Lehan and O’Brien had another, but the sites are unknown. An advertisement in June, 1868, notified that Samuel Somerville had established a market garden “on Darkie’s Terrace Road, between the hospital and the slaughterhouse.”
On a portion of the Nile Farm there was established in 1912, a butter factory, but it was short-lived, having been closed about 1915.
Warne’s Farm was on rural sections (not town sections) Nos. 8 (24 acres) and 11 (20 acres) of Square 137, which were Crown Grants made to him on 12th July, 1878, but he had occupied them before that date. The present owners are Elizabeth and Euphemia Warne, executrices for John Warne.
Under what rights the various rural sections were held before being given title by Crown Grants, cannot be stated; but probably as Agricultural Leases granted by the Warden. Mr. Broad records having granted a number in 1869. The Nile Farm was noted for its flower-beds, which attracted many visitors. Poole imported many kinds of plants, and made a hobby of their cultivation, taking pride in having the only flower-garden in the district. He also had the distinction of growing the first blackberry bush in those parts, a plant that is now the pest of the whole Coast.
Other occupiers of land on the south side of the river were William Dickson, Section No. 3, Enright, Section No. 30, and McKittrick, Section No. 27 (part).
About the Nile banks were numerous beauty spots beloved of many in the old days, and to which the thoughts of such must revert when memory’s lamp is lit during quiet hours.
On the south side of the river, near to the end of the bridge, stood the Nile Hotel, and a quarter of a mile further up was Darkie’s Creek which emptied its turbid waters into the river, carrying in a few years thousands of tons of tailings from the batteries on the Back Lead, and from sluices on the flats, resulting in the silting-up of the basin.
In Darkie’s Creek were set at short intervals catchment tables to collect the gold from the waste of the various workings that used it as a sludge channel; those holding the right to do this, thus harvested where they had not sown, a
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