AN EARLY WHALER

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26296, 15 December 1950, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN EARLY WHALER

Call At Kaiapoi In 1831

Although not the first whaler on Banks Peninsula—Captain George Hempieman established a station at Peraki in 1837—Joseph Price was one of the earliest, and his name became well known, first as a whaler at Ikirangi, on the southern side of Banks Peninsula, and later as a successful farmer in Little River. Price was also one of the first white men known to have traded in Canterbury, as in 1831 he went up the Waimakariri river to Kaiapoi to trade with the Maoris. He arrived in Australia in the Roslyn Castle, a ship which took women convicts to Sydney, and early in 1831 he was engaged to go sperm whaling from Capiti (Rapiti Island), in Cook Strait. In his reminiscences, taken down in 1892, Price told of his visit to Kaiapoi in the barque Vittoria. ‘The trading master employed by Marshman, a ropemaker in Sydney, went overland from Port Cooper (Lyttelton) to Kaiapoi,” he said, “and under the pilotagd of a Maori we took the barque around to the same place. In this journey we lost our way, and had a difficulty to find the entrance to the river. We remained two nights in Kaiapoi, and were treated by the natives most hospitably. We got from the Maoris some pigs and flax in exchange for powder and muskets, blankets, tobacco, most of the rum on board being exhausted by the whites at Capiti. Most of the whites at Capiti were runaway convicts. The pigs and flax we got at Kaiapoi were sent to Raupaki, and were taken to the bay now known as Rhodes Bay, where we lay. “Having got our purchases, we sailed to Akaroa, where we laid at anchor while the trading master went to the pa to get some flax. In those days there were two white men at Akaroa, one being a convict who had his face tattooed, and the other, being a sailor, left with us for Sydney. We remained in Akaroa about a week. "We set sail for Otago with about tons of flax but no pigs, and after a voyage of about two days we landed in the first Maori settlement, having taken as passengers a Maori chief named Momo (the leading chief of Kaiapoi) and a native we called Jackey Lynx, and another. The two latter remained in Otago, and Momo returned with us to Akaroa or Port Cooper. In Otago we got some flax on the same terms as at Kaiapoi and elsewhere.” Oft Tauranga the barque went on the rocks, and the rudder and false keel were lost. However, she was floated off on the next tide, and repairs were made with tools borrowed from two other ships. “We sailed for Sydney with a cargo of about 80 tons of flax,” Price continued. “The pigs supplied by the natives were used as food before we left New Zealand, hence we now had only potatoes and manuka tea. We reached Sydney after a fortnight’s passage. The flax supplied by the natives was beautifully dressed, and worth in those days about £3O a ton.” In 1836 he returned to New Zealand as chief officer of the brig Harriet. “We fetched the gang who were to do the whaling along the New Zealand coast and landed them at their several whaling stations. These men were employed by Messrs Weller, merchants, of Sydney. Having landed and arranged the various groups of whalers we came to Port Cooper and remained there for the winter engaged in whaling.” After three seasons’ whaling, Price’s engagement with Weller Brothers concluded, and he decided to go whaling on his own. He landed at Ikirangi (which he described throughout as Ikaraki) in December, 1839. Describing his journey to Little River for timber for buildings, he skid: “At Waiwera, now Little River, I only found two Maoris, Tikiwina, Tukapani. and three children, namely ‘Lying Jack,’ ‘Humpey,’ and a girl. There was not a vestige of a European then visible ,or invisible. “Having procured the timber, etc., 1 returned to Ikaraki. I engaged two pair of sawyers in Little River to cut the necessary timber. As the timber was ready, we towed it down the river and Lake Forsaith (Forsyth) to the beach. ‘

"In the ship which fetched our provisions, named the Sara Elizabeth (actually the Sarah and Elizabeth). Messrs Harriet and McGillivery (Herriot and McGillivray) arrived from Sydney and landed at Orshaw (Ohokoa Bay). There was also a camp of surveyors who were supposed to be landed at Timaru, but instead landed at Orshaw. There was also on board Mrs Mary Mclnnon and child and Mr Mclnnon (McKinnon), Shaw, *Whistling Tom,’ etc., in all, four working men and two women, and also the two bosses. “The whole crowd were sent down from Sydney by Blackett and Dodge, millers in Sydney, with a view to take up land and start farming. They brought with them a dray and eight bullocks and with this conveyance started for the plains and took up their quarters at Riccarton. Once a fortnight some of this gang used to return to my camp for provisions, when they got 101 b of flour and 101 b of meat for each man. Flour at that time was £BO a ton in Sydney. This was in 1840 in the month of April.” Price had bad luck with his first two whaling seasons (the season lasted from May until October). In his first season he got 70 tons of oil, valued at £9BO, and three tons and a half of whalebone, which was worth £6O a ton. It was sent to Sydney to Wellers, but the company had filed in bankruptcy, and Price lost the whole amount of the cargo. He had paid his men in 1.0.U.’s on Wellers, but they were useless. > His second season was equally unsuccessful. “I started with four whaling boats and about 30 hands,” he stated. These were principally runaway sailors from American ships. We got this season about 100 tuns in oil and about four tons in whalebone. The oil was worth £l4 a tun and bone £5O. All this I sent to Jones, of Sydney. Jones sent his boats for the oil and this season lost two of his boats at Orshaw. where they went ashore and were wrecked. This cargo was sold as before mentioned at about £l6OO, but as Jones failed I also lost the entire amount, and in cqnsequence had to start again, having managed to get credit for some flour and meat from Wellington.” In his third season Price was successful. He got 90 tuns of oil and an unmentioned quantity of bone, all of which was sold in Wellington for £1460 in cash. On the proceeds Price, went to Sydney. . He continued whaling until 1852, when he began farming in what is now Price’s Valley, Little River, where he secured a run of some 2500 acres, which he continued to Avork until his death in 1901, at the age of 91.