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So I very naturally agreed with him as there was no
ships, and I had money enough that I got from my old
apprentice mate to take me out on the coach, as there was
no railways in the Otago district in those days, so I got
out and made a start falling trees, sawing them in
lenths (sic) then bore a hole with a big auger about a foot into
the log then put in a certain quantity of blasting power and
a bit of fuse then set fire to the fuse and stand aside for
after the explosion that log was laying in two halfs as those
black pine trees was lovely splitting timber then we would
do the rest of the splitting with our maul and wedges. So things
went on all right for two or three moths. So the boss and me
came into Duenedin for a trip and brought in a load of
firewood for one of his friends with his horse and waggon (sic)
so when we was ready to go out again I thought I would
take out my chest and all my belongings as they were
left in the boarding house that I lived in at first. So
when he was ready we took my check and things and he
had a few things also to take out with him so we went
very early in the morning and got out early that evening
as they had good roads in Otago, if they had no railways.
Anyhow we got everything nicely arranged in this hut
and just thought that my chest would be a fine place
for keeping that bag of blasting powder in. So things went
on the same as before for a week or two when one day
we came down from the Gov'nt bush and found our
hut gone. We supposed that we had left a little fire in
hut after breakfast and the wild fowl had got in and
got scratching about and set fire to the hit then when
it came to my chest of course the blasting powder caught
and blew the hut to pieces and did not leave us one stitch
so we had a look round to or three yards from where the
hut once stood and I picked up one pocket book just a little
singled. I was fortunate in picking that book as I had a
a few photos in it from home. So I just decided to leave
and get into Dunedin by coach so when I arrived I made