THE LAST CRUISE OF THE GOVERNOR GREY

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LAST CRUISE OF THE GOVERNOR GREY

A Tale Of The Old Hauraki

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There was ft time vvlioii the Maoris, of the East Coast, and pnrticulnrlv the Hauraki tribes. were shipowners. The ehips were small, mostly cutters and small schooner-rigged craft, nn<l many half-decked; hut in the aggrefrnto they made a flotilla of respectable tonnage. The native population whs large along the coast., and the sen traffic was considerable, for there were no roads, except near the pakelm towns. The Hauraki Gulf

By .. . James Couian

A small, clear stream, just a narrow ribbon of glass, flow ed into the Imy; on the farther side of this little I >ro< >k were several acre's of Jfi'oinxl covered with tall flax, the tinest kind cultivated for garment. mca\ ing. and basket and mat making. Hehind the \illage and near the flax rows were the food cultivations, k umaras. potatoes, melons and pumpkins, with some small gardens of faro. .Most of the (hatched dwellings were shaded by jmwli and cherry - roves ; n n<l the rear a»aiii the c-,ist and south were forest-co\ ered hill.-; (lie kauri was, sfill plentiful there. but mostly to the east where W.iiheke spread away its greatest axis, the most, valuab|" part of the island, for the kauri spar cargoes were loaded there from Ngati-i'aoa's immemorial forests.

tribe section that hold the west end of Wnilioke. Tim chief and hi* hapu had lately |>aid a good £400 in cash to an Auckland builder for her. It represented a. whole year's communal effort and contribution to commerce ii: squared kauri spars and kauri gum and farm produce. She had a tinv cabin which Pokau and his immediate family connections occupied when on a. cruise, the rest of the crew — always far more than were needed to handle tiie ship—-blinked down in the hold witli the carjjo, whatever it wae. The Kawana Kerei was really a smart little vessel, in f«ct the fastest sailer. Maori or pakclia, iu the Ifauraki. She had some exclusively Maori features and articles of ship furniture, besides the double-barrel name—for "Kawana Kerei" you read painted on her starboard l>ow, and ■ "Governor Grey" on the other side. ! I'okau. of course had owner's or bouse flajf besides the historic Maori confederation flag of the North, the pattern chosen by the chiefs in the 'thirties. The house fla.g bore the designs of crescent moon and the seven stars of the Pleiades, the con - stellation that Maoris call Matariki; Xative artistry had decorated her. The names on the bow were picked out in the bright, glistening shell of the pavva; and for figurehead she had a Maori gargoyle, defiant of aspect, a huge and baleful tekoteko head, all carved and black-tattooed,

A cntnftM'f jiMp flint, must; linvo l>oen. you will say. 'Hint i« (1 m romfiirt.'ililu and and wellprovided Alii I in tin that. I saw when first wo cruised to Wailieke, lit do »II <• rod from tlio conditions aft described to mo I iv PokanVs son, tattoood like tlio old man lit) voars after tlio romantic incident liore record od. The Chief's Schooner. Off Matiatia l>oncli lav Poknn's schooner, tlio Kawana Koroi, otherwise Governor Groj', tlic pride of the

waters were alive with these little vessels mid with canoes under sail, and in every hay and estuary of importance along (lie const, from (lie many-islanded Tokerau down to Opotiki, and round the East Cape to Turanganui, now Gisihorne. This maritime life was at its height in the late 'fifties, when the Maori production of food was large along the inner shores of the Hauraki, and Auckland town wn« a consumer of everything the Xgati-Paoa and Ngati-Maru nnd the Orakei branch of the Ngati-whatua tribe brought in to the market. The Waikato war put an end to tlii« peaceful traffic, but before that many small "shipowners, finding that pakelia-built craft needed frequent repairs of hull and renewals of gear, went back to the old reliable canoe. Others, however, were true sailormen, and took delight in their little vessels. In the days of thflf story the Auckland shipwrights found the Maori a good customer for anything with a keel and two masts; schooner wn<g the favourite rig. Pokan the Sailorman. One of these schooner-owners was Pokau, head man of the Ngati-Paoa tribe. He lived in the most westerly bay of Waiheke Island, that snug half-moon of sheltered water called Matiatia, once favourite week-end n nchorage except when a strong west wind blew. l'okau's village of thatched whares stood on a terrace a little way afbove the curving beach of firm white eand.

with out-tlini.it red-painted tongue and staring eyes of pawa-shell. A description, over-long perhaps; but its purpose is to emphasise the value and iinjtortance of l'okau's schooner to his little tril»e. Pokau did not confine hie cruisea to marketing rnns up to Auckland towns. He traded anywhere and every whore, collecting cargo, kauri gum, firewood, a few bags of wheat here and there, any quantity of potatoes, kumara and" fruit, and not to be forgotten, those dozens, scores of squealing pigs, landed aboard by the hind legs. Pokau was captain, of course, by virtue of his chieftainship and the fact that, he iiad supplied most of the money for the purchase. He liked to feci that really and truly he was sailing his slii"p, and ha would seldom give the wheel over to any of his crew; at any rate he would not let anyone else s'eer her when he was entering or leaving the Waitemata. He had l>eeii in that historic raid of war-canoe crews on young Auckland town a few years previously, when he captained a splendid canoe of gun and tomahawk men. and in memory of it he wore on his now peaceful expedition a naval officer's frock-coat and gold-'braided cap—a present from one of the British man-of-war captains on the New Zealand station. (To be continued.)