THE year 1865 is memorable for the rich gold discoveries on the West Coast and the enormous influx of diggers into that region. Men came from Sydney and Melbourne as well as from all parts of New Zealand. Hokitika was the scene of the first great rush, and by the end of 1866 had a population estimated at between thirty and fifty thousand. Field after field was opened up with amazing rapidity. The lure of gold, the promise of a better-paying field, drew men to the Arahura, then to Lake Kanieri, the Kokatahi district, the Waimea Creek (close to the Taramakau) and south to Okarito. Almost every river yielded a rich reward to those who faced the hardships of forcing a way through virgin bush and over swollen streams. On the Coast men were effectively cut off from civilisation. Many fell victims to the treacherous currents of the fast, icy-cold rivers.

The wild but beautiful environment of the pioneer miners was soon transformed. Mushroom towns with shops, banks, and hotels innumerable, .seemed to spring up overnight. The rapidity of the growth of Hokitika, for instance, was amazing. Its prosperity may be fairly estimated from the fact that the Hokitika Directory of 1866 contains a list of one hundred hotels. The Directory also shows that Stafford Town (on the Waimea Creek, only eight miles from Hokitika) had thirty-four hotels in 1869, Kanieri fourteen, Ross twenty-four, and Grey fifty-seven. The West Canterbury gold-field had been officially proclaimed on 2^nd March 1865, and thereafter some attempt was made to connect Christchurch with Hokitika. A road was pushed up the Bealey, and down the Otira Gorge and the Taramakau River to Arahura and Hoki­tika. The West Coast people complained that Canterbury was growing rich at their expense, and a separation movement achieved success with the passage of the County of Westland Bill in 1868.