sought from the publisher to reproduce the material on this website"

Contents:

1 South Island West Coast Exploration by Haast, Hector, Drake, Harper, Hartley & Dobson - The Otago Daily Times, 06 April, 1863

Gold Reward Maoris claim the £1,000 from the Canterbury Government

2 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST COAST OF THE MIDDLE ISLAND. IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES - The Wellington Independent - 11 April, 1863

... the West Coast is still a terra incognita, and the crossing the Great Southern Alps from. East to West has only been accomplished within the last two years ...

Evidence Of Moa? Dr Hector, however, after carefully examining it, pronounced it the track of some birds

3 CANTERBURY - The Colonist, 15 April, 1863

... the vast natural advantages of this district to account before a settlement takes place from either of the neighbouring colonies of Victoria or New South Wales, opposite whose shores the district lies in a temptingly direct line ...

4 THE LATE MR WHITCOMBE - The Wellington Independent, 15 April, 1863

"... account of Mr Whitcombe's journey from the Rakaia saddle, and subsequent loss by drowning in the Teremakau, taken from the notes of a conversation with Jacob Louper [Lauper], the Swiss, who accompanied him."

Whitcombe remembered after 148 years

5 THE WEST COAST - The Nelson Examiner 18 August, 1863 From the Canterbury Press, August 5

... For many weeks past reports have been stealing into the place respecting the gold on the West Coast, and the prospect of a rush thither in the spring, ... ... A very few months at the first opening of a gold-field will determine whether we are to share any of its benefits, or whether the West Coast is to become merely an out-port of Melbourne.

6 THE WEST COAST OF THE MIDDLE ISLAND - The Wellington Independent, 22 August, 1863

... The Daily Times has the following: Some further interesting particulars concerning the West Coast of the Canterbury Province ...

Farming settlement in the valley of the Grey River, Freeth and Mackley families

A pessimistic view of prospects for a goldfield and Hokitika as a port

7 The Wreck of the Gypsy, A D Dobson, Nelson Examiner, 22 October, 1863

Mr. Dobson has handed to us [Canterbury Press] for publication, a letter from his son, Mr. Arthur Dobson."

8 A D Dobson Writes to Mr Cass (Chief Surveyor) Canterbury Province - The Otago Daily Times - 10 October, 1863

The Lyttelton Times says:- It will be in the recollection of most of our readers that a surveying party under Mr A. D. Dobson started not long since for the West Coast via Nelson .... Description of the bars of the Rivers Wanganui, Hokitika, Taramakau and Grey.

9 The Canterbury Press relates another fatal accident on the West Coast, by which three lives were lost - Otago Daily Times,04 November,1863

William Sherrin's account of the drowning of Mr Charles Townsend, superintendent of the Government Store, Peter Michelmore and Solomon _.

The story is concluded in extracts from:

Wellington Independent, 07 November, 1863

And;

The Daily Southern Cross, 11 December, 1863

10 William Sherrin's Journal, Explorations in Canterbury - Otago Daily Times, 26 December, 1863 - from the Canterbury Press

Exploration of the Hokitika River

A person thrown suddenly into a new country almost different from any other on earth, must possess a considerable amount of experience to be enabled accurately to describe the physical peculiarities that he carries with him the power of observing. Not a hurried visit in sunshiny weather will enable him to form a just opinion of the country he beholds; but he requires to become sometimes a resident at different seasons, that, the climate, the rivers, and pastures of the country may be familiar to him at the different seasons, and that he may be enabled to know what changes take place either in the climate, the directions of the wind, and the quantity of rain that falls during the course of the year.

11 William Sherrin's Journal, The West Coast, Canterbury Press 15 December, 1863

Exploration of the Hokitika River, concluded

12 William Sherrin's Journal, Explorations in Canterbury - Otago Daily Times, 12 January, 1864 - from the Canterbury Press

From the Canterbury Press, continued

The search for Charlston Howitt and the monsters in Lake Brunner

13 William Sherrin's Journal, Explorations in Canterbury - Otago Daily Times, 13 January, 1864 - from the Canterbury Press, continued,

The monsters in Lake Brunner continued and Hokitika to Okarito

Maori name for Lake Brunner Kotukuwakeoko

Maori settlement and sealing base at Wanganui, Poerua and Saltwater Lagoon

Maori settlement at Okarito

Priest and bridegroom

Spring too late to cross the Waiho

Brunner's farthest point south

West Coast maori from Kaiapoi

Okarito Lagoon described

14 William Sherrin's Journal, The West Coast, Canterbury Press 25 December, 1863

Okarito and Whataroa

Pa at Kohuamarua Bluff Okarito

15 William Sherrin's Journal, Explorations in Canterbury - Otago Daily Times, 14 January, 1864 - from the Canterbury Press, concluded

Search for an alpine pass Whataroa.

