OLD NEW ZEALAND

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 109, 4 November 1925, Page 5

OLD NEW ZEALAND

FOUNDING OF AKAROA

THE STORY OF FRENCH HOPES

PAPER BY MR. J. C. ANDERSEN.

A most interesting account of the founding and progress of the first settlements on • Banks Peninsula, Canterbury, was given members of the Early Settlers' and Historical Association at their last meeting by Mr. J. C. Andersen, of the Turnbull Library. His address was particularly interesting in its section dealing with the alleged race from the Bay of Islands to Akaroa between the French and the British for the prize of the South Island. Mr. Andersen maintained that a study of both French and British records proved that there was no actual race for that prize, as the French knew, before starting from' the Bay of Islands, that the British had .already taken possession at Akaroa.

Banks Peninsula, said Mr. Andersen, was first sighted by Captain Cook in February, 1770, but owing to the hazy weather and the distance kept from the shore it was taken ior an island, and Cook named it Banks Island, after Joseph (later Sir Joseph) Batiks, who wag with the expedition at his" own cost. It was not discovered to be a peninsula until 1809. Cook's report of his discoveries in New Zealand had sent whalers and sealers a,nd other adventurers to its shores, and one of these, Captain Chase, of the ship Pegasus, while sailing from the north, attempted the supposed passage between Banks Island and the mainland. It was evening when he approached, and fortunately he was able to see that no passage existed, so he was 'save,d from shipwreck. He named it Cook's Mistake; but that name was not adopted, the bay in which he found himself being instead called -Pegasus Bay, after the ship in which the discovery^ of Cook's mistake was made.

In 1829, Ports Cooper and Levy, at the southern end of Pegasus Bay, were named by Captain Wiseman after the principals of the firm for whom he was trading on ihe New Zealand shows. Whilst the two bays named by him were common resorts of whalers, no permanent . settlement wa3 made on any part of the peninsula until 1836, when Hempleman established a shore whaling station at Peraki, on the south-west side of the peninsula. Port Cooper had been used as a trying-out station, and Port Levy was afterwards a . whalers rendezvous in the off season. Up till 1836 the whalers and traders frequenting these parts were principally British and American. In that year, however, a French whaler entered Cloudy Bay, and it was no doubt the favourable reports taken by her to France that were responsible for a fleet setting out from Havre de Grace in 1837, arriving in New Zealand waters early in 1838. It was while the Cachalot was whaling in Port Cooper, afterwards Port Lyttelton, that her commander, Captain Langlois, madei a provisional purchase of part or the whole of Banks Peninsula from the Matitf. occupants'; :.'"■. • : !^1

BRITISH GOVERNMENT MOVES

, Mr. E. G.'Wakefield, through' many channels, was urging the British Gov-' ornment to. take the islands of New Zealand under its sovereignty no that British colonists might settle on its rich lands. The Government was loth, however, but was forced into action when it found that colonists were actually being ] sent, and Lieutenant Hobson was at last dispatched to become the representative of the Crown-in any territory that might be acquired by: the British in New Zealand. Wakefield had pointed out that the French newspapers were full of proposals for the settling of the no-man's-land, New. Zealand, and it -was as much, perhaps, to forestall the French as to help the_ colonists that the Government took action. In France, the Nanto Bordelaise Company was formed; and on. 9th March, 1840., the Comte de Paris, under the escort of the Aube, left Bochefort for settling the lands purchased by Langlois. The Comte de Paris was a slow sailer, and was six months on the way. Action was taken by the British about three months before the Comte de Pans with her sixty-three settlers left France, and Lieutenant Hobson arrived at Sydney in January, 1840, where on the 14th Sir George . Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, issued proclamations, firstly extending the boundaries of, New. South Wales to include any lands'that "might be acquired by the British Crown in New Zealand, secondly appointing Hobson Lieutenant-Governor of any such lands, thirdly making illegal all future private purchases of land from the Maori.

FRENCH STILL IN MID-OCEAN

Hobson arrived at ihe Bay of Islands on 29th January, 1840, and immediately; set about the negotiations which result.cd in the signing of the Treaty of Waitatigi, in which the Maori, under certain conditions, ceded the sovereignty of the islands to the' British Crown. The treaty, or'copies of it, were signed by the influential chiefs in various parts of New Zealand, and Captain Bunbury was sent to obtain signatures in the South Island, and to take possession of that island by virtue of the treaty when such signatures were obtained. Such possession was taken by him on 17th June, at a time when the French emigrants were still in mid-ocean, having been three months out. , This tput the French in an awkward position j for not only would they be unable, on arriving, to settle the emigrants in a French colony, but they would not even be able to settle them on a French purchase, seeing that Langlois had not completed the purchase in 1838, intending to complete it when the **ttlers were brought out frpm France.; l'«w company was, however, allowed by the British Government to secure a title to 30,000 acres; but in October, 1849, it disposed of its rights in that area to the New Zealand Company, and on that company surrendering its rights to the Crown in July, 1850, the area became Crown lands, all substantiated purchases either from the French or from the New Zealand Company being, of course, recognised. The

