Mr. Dowell was born on the 8th of July, 1836, in County Durham, England, and began to work at the coal mines at the age of eight years. In the year 1857, he went to Victoria, Australia, in the ship “Sir William Eyre,” landed in Melbourne, and proceeded to Ballarat. He followed the diggings for six years in different parts of Victoria, and then came to New Zealand, in the year 1863, at the time of the Hartley and Riley rush in Otago. Mr. Dowell was one of the lucky diggers on the Shotover, where he made £900 in the first three months. He afterwards removed to Hokitika, in 1865, and followed goldmining for eighteen months. Later, Mr. Dowell bought an hotel, which he conducted for thirteen years, and subsequently acquired his present business. He has been twice married, and has had thirteen children, of whom five sons and five daughters survive.

Walker, Peter, General Carrier, Sale Street, Hokitika. Mr. Walker was born on the 20th of March, 1840, at Dundee, Scotland. He is a sail-maker by trade, and came to New Zealand in 1854, by the ship “Storm Cloud.” In 1861, Mr. Walker was attracted to the Gabriel's Gully rush, and was one of the first sixteen to work on that field. He afterwards visited Australia, returned to New Zealand, and found employment in a store in Invercargill. Mr. Walker then went to the West Coast, at the commencement of the Hokitika rush in 1865, and was employed in connection with sawmilling and mining. Later, he entered the service of the late Hon. J. A. Bonar, with whom he remained for about thirty-four years. Mr. Walker subsequently had three years' experience in digging at Preservation Inlet, and founded his business as a carrier in 1898. He became a member of the local fire brigade on the 1st of August, 1866, and served for twenty-six years, when he was made a life member; he also served for sixteen years in the first two rifle corps of Westland. Mr. Walker married a daughter of Mr. David Gill, of Victoria, and has, surviving, two sons and five daughters.