The Oliver Lang

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Oliver Lang

In your correspondent’s note on this boat he mentions “that she was driven ashore where she lies.” This is not quite correct. She went ashore at Te Aro but was taken to Kaiwhare-Whara opposite the old toll gate. The small river is further along towards I’lti-one-(Petone). As a boy I have fished off this old boat. There was a fence from the toll gate to the ship, and that was the means of getting on board. On the last occasion of my boarding her, I stayed too long and the tide had gone out and she went over towards the sea. When I tried to drop down the side to get on the fence, I was some feet too high, and at last fell and hurt myself. I struggled ashore and lay there till I was able to walk home.—Mark Maxton (Greytown). Maori War Munitions Sir William Fox, writing about ISSO of the Maori wars, said that the Maoris had no big guns except three old carronades which they had got from wrecked ships, and which they only fired three or four times and abandoned at the evacuation of Merj Meri. Their small arms consisted of old tower muskets, many Hint and steel, contemporaries of George 111, single and double barrelled fowling pieces of poor quality, such as are made for colonial trade. Scattered amongst them were a very few rifles, not one in a thousand. xlt the close quarters at which the engagements in the Maori wars usually took place these weapons were actually more effective than the Enfield rifles of the troops as being more easily reloaded, and their double barrels gave two shots for one man. The natives had no cavalry. Governor Grey forbade the natives getting munitions of war, his successor, Governor Browne, released the restrictions, and within the following three years the natives purchased and stored up no less than £50.000 worth of arms and ammunition.—T.F. (Nelson) . Wellington’s Hills Mr. G. F. Angas, the artist, writes thus about the hills surrounding Wellington in 1845: —“The country for some miles round Port Nicholson is little else than a succession of steep, irregular’ hills, clothed with dense forests ; the nearest available land of any extent is the valley of the Hutt. By an enormous and almost incredible expenditure of labour and money, they (the colonists) have cut down the lofty trees and cleared patches here and there amongst the forest on the mountain sides to sow their wheat, but owing to the steepness of the bills the heavy rains wash down much of the seed sown, and the unfortunate settlers have not been able to raise sufficient for their own consumption. The view from the hills at the back of the town (Kelburn) is a scene of exceeding beauty. The harbour looks like a large blue lake embosomed deep in hills. The green and umbrageous forest displays foliage equal in magnificence to that of the tropics.”—J.S. (Wellington). Wreck of the Regina On these cold days when a mountain wind sweeps down on the town of New Plymouth there is often shelter and sunshine to be had at what is commonly known as the Esplanade. This stretch of seafront is Regina Place, and derives its name from the schooner Regina, which was wrecked on the rocks below nearly 100 years ago. The Regina was a tender ship to the Amelia Thompson, the second emigrant ship to leave England for the new settlement at New Plymouth. The schooner arrived on October 3, after a stormy passage, via Port Nicholson. Part only of her cargo had been landed when on the morning of November 5, 1841, she drifted on to the rocks and became a total wreck. Though the crew was rescued without difficulty, there was a considerable loss of valuable goods and machinery. Three of the iron seats off the wreck are in use to-day on the stretch of lawn opposite the Cenotaph, a few chains from where the Regina was lost. —G.EJtf. (New Plymouth). The First Telegraph Line As far back as July 14, 1865, there was not a single telegraph line in New Zealand. The South Island, in early days termed Middle Island, was honoured with the establishment of the first telegraph line, which was erected from Christchurch to Lyttelton. Shortly afterwards, other lines were run by the provincial governments of Otago, Canterbury and Dunedin. In the following year, 1866, the first Cook Strait cable was laid, and the first two wires between Dunedin and Christchurch were erected by the late Mr. J. K. Logan.—E.G. (Fielding). A French Relic In the Upper Thames Valley, between Te Aroha and Matamata, a settler on the banks of the Waihou (the river called Thames by Cook) unearthed, a few months ago, a brass plate from the tomb of Napoleon. How did it get there? No French have ever settled in the district. Can any student of the early French mission in New Zealand throw light on it?- At Matamata in the early days, a French missionary was stationed for a short time. He arrived by canoe from the mouth of the Thames to Waiharakeke, the port for the Piako, which swamp he had to cross to reach Matamata, the river being too difficult to navigate further on account of rapids. Perhaps his canoe capsized here, and he lost the contents. The only Frenchman known to have canoed so very far up this river was a sailing captain known as “Louis the Frenchman,” who traded with the Maoris and whom Tamihana the Kingmaker denounced for bringing cargoes of grog into the Matamata district. Bat need the brass plate have been the property of a Frenchman? Can any reader of these notes make any suggestion ?— “1.,” (Wellington).