Charleston: Its Rise and Decline/Chapter 1
Chapter I.
CHARLESTON—ITS BIRTH AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT.
CHARLESTON was born in August of 1866; born, it is said, of two or more venturesome fortune-seekers, Timothy Linahan and another or others, who, having failed to find golden foot-spaces unowned around the river-port of Hokitika, or at the Grey, pushed northward to hunt for others amidst the untrodden spaces and beaches of the coast.
The region between Buller and Grey was then terra incognita, unexplored and uninhabited save for a few Maoris, and unseen by white man excepting two or three intrepid spirits who had hurriedly traversed the coastline many years before.
Brunner and Heaphy (afterwards Major Heaphy, V.C.), surveyors employed by the New Zealand Company, travelled in 1845 and 1846 from Cape Farewell to the river Mawhera, which they named Grey in honour of Captain Grey (later, in 1848, Sir George Grey) then Governor of the Colony. They pronounced the West Coast as “unfit for settlement, and its rivers as unsafe for vessels to enter.” Later, Brunner, with two Maori companions, explored the region from South Spit at Buller mouth to the Grey, and received the Royal Geographical Society’s medal for the exploit.
In 1857 James Mackay, Warden of the Aorere Goldfield (the first Goldfield Warden in the Colony), travelled on foot from West Wanganui to the Buller, which he sounded from a canoe and reported as suitable for vessels of fair draught; he then proceeded onward to the Grey, passing through Kara-o-matea Plain, or Waite’s Pakihi (later the site of Addison’s Flat goldfield) and over the pakihi that nine years later was Charleston. Apparently none of them anticipated the discovery of goldfields, but stepped lightly over the hidden wealth. '
The South-West Coast is a wild, mountainous domain broken by terraces, streams and gorges. To the first explorers it would seem to be a fastness of Nature not destined for extensive human occupation. For nearly a century after the arrival of Cook in 1770, the history of this Coast was a blank and the only inhabitants were a few natives. The Maori had left few trails, so the white man who would know it must make his own path, brave storm and flood, and feed himself as best he might. Later parties formed rough foot-tracks and, later still, pack-tracks for plodding horses, but the firstcomers had of necessity to carry meagre supplies, and trust life and future to the will of Fate. The country offered no means of sustenance beyond birds, fernroot, nikau berries, and fish; but gold is an alluring siren, and when sirens call, men welcome the invitation. Of such were our pioneers, the venturous spirits who paved the way to the Coast’s future prosperity.
From 1840 to 1841 New Zealand was a dependency of New South Wales. From 1841 to 1853 it was a Crown Colony under the almost despotic rule of a Governor appointed by the Crown, the Executive Council being the Governor and three Government Officers. The Legislative Council was composed of the Executive Council together with three men, not officers, but nominated by the Crown. In 1853 came Representative Government, under the New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852, viz., a Governor and Legislative Council appointed by the Crown, and a House of Representatives elected by the people. Also, the Colony was divided into provinces, with an elected Superintendent and an elected Provincial Council for each province.
In 1876 the Provincial System was abolished, under a Colonial Act of 1875, in favour of a Parliament for the whole of New Zealand, with a Governor appointed by the Crown, a Legislative Council nominated by the Governor,
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To right—Prince’s Street, East. Corner Sections 121 and 140.
To left—The Camp, with flag, Post Office, and St. Patrick’s Chapel.
In Camp Street, Central—the tramway to Darkie’s Terrace.
The three hotels are on Sections 22 and 31. The road is “The Cutting,” or “Beach Street,” the western end of Prince’s Street, West.
At right—The old Buller Road. At left—Darkie’s Creek.
At right—The old Buller Road. Fluming was opposite Sections 207 and 208, and conveyed water from dam behind Section 333.
Showing Nile Hotel, Steam Sawmill, and Marris Brothers’ cottages on hill.
In foreground, the low level road from Nile Bridge.
The seat of the Buller County Council, which included Charleston, was at Westport. The first meeting was held on 4th January, 1877, the Charleston representatives being Messrs. Walker and Moore. Mr. J. H. Powell, of Westport, also was a Councillor. In 1880 an agitation was started to have the Council’s Headquarters and Office removed to Charleston, the latter having about double the population of Westport; but the appeal was not entertained.
