At this time there was a miner by the name of James Champion living in Smith's Gully. It may be that Samuel Champion, also a miner, lived or worked with James.

Mr & Mrs Smith had lived in Tinkers (Matakanui) and Mrs Smith had run a hotel there. From here they moved to Cardrona where Mrs Smith also had a hotel.

After Cardrona, the Smiths moved to Bannockburn where they may have arrived in 1866. Unfortunately Mr Smith died not long after the couple arrived. No details of his death are known at this time. Around 1866 Mrs Smith may have run a sly-grog shanty in Shepherds Creek (see location #223)

On 29 Aug 19870, Mrs Mary Smith, widow, married Mr Samuel Champion, miner, in the Cromwell dwelling house of the officiating minister the Rev. Benjamin Drake. The witnesses were Mr Alfred Perry, Bannockburn miner and his wife Catherine. Catherine Perry was the eldest daughter of Mrs Smith. (The author has not been able to find and details of Mr Perry, where he lived or mined in Bannockburn.)

In 1871, Mrs Smith applied for a hotel licence at Quartzville, but was turned down. At this time the Carrick Range Hotel was run by Charles Peake.

First entry in Stones directory for the Miners Arms Hotel - S Champion. The hotel may have opened in 1872. The Miners Arms was situated on the Bannockburn-Nevis Road, west side, just before Poverty Gully. No information about the hotel has survived.

In June of 1876, Mrs Smith's son-in-law Alfred Perry died at the age of 42 years. He was buried in the Cromwell cemetery on June 10. Mrs Catherine Perry had two daughters, Alice and Jane. Mrs Smith/Champion looked after hr daughter and her children for some time - possibly at the Miners Arms Hotel.

Mrs Perry (Catherine) eventually remarried. She married Mr William Dickey, a miner, and continued to live in Bannockburn. (see location #97)

This was the last year that the Miners Arms Hotel was listed in Stones directory.

The Miners Arms Hotel was advertised for sale. No details of any sale or further history is available at this time.

No further information is available for Samuel Champion.

Mrs Mary Smith (Champion) died in Invercargill in 1898.

It is believed that Catherine Smith was the oldest child, although that is not confirmed. She married Alfred Perry, a miner of Bannockburn, and after his death remarried to William Dickey, also a miner of Bannockburn. She was born in Oaklands, Launceston, Tasmania. She died 25 May 1930, 81 Hills Rd, Northcote, Christchurch. No information has been found about David Smith except for the fact that he was a champion boxer. Mary Anne Smith went to Miss Browlaw's Catholic School in Cromwell. "Mrs J Lynn (Mary Smith) took Stuarts Ferry (1867), then walked to school in Cromwell" (memory of Ruth Lynn, daughter of Mary Smith) Thomas Smith woeked as a coach driver.