remained and became its local governors, its pioneer cattle men, its coach drivers, among all those who helped to establish the West Coast, including the great Seddon himself, were men, big and adventurous, whose personalities and the incidents of whose lives are as worthy and as necessary of permanent recording as those described by Mr. Lord.
To those of us who claim Westland as our own land whether by birth or by adoption it is a matter of no little satisfaction to have this record of its romantic origin. The West Coast did certainly decline in the number of its people after the first mad rush of the miners had spent itself. Yet was there no decline in the character of its people. The miners were a vigorous and manly breed of men. Their code was simple—courage, generosity and honesty were the cardinal virtues. Bad men as well as good poured in with the human torrent, but the vicious were unsuited to the conditions and were the first to depart. So it came about that as the tide of population receded Westland was left with as fine a stock as the most discriminating colonisers could wish. The district gradually added to its attenuated mining the natural industries of timber milling and farming. The adventurous gold miners and their no less adventurous wives set about making permanent homes for themselves and their children. Dense forests were invaded and clearings became farms. As time went on, with timber getting
