Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a tough but still witty and amusing daredevil.

1918		Chronicle NZEF 7 June 204: Without a smoke, he was a hard thing [DNZE].
1938		R. Hyde Nor the Years Condemn 184: You get a divorce, Opal, eh? Fred’s a hard shot, but he wouldn’t stand in your way.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 156: I thought he looked a bit of a hard-shot.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 91: He’s a hard shot. Yeah, he’s a woopkacker all right.
1972		G.W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Aus. and N.Z. 107: A hard case is someone [...] who is a law unto himself. [...] There is a variant [...] in New Zealand, hard shot.
1976		J. McClenaghan Travelling Man 84: Hogan lay back on his bed-roaring with laughter. ‘You’re getting a bloody hard thing,’ he said at last [DNZE].
1988		McGill Dict. Kiwi Sl. 55/1: hard shot law unto self, fiercely independent [...] hard thing resolute, outspoken or abrupt loner; eg ‘Polt’s been up in that old whare for years, never spoken to a soul, except to buy his provisions, when he has to. Hard thing, that Polt.’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. a sexually available woman.

1959

G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 198: A hard thing she looks. A sure thing. Strutting her body about.