Mobile Unit. Waipori gold mining : S. Knight.

Syd Knight of Waipori recalls life in there in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

He was born in Waipori on 12 April 1891. His father and uncle had arrived from the old country with their mother on the Aldinga in 1861.
Knight talks about various personalities of the Waipori community, including miners, storekeepers – the first were Cable and Drummond who were pretty shrewd gentlemen. They purchased the land around the lower ford of the Waipori river and fenced it off so that all traffic was diverted to the upper ford and past their store. They also refused to give change below sixpence and threw the pennies and ha’pennies in the river. In Syd’s day there were F. W. Knight, Cotton Brothers and Mrs Wilson. He also recalls the Chinese miners and storekeepers, some of whom were very successful. One made so much money he returned to China and bought rice-growing land but was ruined by bandits and forced to return to New Zealand; Syd’s father and uncle went to Wellington to prevent him having to pay poll tax again. He did not return to Waipori, however.
He talks about the first men buried in the Waipori cemetery. The first was the skeleton of a ship’s captain who was found nearby. The second was a participant in a foot race; they ran down the main street and across the ford, on reaching the other side he fell down dead. Syd’s own grandfather was the third.
He talks about the success of various claims and miners, and the largest nugget of gold found in the area, which was about 20oz. Several people had bullock teams carting wood from Waipori falls out to the dredges and the township. It took several hours to get to Lawrence, more in the winter.

There was a rest house at the lower crossing of the Waipori, about four or five miles downriver from the township. Miners travelling up from Dunedin could stop there before crossing the river and proceeding to Waipori or Gabriel’s Gully.
There was no doctor in the town, one had to come up from Lawrence. There were lots of accidents on the sluicing plains but it was a rare occurrence to send for the doctor. There was a scarlet fever epidemic in the winter of 1904. The snow was so deep it was six weeks before anyone could get through to Lawrence. His father had about 20 people with the disease at the hotel and they had to nurse them as best they could.
Rabbits were introduced when he was a boy. The first were some caged ones but not long afterwards they were released into an enclosure on a small hill. Very soon they had escaped and taken over the vicinity. The boys used to trap them and get money for the skins.
There were many native birds around in his youth, but most are gone by now. There were two tame tui in his garden. There is evidence that moa were plentiful in the area, he has seen bones in the swamps around Devil’s Creek. Waipori used to be covered by a huge forest which was destroyed by a fire, according to Māori legend. There are a few small forests left in deep gullies where the fire did not penetrate. His grandfather had a large collection of Māori artefacts and he met Māori shearers working in the area. This is where he heard the stories about the fires and moa.

[Actual recording date unknown]