only as a prospecting trip. From my long experience I knew exactly what was wanted on the goldfields, and the diggers were satisfied to pay my price for anything required. The Nelson Provincial Government, finding I was going to the Grey, gave me a contract to procure 40 tons of coal from the seam discovered by Brunner. On arrival at our destination we entered the river in fine style, and steamed up to the landing opposite to what is now known as Mawhera Quay. Here we landed the goods, which were, of course, left exposed on the beach, as all hands set off prospecting. Some Maoris I had brought with me set cheerfully to work, and with plenty of help I soon managed to erect a temporary store.” (The exact location of this building is the corner of Mawhera Quay and Waite Street, so named by John Rochfort when he surveyed Greymouth in 1865.) “In the meantime,” continues Waite, “the goods were going out as fast as I could possibly sell them, aye, before I could get them out of the vessel the diggers were jumping down the hold for them.
“At the Mawhera Pa there were only Maori women; the men were all at the diggings, and when they saw the steamer they did not know what to make of it; it was the first they had seen. As stated the Maori men had all gone to get gold, which made the white men all the more anxious to go, and before long I was left almost alone, everyone having gone to the
