DEATH OF PARKER--ROYAL MAIL ROBBED BY A CAT--MEET WITH ACCIDENT
CROSSING RIVER.
During our absence a sad occurrence took place, which I will record
here. A Mr. Parks, a Government surveyor, and well-to-do sheep farmer on
the Ashburton, had been engaged during the previous year in making
surveys on the Rakia and Ashburton, and on his staff was a young man
named Parker. This lad was another instance of the ideas some home
people entertain, that for a youngster without intellect, energy, or
application sufficient to obtain him entrance to a profession in
England, the Colonies are the proper place. In their opinion he must get
on there, or at any rate, he will be got rid of. The latter may be true
enough, but as regards the former, the proofs are few indeed.
Parker was a weak, good natured, feckless lad, about eighteen or twenty
years of age, and the only thing he appeared to be able to make anything
of was playing the fiddle. Wherever he went his violin accompanied him.
While fiddling he was happy, but it was pitiful to watch him trying to
work at or take an interest in any employment which he could neither
appreciate nor understand.
The survey party had proceeded up the gorge of the Rakia, and were
absent about a fortnight, when Mr. Parks, requiring to send back to his
station for some instrument he had forgotten, and Parker being the least
useful hand on the survey, he decided to send him. The distance was
twenty miles, and the route was across the open plain leading for a part
of the way along the river. He was to go on foot, and put up the first
night at Grey's station, about half-way.
Between the Camp and Grey's the path led along the bank of the Rakia,
which was here very steep, upwards of a hundred feet perpendicularly
above the riverbed, and occasionally subject to landslips.
A week passed without the return of Parker, and Mr. Parks, getting
concerned for the lad's safety, despatched a messenger for information,
when it was found that Parker had not appeared either at Grey's, or his
own station, and for another week inquiries were made for him in every
direction in vain.
At about the end of the second week from the date of Parker leaving the
survey camp, a shepherd of Grey's, happening to descend into the Rakia
river bed in search of some wandering sheep, came upon a roll of red
blankets lying at the foot of a landslip. Going up, he found it to
contain the body of a man half decomposed, and being eaten by rats. Upon
the ground alongside was a pocket-book containing writing and a pencil.
The shepherd, taking the pocket-book, returned speedily to Grey's. Upon
examination the book was found to contain a diary of five days, written
by the unfortunate Parker, before he died of starvation, thirst, and a
broken leg, at the foot of the landslip.
From the entries it appeared that he had been fiddling along (in his
usual absent manner, no doubt) very close to the edge of the Rakia bank,
when a portion of it gave way under his feet, and he fell sliding and
tumbling until he reached the bottom on a bed of shingle, his leg
broken, and his body bruised and shattered. He succeeded in loosening
the swag of blankets he had strapped on his back, wrapped them round him
and lay down, occasionally calling, and always hoping against hope that
some one would discover him. It was a vain hope, poor chap--not twice in
a year's space was a human being seen on that wild river bed. He lived
for five days in the agonies of hunger, thirst and despair, not even a
drop of water could he reach, although the river ran within twenty yards
of him, and at last death mercifully put an end to his misery.
I now returned to work, continuing at the same time the study of my
books, which I kept at the Ashburton, to fit me for the duties of
surveyor and contractor. I was deriving a good return from my sheep and
could add yearly to their number. During the remainder of the summer and
autumn I worked steadily at bush work, hut-building and run-fencing, and
when the winter set in I rigged up a hut in the forest, where I lived
alone and earned a good return for my time in felling and cutting-up
firewood for which I received from the squatters--I think--ten shillings
a cord, 9 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft. The Ashburton Valley road had been
greatly improved, and the weekly mail which hitherto ran between
Christchurch and Dunedin was now made bi-weekly, and the stations on the
Ashburton and Rangitata gorges arranged for a regular postman on
horseback to fetch the mail from the Ashburton immediately on arrival,
in lieu of the old plan of having it conveyed from one station to
another by private messengers.
I recollect a ridiculous accident which happened to one of these mail
carriers, who had been despatched to fetch mails across the plains. I do
not think I mentioned that there were numbers of wild cats to be met
with all over the country. They were not indigenous, but domestic
animals or their descendants gone wild, and with their wild existence
they engendered a considerable addition of strength and fierceness. The
shepherd's dog was the natural enemy of these animals.