On 26th September, 1907, New Zealand received the status of a Dominion. Of the provinces of the South Island under the system of 1853, Nelson was the most populous, having 5,000 inhabitants.
Charleston and Westport were, and still are, in the Nelson Province, the coast to the south being at first a part of the Province of Canterbury and later, in 1873, constituting the Province of Westland. The dividing line between the Nelson and Westland Provinces is from the sea to the Southern Alps, passing close to the little town of Ikamatua. The Buller district, and south of it, was the South-West Goldfield.
The birth of Charleston was, it is believed, at Candlelight, a flat immediately south of the Broomielaw Creek, about a mile and three-quarters south of where the town of Charleston was finally established, and where more lasting supplies of gold were found.
Linahan and his mate or mates had pitched their tent beside a small creek and, while one drew water, another held aloft a “digger's lantern,” a clear glass bottle with its bottom removed and a piece of candle set in the neck. By this flickering light the creek-bed showed yellow, not with yellow mica, the “new-chum’s gold” which has raised so many false hopes and broken so many hearts, but with what their experienced eyes told them was gold—much gold. So was Charleston born in 1866.
The birth of this new goldfield was a romance, not the first of its kind upon the Coast, but such as it never will see again. The Handbook of New Zealand Mines, 1887, says—
- “Payable gold was first discovered at the Charleston Basin, by Linahan and party in the month of August, 1866.”
The Basin is upon the opposite side of the Broomielaw Creek to Candlelight, and was known as “Charleston Basin,” “Candlelight Basin,” “Darkie’s Creek Basin,” or merely as “The Basin,” usually the latter. It is known that the first gold found in The Basin was discovered by Linahan and party (see Chapter XXIII) but the consensus of opinion appears to be that this was subsequent to the find at Candlelight. To Linahan and another or others, is due the credit for discovering the field, but whether at Candlelight or The Basin cannot be proved.
The news of a new field seems to travel on the wings of the wind: soon it was known throughout the country. Within a few months hundreds were at The Pakihi (mutilated to The Parkeese), the name by which Charleston was first known Pakihi is the Maori term for open grass country. The Maori name for the site of Charleston was Tauhinau.
The Handbook of N.Z. Mines (1887) states that two months after the birth of the field, in October, 1866, there were 1,200 persons at Charleston and that the number was increasing daily. Within a year or two there were thousands there. Crowds flocked in by the hazardous coastal track from the south, and from the north across bush-clad Cape Foulwind, along beaches and over rivers. Some came by sailing craft to the inlet now known as Constant Bay.
Candlelight was a short-lived field and was soon divested of its easily accessible gold. The keeper of the first hotel and store was Philip McCarthy, later Manager of the Argyle Water Race that supplied most of the water to the flat, while Mary Smith (later of West Coast Hotel at Charleston) and a Mrs. Taylor kept small hotels at The Broomielaw.
The town of Charleston was partly surveyed by Mr. A. Greenwood in 1866 and 1867, and partly by Mr. G. R. Sayle in 1873. A copy of the plan issued from Wellington, in 1880, is shown in the Appendix. On 24th July, 1867, the Select Committee appointed by the Provincial Council to “consider the petitions of William Fox, Timothy Linahan, and others, claiming a bonus for the discovery of a payable goldfield on the Pakihis,” reported that “it is inexpedient to grant any unpromised rewards for gold discoveries unless under very special circumstances, and that the cases of the petitioners are not of that description.” This report was adopted by the Council. The texts of the petitions are not available.
Again on 20th May, 1868, the matter was revived in the Council and a motion moved: “That there be placed on the Supplementary Estimates a sufficient sum to reward the original prospectors of the Charleston goldfields, now found to be permanent fields.” The names were not quoted. The motion was negatived by 12 to 5.
Mr. John Blackett, Provincial Engineer, reporting in 1867, said: “The main streets of Charleston are formed and metalled, and a good metalled road about a mile long has been made from the town towards the diggings, suitable for dray traffic.” Probably the road referred to was Darkie’s Terrace Road. On 17th July, 1867, the Superintendent of the Province reported, “the townships of Charleston and Brighton are now being surveyed, but the Council has not come to any determination regarding the sale of the land.”
