Page:Charleston • Irwin Faris • (1941).pdf/102

system said to be unique. The owners of these tables were termed “Fly-catchers”; they certainly were “fly,” and they caught. In 1882 a visitor from America took details of the system and introduced it in his country. In this matter at least, Charleston led the world.

The creek was called Darkie’s because its source was about Darkie’s Terrace, the picturesque wooded height that formed the eastern background of Charleston, and beyond which rose the snow-clad Paparoa Mountains, about ten miles from the sea. The reason for the name of the terrace cannot be ascertained, but probably a coloured man first found gold there—perhaps Addison.

The upper portion of the Nile Farm was known as The Picnic Ground, and a more charming glade could hardly be imagined. Close by, the stream rippled over a shallow rapid, through a boulder-strewn bed. A small flat provided an arena for the athletic events that were always a feature of public picnics. From this flat was a sloping bank that served as a grandstand, and whereon spectators sat or reclined beneath canopies of the boughs of great trees that had seen centuries come and go. Beyond this grandstand-bank were booths, stalls, and plank-seats, erected in the forest shade. Access to the ground was by a road, or rather a track, from Darkie’s Terrace Road, and across Darkie’s Creek, by a crude unrailed log-bridge that most people of to-day would look at twice before venturing upon. These meetings were not annual events, but all Charleston and his wife attended them; age endeavoured to cast aside the mantle of years, and youth was youth, although, to quote an old-timer, “all that tittered was not bold.”

Possibly it was here that Niho and Takerei found the easiest ford across the Nile, and the most open path, when upon their great trek about 1833, travelling this gully and crossing the site of Darkie’s Terrace Road and the pakihi, on their way south.

Picnics were usually on St. Patrick’s Day, the festal day of the Coast, which day always ended with a grand ball at which youths, willy nilly, sported white gloves, and maidens strove to out-frill each other; yet, to again quote an old-timer,