CENTENNIAL MEMORIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 78, 23 October 1939, Page 2

CENTENNIAL MEMORIES

HOKIANGA BEFORE 1840 The Bay of Islands is • so known as a resort of whaling and oilier ships in the roaring days before the establishment of British rule in New Zealand in 1840 that the economically important settlement of the banks of the Hokianga River is sometimes overlooked. This settlement was certainly but every few miles there was /a flourishing group of white sawyers, living under the protection of :a Maori chief and exporting the magnificent timber to which the deep river gave them access. Unlike the Kororareka settlers, who lived ehiefly on European ships, they maintained themselves by hard and regular work. Characters like Lieutenant McDonnell, who ber for the British Admiral his home at Te Horeke, and F. Maning, well known in later years " as the author of "Old Uew Zealand" stand out among the white settlers. It was on the Hokianga River that Baron de Thierry had hoped to found his little kingdom. The Maori population under those two worthy chiefs, Patuone and Waaka Nene, was far less spoiled than that of the Bay of Islands by Eiiropean contacts, because the dilficult bar at the mouth of the river made it unsuitable as a port of call simply for refreshment. A pilot, Bob Martin, lived near the Heads. He had published a set of warning flags which he would fly to show shipping whether or not the bar was in a fit state to , take. \jL r '

Southern Whalers

In 1843 when Edward Shortland visited Wailcouaiti on official business; he found that whaling settlement in flourishing condition. It had been bought in 1838 by that celebrated self-made man, Johnny Jones, who had begun life as a hand in the South Island Sf:ali]?g trade and had worked himself up to a position of such importance that he could enjoy the luxury of going bankrupt. He failed in nis considerable Sydney venture, and thereafter concentrated on his New Zealand whaling station. But lie was still ahle to live in.

some st3 r le-—"on my arrival at tins, the then 'ultima thule' of the colony, mv ears were astonished at the sounds of a piano, and my eyes at the Mack "cutaway' and ridi-ig-whiu of a young gentleman, lately o£ Emmanuel College, Cantab., but now acting tutor to Mr J —'s son and heir." Shortland did not think many of the employees at Waikouaiti would rise in the world. The}'' were mostlycontent to receive the payment for their dangerous work in rum and over-valued goods. But one man, Stephen Smith, had saving habits. He had a fenced garden of two or three acres, and possessed seven cattle, as well as a Maori wife. He was an example of the new spirit of colonisation.

Rough Life.

In contrast to Smith's habits of industry was the hand-to-mouth but contented life of a solitary whaler, " living at Purakanui, whom Shortland called upon. "This man welcomed me with the hospitality of his class, although he possessed little but the mud and sticks of his hut, an old musket, and the clothes which covered him. He set himself ,to work to shoot some pigeons for my dinner; but as he used small » stones for shot, I was obliged to be * very careful in eating, to avoid break ing my teeth. My bed was made from the slender branches of 'manuka' which are both soft and fragrant. I never had a better." morning Shortland was awakenflPray a deafening chorus of bell birds.