On 27th May, 1868, Mr. Pell, Road Overseer, received instructions to find “the best route for a dray-road to connect Charleston with Brown’s Terrace and Addison's Flat.” “The route was then,” the Westport Times stated, “via the Pioneer Ford.” It is surmised that this ford was on the Little Totara River, and in connection with “Hall’s Track” from the Nine-Mile Beach. In 1869 the District Engineer of Goldfields recommended that Charleston streets be “principally attended to by the prisoners of the jail; but to meet the expense of carrying metal, etc., as occasionally required, I estimate for £200.” The task that the stout-hearted pioneers, inspired by the “wine of freedom and the gold of hope,” undertook in transforming this virgin land into the thriving centre that it became in a few short years, was formidable, but it was tackled with a will, and the town grew as though by magic.
As early as 1867, Commissioner Kynnersley reported “a considerable increase in the population and prosperity of the district.” Gold was everywhere, in every backyard, but water to secure it was scarce, and had to be brought from far away, in races, flumes, and pipes, while scores of dams had to be built. Notwithstanding this, the lack of water continued to hamper working; and in 1871 Mr. A. D. Dobson, District Engineer, reported to the Provincial Council on the matter, but as several more water-races were being built by Haines & Company, no action was taken by the Government.
To a town of calico and canvas, whose population was increasing by leaps and bounds, the prime consideration was a regular food supply. Without roads, or even pack-tracks, the settlement was dependent upon the few small sailing-craft that occasionally entered the bay, and eyes were turned to the nearest port of consequence, the Buller River. Westport was also in its childhood, a small settlement on the North Spit of the river mouth. From the South Spit, a few packers brought to Charleston a proportion of its requirements, over rough country and beaches, until 1867 when a road was formed over Cape Foulwind, and a coach service initiated. A dray-road to Westport was a crying necessity. The provision of such a road could be left to the Provincial Council; but to leave to it the construction of the necessary bridge over the Nile River was another matter, so these self-reliant pioneers took the matter into their own hands and the bridge was built (late in 1866 or early in 1867) by private enterprise, the builders being granted protection for five years and authorised to impose a toll of 1/- per person crossing it. This toll was collected at the bar of the Nile Hotel which was erected by Blanche Bros. at the south end. “A rough log-bridge,” Mr. Dobson declares, but it stood up to heavy traffic and to current and floods, for about eight years. The names of the original shareholders of the Bridge Company are not obtainable, but in newspapers of August, 1868, it is recorded that “Mr. Allen paid £400 to Mr. McCarthy for latter’s share,” also that “Mr. Hutchinson sold his interest to Mr. P. Allen, who is now the sole owner.” The contractors for building the bridge were Messrs. Atkinson & Company.
In December of 1868 or early in 1869 the bridge was taken over by the Provincial Council, and the toll abolished. On 15th May, 1868, it had been agreed by the Provincial Council that “the Nile bridge should be opened to the public free of charge; and that His Honour the Superintendent be requested to take the necessary steps to effect that object as soon as possible.”
In 1869 the Inspector of Schools spoke of Charleston as a place “where goldmining is actually going on in the heart of the township, and where a large proportion (of the population) is dwelling in tents.” In the same year, 1869, the Charleston correspondent of the Westport Times wrote, on 24th April: “Trade as a whole seems to have assumed a healthier tone, and I am assured that the diggings in and around Charleston will be as good as they have ever been for at least one year to come.” It would appear that, even then, he doubted the permanency of the field.
As stated, the beach-route was made available for vehicles in 1867, when Cobb & Co. commenced a coach service, passengers being ferried across the Buller. This route was ill-fitted for heavy traffic, and was also dependent upon tides, so in 1873 and 1874 a road was constructed from Westport to Charleston via Addison’s Flat, and was served by punts on the Buller until the erection of the combined railway and road bridge in 1887, at a cost of £15,000.
