Five Years in New Zealand / 1859 to 1864

Contractor-Get Seriously Ill-Start

expect home letters yet for some weeks, and was getting tired of mer

nd had just then undertaken to construct a number of station buildings for a run holder on the Ashburton. Me

n the forest, cart it down some forty miles, and

e feet of the slabs being set a few inches in the ground. Over this enclosure we made a sloping framework of wickers (fine saplings) and covered it with an old tent which Metcalfe possessed. At one end of the hut we constructed a wide fireplace and chimney in the same manner, and hung up an old blanket over the space left for a doorway. The inside of the slab walls and chimney we wattled with mud and laths, which we split up, and plastered over with mud and

the night, we sat down to supper by a rousing fire, then lit pipes and chatted or read till it was time to turn in, when the fire was raked over, and the damper of bread inserted under the hot ashes to be ready for the morning. During the evening also one of us made the bread; the camp oven would be put on the fire with sufficient mutton to

t for fully half their height throw out heavy and numerous branches thickly covered all the year round with very small evergreen leaves. The trees are easily cut up and split into

ever, and for nigh on six weeks I lay betwixt life and death. For half of this time I lay on the floor in a corner of the new building, the bare ground with a layer of tea leaves for my bed, the noise grinding into my brain when I was at all conscious, and only Metcalfe (good man that he was) with an old Scottish shepherd to look after me when they could find time to do so. No doctor, medicine, or attendance of any kind was procurable nearer than sixty miles away, with a weekly post. One night, to make me sleep they gave me laudanum (a bottle of which Metcalfe had with him for toothache) and the following morning I was discovered standing on the brink of an artificial pond nearly a quarter of a mile off, barefoot and half naked, to reach which I must have walked over places I could not ea

my doing any good in New Zealand; but I was more determined than ever to remain. Was I not accumulating colonial experiences, and always found employment of some kind awaiting me? and

not accustomed, and forbade my undertaking anything of the kind for a while. This of course was nonsense, but I

ng upon me, and I looked forward to such a trip to a new part of the country in company with my old friend with the keenest delight. I agreed to his proposal at once, and immediately he arrived we set to work to make preparations for our journey south, although where that journey was to lead us or of what m

purpose we purchased between us for ￡15, a notorious buckjumper, called "Jack the Devil," and if ever deformity of temper and the lowest vice were depicted in an animal's face and bearing, this beast possessed

tes of his eyes rolling and girths swelled until all was apparently secure, and the

of giving in to Jack; on the contrary, this little exhibition of devilry made him

n such a manner that if he again bucked it off, some part of Jack's personality would have to accompany it. The next

tation. He was a smart, handy fellow, and although he did not contribute much in the way of financial ass

life on the Ashburton and Rangitata, we arrived without adventure at th

h every one else, were, of course, immediately infected with the gold mania, the more so as we were bent on adventure of any kind that might turn up, and here was an unexpected piece of good fortune ready to our hands. D

we would arrive at Dunedin, the capital and port of Otago, and

ch unsaddled, watered, and tethered out his horse and carried his swags to the camping ground, where Jack's load was removed and placed ready for use. Then while one fetched water another collected a supply of firewood for the night. A roaring fire was made, water boiled for tea, flo

, settled ourselves in our respective positions for the night, lit pipes, spun yarns, or sang songs, till drowsiness claimed us

the South Island. The Waitaki was never fordable at this point, and passengers were ferried across in a small boat behind which the horses were swum. This latter is a somewhat dangerous operation unless expertly carried out; a horse which may be a powerf

r landing place on the opposite side, without running foul of shoals or sandspits, and as the current r

e of the wretched structure, and of its landlord and landlady. What a pair of outcasts they looked, and how they exi

ment, because being only ten miles from Dunedin they were generally able to push on, and partly because the locality did not possess pasturage for horses; and so wi

e return half a mile to where pasture was obtainable. The landlord, however, produced some hay and oats, and cleaned out his shed, in which we were a

om the bar for seats, our food the usual description, the junk of mutton boiled with lumps of dough called damper, and the landlady produced some plates, while we used our own c

orses, and baggage safely across the Wait

y and gave shelter to the little harbour. Also, like Lyttelton, the latter was an open roadstead, but on the town front was bounded by a steep bank from which the na

and the town was in a fever of excitement for news of their success or otherwise. No very reliable information had come, but such as was o