NO RACE

The Aube and the Comte de Paris called at Sydney before making New Zealand, and while there the Commandant, Lavaud, would naturally hear of what had taken place in New Zealand -while he was at sea. Instead of going direct to his intended destination, Akaroa, he went to the Bay of Islands, and there arrangements were entered into with Hobsdn, which gave rise to incidents that have been very differently interpreted. Suffice it to say Captain Stanley,s of the Britomart. was sent down to Akavoa to hold Cotiffs at any places where Bvitieh subjects might bo iv residence, tho net of taking possession being thus followed up by an act of occupation. He was told explicitly that possession had al-

ready been taken, and he need do nothing further in that respect. * The Britomart sailed on 22nd July in broad daylight, eleven days after the Aube had arrived, and the Aube did not follow for several daya. The Britomart, however, met stormy 'weather, and did not reach Akaroa until 10th August, the Aube arriving on the 15th, the Comte de Paris on the 17th.

The French knew before they landed, therefore, that they had come to a British colony, and they were given -the option either of remaining there, or of being taken to any French possession in the Pacific. They, however, had had enough of the sea during their six months' voyage, and elected to remain at Akaroa. These details have been gathered from French official papers as well as English.

FIRST REAL SETTLEMENTS

Foreseeing that the peninsula and the plains adjoining must-one day soon, be Bottled by more than whalers, W. B. Rhodes, in 1839, landed cattle at Red House Bay, near Akaroa, leaving a man, Green, after whom Green's Point, above Red House Bay, was named, in charge of the animals, which were allowed to roam and multiply on the hills. In 1843 the Deans, Hay, and Sinclair families left Wellington, dissatisfied with the unsatisfactory state of the land titles there, and settled at Riccarton and in Pigeon Bay. They started dairying, and Hay cat a track through the dense bush from Pigeon Bay to Akaroa, walking once a week from Pigeon Bay to Akaroa with a load of thirty pounds of butter on his back, and home again with stores. In April, 1850, forty-one emigrants from the Monarch, putting in to Akaroa to repair damages sustained in stormy weather, decided to remain there rather than go on to their destination, Auckland. They were persuaded to do this too, not only on account of their seaweariness, but also on account of the beauty of the place with its deep valleys and hills bush-covered 1 almost to the water's edge, and the report of the proposed settlement to take place on the Canterbury Plains near by. The Canterbury settlers arrived in Lyfctelton in December of the same year 2 1850. It may be noted thai the weeping willows of the Avon, in Christchurch, were slips obtained from the willows of Akaroa ; and these in their turn were obtained from Napoleon's grave at St. Helena. It might also be noted that the watercress which was such a pest in the Avon in later years, was derived from a few. sprigs that J. Deans obtained from Akaroa and planted in his tributary of the Avon at Eiccarton.

EARLY INDUSTRIES

The chief yearly industry .of Akaroa was milling, and whilst the timber of which the first public buildings in Christchurch were built was obtained from Hobart the greater part of wooden Christchurch was built of timber from the peninsula. From Akaroa, alone, 600,000 feet of sawn timber were sent to Lyttelton in 1857. The first sawmill erected on the peninsula and in Canterbury is said to be the one huilt by the Pavitts, of the Monarch, in.Robinson's Bay, just north of Akaroa, and here, when the mill was rebuilt in. 1865, the output exceeded a million feet annually. There was also a considerable amount of shipbuilding in the various bays, the first vessel launched at Akarpa" being, according to report, the appropriately-named Alpha, built by M. Eteveneaux, and launched on 16th January, 1858, though it is also claimed that three years earlier the Thetis was launched by the PavitTs in Robinson's Bay. The growing of. cocksfoot, for which the Peninsula has been so" famous .^ was started about 1852, and an idea of the value of the crop may, be formed when it is said that a crop in 1886 was estimated at £40.00 p. The growing of cocksfoot and dairying have for many years, since the timber was cut out, been the two main industries of the Peninsula.

WVilst the harbour of Akaroa is one of, the finest in New Zealand, it is of little use as a shipping port. since it is completely cut off by hills from the plains, and it cannot -with profit bo connected in the way Lyttelton was connected with Christchurch. ■ It is easy of approach by motor-car, however, and is ono of the glorious holiday resorts of New Zealand, for which it is eminently suited through its congenial climate and the beauty of its. surroundings. Because of its selusion,. too, it has always been a favourite honeymoon resort.