In 1873, says the Diamond Jubilee Souvenir, “Charleston, like Westport, was partly destroyed by fire; the township on the lower flat was not rebuilt.” In 1874 the Nile bridge was carried away by a flood, and Charleston residents petitioned the Provincial Council to rebuild it. The Petition Committee recommended this as a matter of urgency, and a contract was let in 1875 to J. B. Eteveneaux for a suspension bridge to cost £1,492, the Government to provide the wire for the main cables. In May, 1875, the Minister of Public Works agreed, on behalf of the Central Government, to contribute £1,000 towards this bridge, provided that the same amount was contributed by the Provincial Government, and that the whole was expended under the supervision of the Colonial District Engineer. This is believed to be the first suspension bridge erected in New Zealand, and was designed by, and built under the direction of Mr. A. D. Dobson, as recorded in his Reminiscences.
It is to be noted that the Public Works Department was not established until after the close of the Parliamentary Session of 1870; the first Public Works Statement being presented to the House of Representatives on 27th September, 1871. It was not, however, until 6th December of that year, 1871, that the first Minister of Public Works, the Hon. J. D. Ormond, was appointed, with Mr. J. Knowles as Under-Secretary, and Mr. J. Carruthers as Engineer-in-Chief.
In 1867 a proposal to establish a railway between Westport and Charleston received much consideration, and a Provisional Committee to further the object was set up, the Charleston members being Messrs. J. Creed and B. Colready. In May of that year, a prospectus was issued by Mr. H. E. Campbell in an endeavour to promote a Railway Company with a capital of £14,000 in 3,500 shares of £4 each. The estimated cost was £500 per mile. There were to be two locomotives, and 40lb. iron rails were to be laid. Commissioner Kynnersley also advertised, calling for applications from “persons desirous of constructing a railway or tramway from Westport to Addison’s Flat or Charleston,” and stating that plans of the surveyed line to Addison’s were on view at the Lands Office at Westport.
There was insufficient response to either the prospectus or the advertisement. On 11th June, 1867, Mr. Oswald Curtis, Superintendent, in a speech to the Provincial Council stated that a proposition had been made to him “to lay down this railway and, in consideration of certain privileges to be conceded by the Government and a grant of 1,000 acres of land, the proposal had received the reconsideration of Commissioner Kynnersley and was favourably entertained by the Executive Council.”
He explained that “at present Charleston receives the chief part of its supplies in duty-paid goods, from Canterbury; considerably to the loss of our provincial revenue; but the construction of a railway would probably bring the trade with Charleston to Westport, to the manifest advantage of this province.” He also added that “the details of the proposition, together with a Bill to enable me to carry it into effect, will be submitted to you for consideration.” An Act “to promote the construction of a railway from Westport to Charleston and Brighton” was passed by the Provincial Council and received the Governor’s assent, on 4th November, 1867. There, however, the matter ended, for the railway was not built.
In 1869 the Resident Magistrate, Mr. Charles Broad, reported to the Government that “very extensive workings are noted at Charleston immediately upon crossing the Nile bridge from the north, extending four miles to the Tikopihi River, with a depth of three or four miles to the sea. In this block is the township of Charleston, of which all the available ground continues to be worked; while dams and water-races meet the eye in every direction. The township of Charleston probably contains some two hundred houses, a very large number of which are public-houses. The town is rapidly improving in appearance; the banks and churches are all pretentious buildings, and some of the hotels present an exterior that would do credit to a longer-settled community.” The Tikopihi River referred to is the stream later known as the Four-mile River. Mr. Broad continued: “The results anticipated by my predecessor, Mr. Lightband, as to the effect upon the district of the introduction of machinery, and also the granting of extended areas, has been fully realised.”
In 1869 an official return showed that 80 of the principal claims were worked by machinery, employing 513 men, and the plants were valued at £86,010. Ten of these claims were worked by steam, and seventy by water power. In addition, there were twice as many water-wheels, horse-whims, and hand-machines. This would indicate that about 240 claims were working cement. In this year, 1869, 470 applications were heard for head- and tail-races, 307 for dams, 99 extended claims were granted, 22 goldmining leases, 5 agricultural leases, and 4 special claims. A footnote to the report added that “Charleston has already put on an appearance of permanent and lasting prosperity”—a false impression, as the years have proved.
