THE BAY OF ISLANDS IN 1839

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12821, 16 August 1939, Page 8

THE BAY OF ISLANDS IN 1839

The old saying about giving a dog a bad name and banging it is proved true by the nearly universal attitude to early Kororareka. This village, the favourite port of call of the whaling fleet in Southern Pacific waters, is usually represented as a sink of iniquity unredeemed by any compensating virtue. One observer in 1839, Dr Martin, afterwards a member of Governor Hobson's Legislative Council, did not wholly endorse the legend of this depravity. Though Kokorareka had grown prosperous largely through the efforts of one man, a freed convict named Turner, the settlers of convict origin had already begun to leave the Bay for the South Seas under the influence of its increasing respectability. Another symptom of this was the formation in 1838 of a • voluntary body to keep order in the settlement, the Kororareka Association. This functioned fairly well; at least, it several times felt it necessary to tar and feather wrong-doers. The impartiality of its justice cannot at all times have been perfect, as one of the victims of this punishment was a trader who had come from Sydney to collect a debt from a prominent member.