16 William Sherrin's Journal, Exploration in Canterbury, Otago Daily Times, 14 January 1864 - from the Canterbury Press

Search for an alpine pass Whataroa, concluded and journals concluded.

Maori character and bush skill

Sherrin's count of the West Coast Maori population, winter/ spring 1863

Travel up and down the West Coast impractical without a boat

17 A D Dobson, description of Grey River coalfield, The Nelson Examiner, 24 March, 1864

18 The Press, 6 August, 1864, Rush to West Coast imminent, road access a priority

19 Rochfort writing to the Canterbury Provincial Council, The Colonist, reprints The Press, 29 August, 1864

20 Grey goldfield is a duffer, advertisement in the Havelock Mail

21 THE GREY DIGGINGS - The Colonist - 06 September, 1864

The Steamer Nelson arrived here from the Grey and the Buller Rivers

22 The prospects of our gold-fields for the coming spring are encouraging, Nelson Examiner,12 September, 1864

23 The news from the Grey is not encouraging, The Colonist, 11 October,1864

24 West Coast Goldfields, Lyttelton Times, 27 October, 1864

News from the Grey diggings

25 The Colonist, 06 December, 1864, reprints from the Lyttelton Times of 16 November, 1864

An exaggerated account of gold at the Totara

26 The New Zealand Spectator and Cook Strait Guardian, 10 December,1864, reprints from the Lyttelton Times of 6 December, 1864

IMPORTANT FROM THE WEST COAST

Refers 30 November, 1864, Greenstone Creek, November 30, 1864.

27 News of the Day. THE GREY.- The Nelson Examiner, 03 December, 1864

The steamer Nelson, which arrived here about three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, was the bearer of very satisfactory proofs of the present prosperous state of this gold-field

28 Nelson Examiner, 12 December, 1864 Gold from the Lyell

A party of diggers arrived in town on Saturday, November 12, bringing with them from Lyell Creek, a tributary of the Buller, a splendid lot of nuggets, and other gold, weighing altogether 212 ounces

29 The Otago Witness,17 December, 1864

News of the Week. Reprinted FROM THE DAILY TIMES.

Reports a "chapter of accidents at the West Coast diggings.

30 THE WEST COAST HARBOURS. - The Nelson Examiner, 15 December, 1864

We observe that the steamer Nelson, which sails to-morrow evening for the West Coast, after calling at the Buller, will proceed on to Okitiki, twenty-three miles below the Grey, and five miles only from the Totara river, the scene of the chief diggings on the West Coast

31 The Nelson Examiner, 15 December, 1864

Advertisement - The screw steamer Wallaby will depart for the Grey Goldfields

32 THE WEST COAST GOLD-FIELDS. - Nelson Examiner, 20 December,1864

The steamer Nelson left on Saturday evening, with a full complement of passengers for the West Coast. Such was the desire of diggers to reach the Okitiki ...

33 THE STEAMER WALLABY. The Colonist, 20 December, 1864

This trim, little steamer, the property of Messrs N Edwards and Co, went outside the harbour on Saturday afternoon, to run the measured mile and to ascertain the improvements to her steering apparatus ... ... She leaves, for the Buller, the Grey, and the Okitiki, this day.

The Otira River flows from the base of Mount Rolleston in the spine of the Southern Alps. Petrus van der Velden's work captures the mood and dramatic land and skyscapes that in no small way explains why in the middle of the 19th century Westland truly deserved a Terra Incognita reputation.

The Otira Gorge and Mount Rolleston, from an oil painting by Petrus van der Velden

Reproduced from the Auckland Art Gallery website http://www.aucklandartgallery.com

Credit line: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Accession No: U/331 Other ID: U/329

Otago Daily Times, 06 April, 1863

The West Coast

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