In 1870 the Magisterial report stated: “Many miners have left for the Thames fields and for a new field south of Brighton. It was well ascertained that steam machinery was too expensive for the workings of Charleston. The population has been orderly and there has been little crime. There is a Catholic Church, a Church of England, and a Wesleyan Chapel. £80 has been raised for a public library, to which the Government added an equal subsidy. There is a Freemasons’ Lodge, an Oddfellows’ Lodge, and branches of the Union, New Zealand, and New South Wales Banks. There is also a hospital.”
The Mechanics’ Institute and Library was opened in 1871 and readings were given every Monday evening. £200 was raised for the hospital and other sums for the purchase of a piano and other furniture for the Institute.
In the same year, the charge of the Charleston district was taken over by Dr. Joseph Giles, the Warden of Westport and Brighton, who held a weekly Court.
The South-West Goldfields, which included the then unexplored stretches south of the Buller where later were the towns of Charleston, Addison’s Flat and Croninville, had been proclaimed a district on 31st July, 1865, and on 1st August of that year Mr. John Blackett was appointed Warden of the whole. In 1873 a District Board of six persons, under the Goldfields Local Revenue Act, was elected and functioned at Charleston, of which Mr. T. G. Macarthy was Chairman.
From 1866 to about 1873 Charleston maintained its reputation of being one of the richest fields on the Coast. During the week before Christmas in 1870 the banks received gold to the value bf £24,000; while during the financial year ending 31st March, 1870, the revenue from Miners’ Rights was £1,220, and from Publicans’ Licenses £2,368.
For comparison, in 1930 the combined revenue of Charleston and Westport (the Charleston Court having been closed at the end of 1922) was only £49/10/- for Miners’ Rights and £1,200 for Publicans’ Licenses. From 1873 the gold supply seriously diminished and the mining returns became comparatively small, good results being difficult to secure.
The Coast was a healthy spot—the late Mr. J. W. Poynton, Public Trustee, has recorded that “the death rate of the West Coast was, for years, the lowest in the world.” Coal was plentiful about Charleston, a brown lignitic coal, different from the celebrated bituminous coal of Westport that assisted in saving H.M.S. Calliope during the hurricane at Apia, Samoa, in 1889. The seams lay close to the surface, so there were no mines or underground workings, but only open-face pits. Probably the first seam to be worked was one in the vicinity of Rotten Row, then called Coal Street. Others were Harry Mann’s, behind the Phoenix Brewery, below the hospital, in Darkie’s Terrace Road, later owned but abandoned by Pat Connor, who opened a second pit some chains away, and Tom Powell’s behind the school reserve. The latter was still being worked in 1940. The price of coal was 10/- per ton delivered, and as firewood was cheap the townspeople were well provided with fuel. At different times efforts were made to establish an export trade in coal, but the absence of a suitable port, and competition with the superior coal of Westport, were insuperable obstacles. A proposal in 1920, to build a railway or tramway to Cape Foulwind to link up with the railway there, did not meet with sufficient support. It was estimated that eight million tons of coal were available at Charleston, and that the depths of the deposits were about twenty-nine feet. The existence of seams of lignite near to the Nile River was reported on by Heaphy and Brunner in 1847, and by John Rochfort in 1859.
A pressing early need was for timber for mining and building purposes. For mining requirements it was usually obtained by felling and pit-sawing close to where required, but most of the building timber was milled.
In February of 1868 the Nile Steam Sawmill, on a site behind the Nile Hotel, was established by Mr. Charles Nees. This and Nees’s battery (later used as a sawmill by Jock Mitchell) were soon afterwards sold at auction to Philip Rooney for £310. It was acquired by James Hennelly during the same year, and later by Messrs. Beckle and Marris, and later still by Messrs. W. and J. Marris. A wooden-railed tramway, acquired from Nees, brought logs from the timbered land along the south side of the Nile, about Darkie’s Creek, and around the area behind the Camp Reserve.
