Early Otago whalers

Press, 1 May 1982, Page 16

Early Otago whalers

Whaling in Southern Waters. By Frank Tod. Published by the author, 4 Cosey Dell Road, North Dunedin. 158 pp. $l5. The premise of this work of local history is that New Zealand's whaling years deserve to be treated in their own right, not dismissed in a page or two at the beginning of general histories as a colourful, but insignificant episode before the real story of settlement begins. The book does not fail to exploit interest in the whalers as colourful characters who engaged in stirring adventures, but it also indicates the place that whaling had in the development of early New Zealand, and shows the transition from whaling station to settlement is an important chapter in New Zealand's history, even if the early shore stations are now neither deserted bays or sleepy small towns. Geographically, the book concentrates on the shore whaling stations of what is now Otago — Otakou, Moeraki, Waikouaiti, Purakanui, Moturata. Tautuku — but also reaches north to Timaru and Banks Peninsula (where the Weller

Brothers who founded Otakou also had interests) and glances south to the coasts of Southland and Foveaux Strait. The book’s period is 1831 to 1848, ending with the arrival of the Otago settlers. The book has faults. Its great wealth of information — some relegated to appendices — could have been better digested. As a literary work it does not compare at all favourably with its predecessor, McNab's “Old Whaling Days,” although it includes material from sources not available to McNab. The connection between pictures and text is somewhat tenuous and more rigorous selection of more appropriate pictures would have been advisable. The maps, as in so many other works of similar standard, are inadequate. With all these faults, it is still a book which fills important gaps and vague spots in early South Island history. It is a pity, perhaps, that a professional publisher could not have been persuaded to knock the book into better final shape to do justice to the author’s wide-ranging and accurate research, and his obvious enthusiasm for the subjects. — John Wilson.