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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 9 (January 1, 1934)

Gold-Rush Days — The Gay Life of Seventy Years Ago

page 31

Gold-Rush Days
The Gay Life of Seventy Years Ago.

General view of Wetherstones Flat, a rich gold territory, Otago, New Zealand

General view of Wetherstones Flat, a rich gold territory, Otago, New Zealand

Once upon a time stirring event followed stirring event in New Zealand. The famous gold-rush is but history now, yet as we motored down the West Coast-famous gold-coast of over seventy years ago—we came upon scene after scene of those thrilling days. Whole villages of houses and hotels, waiting, waiting, for that wholesome full-living gay-hearted band to return; cob-webbed hotels and little houses, all tumbled-down now, waiting so pathetically for that band that can never return. We saw great heaped-up stones and enormous earth-mounds, old rusted implements, all telling a silent story of that famous past. They are all that we have left to remind us; their owners have passed on.

As we stood by this desolate scene a picture of former days flashed before our minds. The empty hotels took on life. In front of us stood no less than four hotels, and from them sounds of merry-making echoed and re-echoed along the sandy street. Snatches of song, the throaty laughter of the men and the gay laughter of the women. Cheery music set our feet tingling; we could hear the chink of glasses. Lights flickered in the hundreds of windows in this mushroomgrown town. Happiness, gaiety, hope—every-where. Yet the faces within were a contrast to the faces of the new arrivals whom we seemed to see coming towards us. These men were just up from the Otago goldfields, where they had heard of this new field. Yes, they struck gold aplenty in Otago, but the winter snows had driven them out. Big iron-constitutioned men, accustomed to the hardships of a rigorous winter, ill-fed, ill-clothed, working, working, ever-hoping; then their journey, producing even greater hardships, over snow-covered mountains to this new field. They made no complaint, for that was not the way of the miners, but their faces bore silent testimony to their grim struggle with death on those icy peaks. Well, they had arrived, and were not going to waste any time. They must stake their claims and start afresh. Gold! Gold! Gold! They passed into the hotels and as they left us a large touring car swept by, tooting loudly—and that day dream was over!

Marvellous men, marvellous women; all young and full of life and hope. Kind-hearted, faithful and true. No hardship too great to be endured in their feverish search for this hidden wealth, no dangers heeded.

The prices they paid for their equipment and provisions—the bare necessities of life at that—would stagger us to-day. Some made their fortune, others did not. Certain it is that the hotel-keepers and merchants made theirs.

But it was soon over. By 1870 the rush had ceased. The easily-won gold had been taken and hope burned low until the flame which had swept the country for a decade died completely away.

They have left us their old time-worn habitations. The heritage of courage and the will to live happily in the face of such odds, as did those courageous diggers of old, remains with our young men and women to-day.

Due to expansion, the lines of the Canadian National Railways are several miles longer in summer than they are in winter. The total trackage of the system is 23,700 miles, and it has been calculated that if there were an even summer temperature of 90 degrees throughout the territory served by the railway, the line would be fourteen miles longer than what the track would measure if there were an even temperature of zero.

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Wellington's Drive for the Restoration of National Confidence (Rly. Publicity photos.) The Railway Department's section of the Industrial Procession held on 22nd November, 1933, in connection with Wellington's National Confidence Carnival.

Wellington's Drive for the Restoration of National Confidence
(Rly. Publicity photos.)
The Railway Department's section of the Industrial Procession held on 22nd November, 1933, in connection with Wellington's National Confidence Carnival.

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