work I stepped up, took the other handle, and turned it for some time. A bell sounded from below; the man stopped, and said: "You came just in time; I was getting done, my mate fell ill, and I was obliged to go on alone, and . . what might your line be?" He hadn't noticed my attire, as I had on a light water-proof. "Oh, I see. I know you're the Archdeacon. I'm coming to the meeting; come and have a bit of tucker with me." At one of the large Company's works I went down a shaft with the Manager; the ground is wet and dangerous; powerful pumps are at work, and work goes on night and day. He shewed me the result of one shift's work, eight hours, a large tumbler full of gold; some of it scaly, the rest small nuggets. The rainfall on the coast would be reckoned phenomenal elsewhere; six inches a day nothing uncommon; but abundance of water is needed for gold saving, so that wet weather is welcomed more than the sunnier driest days. It in no way hindered our meeting, which realized several hundreds towards the erection of the Church, to be begun at once.
The downpour, however, threatened to bar my return to Hokitika in time for Sunday, as it was impossible to ride down the river in its heavy flood, the only "road" out of Ross to the beach. A Surveyor came to my assistance, and piloted me, together with a young fellow from his office, through the forest, which was trackless, to the beach, where we arrived wet to the skin. There a ferryman put us over the river, and we tramped the eighteen miles of beach, very heavy going, reaching the Hokitika river in the evening. After some welcome food, I went in search of a boat, but was met with the reply, "No boat has crossed for two days,—can't be done." At last I
