AN EXCITING CAREER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 341, 30 October 1908, Page 8

AN EXCITING CAREER.

WILD DAYS IN NEW.ZEALAND. A contributor who signs himself "F.A." gives to tho Kaikoura "Star" an interesting account of tho exciting career of John Morrell, an old- whaler, who died.on September 31, of over 90 years of age, and after living over 70. years in New Zealand. We make tho following extracts: — Saved from Massacre. A Frenchman by birth; Morrell shipped on board a whaler which left Bordeaux in '1838, bound for this country. The Macquarie Islands wero first sighted, but an attempt to land was frustrated by a storm which blew them off shore, and tho ship made for Dunedin. On landing, they learned of the massacre of a ship's, crew at the Macquario Islands a few days previously, so that Morrell and his companions escaped a similar fate. There were very few pakehas when they landed, but the Natives were numerous, and it ,was interesting to hear him tell of tho abundance of food then procurable. Dried fish, heaped up and thatched with raupo like haystacks, wero seen everywhere, and pigeons (tho native kereru) had not to be shot to bo obtained; one could kill dozens with a stick on the tree limbs. Morrell left the whaler in Dunedin, and went north in a corvette which was taking Bishop Pompallier to Gisborne. Subsequently ho joined the whalers in Hawke's Bay, and there spent the greater 'part of his life. Ho knew,, intimately, many of the Maori chiefs who were engaged in the war, and was an eye-witness to many thrilling incidents during it. To Kooti was intimately known to tne depeased, and many acts of firowess and cunning were committed in the atter's presence. Carroll, the father of present Native Minister, pulled an oar in Morrell's whaleboat, and Jaka ; the great chief of the Wairoa, was on friendly terms with him. Native Atrocities. An incident in the life of the latter, witnessed by Morrell, • may •be interesting as showing the absolute power of chiefs in those Jays. A captain trading to Hawke's Bay was insulted by a Maori, and this, was reported to'Jaka. who ordered the Native to be brought to him. Jaka killed the insulter; took out his heart, 1 and offered it to the captain, telling him to eat it. • Their way to atone for the insult. As another illustration of revenge for injury the following may be instructive:—A notorious chief, who spared no one against whom ho had a grudge, whether a member of his own or any other tribe, but murdered wholesale, was caught by relatives of somo of'his victims, tied" to a tree head downwards, and worried to death by the infuriated men and women, as wolves devour a tire.d reindeer. Pages could be filled with similar experiences, related by tho deceased to the writer; also scenes of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, • terrible accidents that occurred while whaling, and dangers he escaped. One | more, however, n>'ust suffice. •A-young offiI cer, belonging to' a gunboat, who landed to obtain water, was ■ surrounded and caught. I Tho Maoris lashed him to the gate post of a pah, and pierced him through and through with rifle ram-rods mado red hot. His screams could be heard for miles around. A Fearless Whaler. • It is doubtful if New Zealand ever boasted of a more expert, fearless, and successful whaler than Morrell. - He has had boats smashed to splinters by .enraged cow .whales, witnessed the horrible'deaths of men crushed by them' in their death throes, while others ,were drowned by the capsizing of whaleboats. His account of the doings of the men who were engaged at the Wairoa half a. century ago beggars description; thieves, murderers, forgers, bushrangers, and desperadoes of every kind formed the then population. A man bo kindly) gentle, honourable, and upright in all his actions—for amid the scenes of bloodshed, robbery, and crime enacted by the lawless fiends who formed the populace of Hawke's Bay at that time—Morrell s life and character shone as a good deed in an evil world. He married a chief's daughter 64. years ago, and leaves issue to the 'fourth generation. '' • • -