On the occasion to which I refer, the messenger, an old Irish servant of
Mr. Rowley's, was riding quietly on one of the station hacks, a horse
called "Old Dan," a noted buckjumper in his day. Heavy saddle bags with
the posts were suspended on either side, in addition to various packages
tied on fore and aft. Suddenly Pat's dog put up a cat and went away in
full chase. The plain was quite open, with no trees or shrubs nearer
than the river bed, half a mile distant. The cat finding herself hard
pressed, and despairing of reaching the river-bed before the dog would
catch her, spied old Dan with Paddy and the post thereupon, and
conceived that her only chance of safety lay in mounting too. No sooner
thought than done. She doubled, sprang on old Dan's tail and fastened
her claws in his hinder parts. Dan not approving of such treatment, set
to bucking. First Pat went off, then the saddle bags and parcels,
followed by puss. Old Dan finding himself free, ran for his life, the
cat after him, and the dog after the cat, leaving poor Pat on the ground
to watch the trio as they disappeared from sight.
[Illustration: PAT AND HIS MAIL-BAG DISLODGED BY A CAT.]
Pat had over ten miles to travel and carry the bags and parcels as best
he could, and return the next day for the saddle. The story of how the
cat robbed H.M. Mail was long laughed over on the Ashburton, and Paddy
was unmercifully chaffed for his part in the performance.
I was busily employed till late in the following autumn finishing the
works I had in hand, and lived a portion of the time at Glent hills, Mr.
Rowley's hill station, where I had a considerable contract for wire
fencing with which Mr. Rowley was dividing up into extensive sections
the wide valley in which lay the lakes Emma and Clearwater.
[Illustration: GLENT HILLS STATION.]
During the summer I joined once again in the general mustering, and
lived on the mountain sides for days and nights together. It was here
I contrived to catch some cold which caused a singing like the bleating
of sheep in my right ear, and for which I subjected myself to the very
doubtful advice and care of old "Blue Gum Bill," the shepherd who was
for the time being my comrade. "Blue Gum" was a "lag," that is, a
ticket-of-leave convict, from Australia. One of his hands, I forget
which, had been amputated, and in lieu thereof he had affixed a stump of
blue gum wood, with an iron hook inserted at the end. As is not unusual
in such cases, "Blue Gum" could do more with this iron hook than many
men could accomplish with a hand. He was a character in his way, and
whatever may have been the cause of his enforced exile from the Old
Country many years before, he was now a most exemplary old fellow, for
whom I entertained a great respect and liking.
He said he could cure my ear, into which he assured me some small animal
had entered, and it would be necessary, in the first place to kill it,
when the noise would naturally cease. He made me lie down with my
bleating ear uppermost, and proceeded to fill it with as much strong
tobacco juice as it would hold. This operation he repeated several
times, and appeared greatly disappointed on my complaining that the
animal still continued musical. The ear troubled me for a long time, and
eventually the hearing became impaired. Whether the fact that I never
more than half recovered my hearing in that ear, and that for many years
it has been almost completely deaf, is due to "Blue Gum's" doctoring or
not, is scarcely worth entering into now.
When the winter had really set in, I started to pay a visit (my last it
turned out) to my friends in Mesopotamia. On arriving at the Rangitata I
met the wool drays on their return journey from Christchurch, waiting
while one of the men was on horseback seeking for a ford, in which
occupation he asked my assistance. The river was a little swollen and
discoloured, and the course of the main stream had been altered during
the flood. While seeking a fording place I unluckily got into a
quicksand, and in an instant I was under the mare, while she was
plunging on her side in deep water. I had released my feet from the
stirrups upon entering, and was free thus far. I had hold of the tether
rope round her neck, and presently we were both out, and as I thought
safely. I mounted again, and after getting the drays safely over, I rode
on to the station. Here, on putting my foot to the ground I found I
could not stand, and from a queer feeling about the left knee, it was
apparent that I had been kicked while under the plunging mare. For nigh
three weeks I was unable to walk, and to this day I feel the effect of
that kick.
I was, perforce, obliged now to keep quiet, and was not over-sorry, for
the quarters were comfortable, and I was with my friends, and had
leisure to read and work. Our evenings by the fire were very enjoyable,
and many a story and song went round, or Butler would play while we
smoked.
One evening, I recollect, he told us a very remarkable ghost story, the
best authenticated, as he said, he had ever heard, and to those who
entertain the belief that the spirits of the departed have power to
revisit this earth for the accomplishment of any special purpose, the
story will be interesting.