Later this tram was extended over the bridge to the forest about a mile up the north bank of the river. Charles Nees had, on 22nd January, 1868, been authorised to “construct a tramway commencing at The Nile Steam Sawmills to the eastward of a piece of land held for a toll-house by the proprietors of the Nile bridge, and terminating at the back of the Camp Reserve, Charleston.” This toll-house was the Nile Hotel. Nees also had the right to construct a tramway from Little Beach.
The following advertisement is from the N.Z. Directory of 1867-1868:
“NILE COALMINE, SAWMILL, and TRAMWAYS, NILE RIVER, NEAR CHARLESTON, PAKIHI.
A tramway has been constructed from Charleston to the River Nile, also a coal shoot and good wharf accommodation has been constructed, where cargoes for Charleston can be landed and carried to town at 5/- per ton.
As the resources of the coal-mine are ample, vessels can be loaded in a few hours.
Arrangements have been made for the attendance of a tug in the river to attend to steamers and other craft.
Charles Nees,
Proprietor.”
Whether these were contemplated arrangements, held out as an inducement to shipping to use the river as a port, or whether some small vessels actually worked the river in the early days, cannot be definitely stated; but it is believed that the first steamer to enter the Nile was the P.S. Result, about 1874, and that no sailing vessel ever crossed its bar, although Little Beach was early used as a landing-place. When this sawmill was closed, owing to lack of demand, supplies of sawn timber were obtained from Jock Mitchell who worked a waterwheel plant on the site of Nees’s abandoned battery beside the old Buller Road. In 1880, Mitchell operated a sawmill at Brown’s Terrace in partnership with W. Rickelbaum. The price of sawn timber was reasonable, being 15/- per hundred superficial feet in 1868, and 18/- in 1873. The Marris Brothers, after leaving Charleston, conducted a large sawmilling business at Cape Foulwind and Westport.
The formation of streets in the town, and roads to the outskirts, was hurried on during the first year or so of settlement, and both works were undertaken by the Provincial Council. In 1870, £200 was voted for a dray-road to Ballarat Terrace, and £100 for metalling Darkie’s Terrace Road. In addition to a tramway from Little Beach, and another from Nile bridge to Darkie’s Terrace Road, authority was, on 1st May, 1867, granted to Henry Butler and others to construct “a tramway from the town of Charleston to Darkie’s Terrace,” and by Gazette of 12th May, 1868, the tramway received protection for five years, the owners being authorised to charge a toll of 1/- for each horse or head of horned cattle, “passing along that portion of the tramway that was not on a public road.” It was duly constructed, at a cost of £1,600, and was operated for some time. It ran from a point in Camp Street opposite to Section 121, later occupied by the Court House Hotel, and thence along the south edge of Darkie’s Terrace Road, going through the School Reserve. The driver, and probably part-owner, was Harry Mann, the owner of “Mann’s Corner,” Sections 140 and 141, where his Pakihi Hotel and his brewery were erected. This corner was purchased in 1868, for £555, by John Behan, who in partnership with Kelly opened the Bank Hotel, which afterwards became the City Hotel.
On 22nd November, 1867, the interest in the tramway was sold to John Behan and John Irwin. On 3rd May, 1870, “John Behan, a licensed victualler of Charleston, petitioned the Provincial Council for compensation, alleging that the tramway had proved to be of great public benefit, but that “about 1¼ years ago, a branch road had been constructed running closely parallel to the Darkie’s Terrace end of the tramway and destroyed the traffic.” The result of this petition is not known.
Although many of Charleston’s first settlers came from Australia, most were from Otago, Marlborough, Nelson and Hokitika, traversing the rough and dangerous ways that had but once before been followed by white men; by Heaphy and Brunner in 1845-1846, when they walked over hoards of gold without suspecting that any was there.
Charleston was at first a “poor man’s diggings,” no expensive machinery or preparation being necessary, but only a pick, shovel, a few planks and some sacking; though later came the great batteries calling for much capital. In the early days only three things were essential—health, industry and luck—and of these the greatest was luck. One man turned a stone and found fortune, others wasted their substance in unprofitable undertakings. It would be idle to contend that all the firstcomers were worthy settlers, willing to give of their best to the making of a new land. They included the unworthy and the shiftless.
