HOKITIKA.

Inangahua Times, Volume XI, Issue 1650, 8 January 1886, Page 3

HOK ITI KA.

» ;■' — Mr C. H. Tophain, the travelling artist iiv New Zealand for the 'Sydney Town and Country Journal,' had sketches of Hokitik* in tlw number for December 12. He write*:— Th Hokitika of to-day and the Hokitik of twenty 'yearn agonre widely dif fHrent. Gold was discovered early it 1865, and as is well knowii, a Very few months after the discovery, thousands flo.ked from all parts of the Australian colonies to this hitherto »hn<s* unknown locality. The town at that time counted, for the most part of a long, naiTow iiioromstifare, named after the then rwrnlei.t mat;isti'ttt" ; it «iii<ht, however, wit ; i equal aptness have received a mine from the continuous round of r*vplry» of n^li.tinsr, -drinking and gawMing, >>f which it was the scon*. This street b'vut of no less t!>an 120 licensed horse dignified by the name of hotels each of which maintained, as a rule, two or three dancing girls and a fi'dler. It was »o uncommon thing, I t.m told, to hear the hogt, standing at his door, like a spider on the watch for flies, call out to his musical professor, •• P^ay up fiddler ; l»oo<*y diggers com ing. The danscutrt were not by any means enchanting SDerimenfl, but worn« m n Ihmhjj Bcarce on the (vmMt, tliev were «o rMUfli appreciated that many nmrri»*d well, and to their credit, l>e it spoken many of them are known to havH made good wives and mothers. Gold was then so abundant that the entire beach from Hnkitika to Grey- ! month, a distance of twenty miles, was lined with parties of digger* washing the *and a little, above high water mark, generally with good results. I saw and had a t ilk with two poor old worked out dii?sera thus employed ; two old mates, who had seen th« he«t of the rush, and made their £20 a week each and ' spreed ' it The poor fellows almost cried as they spoke of the old times, renting awhile on their long-handled shovels. They were at thia time averaging about 10s a week each."