The death at Cromwell on Saturday afternoon Mr Davies Davies, in his 84th year, further reduces the rapidly thinning ranks of the sturdy pioneers and early settlers of the Dominion. The deceased was born at Christow in 1857, and sailed from Plymouth on August 4, 1856, in the ship Lord Hungerford, landing at Adelaide in November of the same year. In September, 1861, he sailed from Melbourne for New Zealand, and went to Waitahuna, where he remained some seven weeks and next took part in the famous Gabriel’s Gully rush. In March, 1862, he returned to Australia, and proceeded to the Dockland rush in New South Wales, but on hearing in November of the Hartley rush on the Molyneaux River, he again set sail for Port Chalmers, and landed in January, 1863. He proceeded to Cardrona, and then to Coal Creek, where he obtained the first right to water in that district for mining purposes. From Coal Creek he journeyed to the West Coast in 1865, then to Hamilton, and later to Mount Buster, near Naseby. His next scene of activity was Switzers where he and his party brought in a big water race, and almost “went broke” in the undertaking. Later they constructed an even bigger race at Waikaka, and from there Mr Davies went to Dunedin and worked on the Chain Hill tunnel. He took up his residence at Kawarau Gorge in 1874, and was married the same year. Here he remained until 1880, when he bought the Halfway House Hotel, and conducted that until 1889, when he disposed of the property and took up his residence in Cromwell, where he remained ever since. -Otago Witness, 27/7/1920.
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