There is a tendency to regard the South-West Coast of early days as comparable with Kororareka before Marsden and Pompallier lit the torch of Christianity there—a land of grog-shanties, dancing girls, and dissipation. This is certainly untrue of Charleston. It had a brief period of wildness, which disappeared under the influences of Law and Church, and the place settled down into an orderly and law-abiding community. Law was early represented by the mounted police, a number of whom set up their tents on a vacant space at the eastern side of the settlement, which became known as The Camp. On the survey plan this space is shown as the Camp Reserve. There a flagpole was erected and the ensign flown, there the first Courts were held, in tents, and there the first gaol or lock-up was erected. Before this prisoners were, it is said, handcuffed to a heavy log within a tent. The first lock-up was a rough affair built of logs; the contractor being Andrew Crawford. Report says that one of his staff unwisely celebrated the completion of the building and as a result was its first inmate.
The Courthouse was built in 1867 and first used on the 15th March of that year, replacing, states the Charleston Argus, “a 10 x 12 tent.” The new Courthouse (the present building now used as a garage) was erected in 1869 by Messrs. Bull and Bond at a cost of £389/8/-. It has a frontage of forty feet to Camp Street and a depth of eighteen feet. In March of 1867 the Superintendent of the Province proclaimed that: “The building now known as a lock-up situated at Charleston, shall be deemed and taken to be, a public jail of the Colony of New Zealand.” At the same time Mr. Charles Broad was appointed visiting Justice for the gaols at Charleston and Brighton. In October of the same year Messrs. T. A. S. Kynnersley and J. R. Dutton also were appointed, and in December Dr. Joseph Giles.
To form the mass of fortune-seekers into an orderly community was no easy task, but it was accomplished, though those entrusted with the duty received at first little assistance. A proportion of the people resented restraint and looked upon the enforcement of the law as comparable with the despotism of a hard stepmother or an interfering maiden aunt. Some took it so hardly that a protest was made to Parliament, complaining of the severity with which the Police were administering the law, and declaring that it was causing “a state of terrorism.” Parliament upheld the Police in the strict execution of their duties.
During the ’seventies, thousands of persons left the Coast. The better element remained. The days of prodigality and excesses had passed.
The people still sang, but it was not the same tune for a softer melody had replaced it. Experience had been bought and the price paid, and there was soon built up a state of society that old Coasters and their descendants can look back upon with complacency. The Coast was in its heyday in the ’sixties. Gold flowed in, settlement increased, and its harbours were busy with shipping.
The first vessels to enter the southern ports were:—
Greymouth.—The schooner Gypsy, Captain Chas. McCann, early in 1860. The first steamer was P.S. Nelson, Captain Leech, with Reuben Waite and 70 diggers on board, 22nd July, 1864.
Brighton.—P.S. Woodpecker, which, in 1866, landed passengers at the place now called Woodpecker Bay. The agent for this vessel was Mr. Fisher, an auctioneer of Westport. The office was on Woodpecker Wharf. Mr. Lloyd also acted as agent.
Constant Bay.—The ketch Constant, Captain Charles Bonner, in 1866. Reuben Waite visited here in 1866, in this ketch, and gave her name to the bay. Owing to Captain Bonner's early visits, the settlement became known as Charlie’s Town, amended in time to Charles Town, and finally to Charleston.
Nile River.—P.S. Result, Captain Samuel John Riley, about 1874.
Buller River.—The sealing schooner Three Brothers, Captain Joseph Thoms, 1844. The first trading vessel was the cutter Supply, under charter to McKay and Rochfort, 30th August, 1859. She landed supplies somewhere about Packers’ Point. Her crew were: Captain John Walker; mate, Captain Scott; seamen, G. Walker, F. Millington, F. Wilcox, and two natives. The first steamer was P.S. Tasmanian Maid, Captain Whitwell, 29th January, 1862. She was the first steamer to enter a river-port on the Coast.
This great El Dorado, the South-West Coast, in practically its entirety from Cape Farewell to Milford Sound, including Charleston, with all its visible and hidden treasure, was purchased by the Government from its Maori owners for £300 cash, on 21st May, 1860—about seven and a-half million acres over which, within a decade, tens of thousands roamed, seeking and finding immense deposits of gold.