100 YEARS AGO

Evening Star, Issue 17313, 29 March 1920, Page 2

100 YEARS AGO

EXCITING DAYS IN NEW ZEALAND. AN OLD SEA CAPTAIN. Mr Alfred Henry. Brind, of Petone, Wellington, has contributed to the ' New Zealand Times' a most graphic and interesting series of episodes in the life of his father, Captain Brind, an old sailor of Nelson's days, who afterwards made many adventurous voyages from Great Britain to New Zealand in the twenties. IN TRAFALGAR BAY. * "It has been stated," said Mr Brind, " that my father, Captain Brind, took part in the most famous of Nelson's engagements, the Battle of Trafalgar, but, of course, I have not yet found out from the I official records if that was a fact. It is more than possible, as my father was in 1805 an able 6eaman on H.M.S. Enterprise, and the Battle of Trafalgar took place in 1805." Having secured his master's certificate, Captain Brind traded in and out of the Bay of 'lslands in 1820 in the ship Cumberland, owned by Messrs Green. Wigram, and Green, large shipowners of Blackball, London, where the Great Eastern was built. The firm at that time owned a large whaling fleet. Ho had a great influence (mana) with the Maoris, very much to the consternation of the missionaries. MARRIED A WARRIOR'S DAUGHTER. Ultimately he married a Maori chieftainess, whose father was the greatest Native warrior at that time. "The offspring of this marrige was a little girl, and she was shortly afterwards murdered at the Bay of Islands by another chieftainess as an act of vengeance. In connection with the above I have been informed by Mrs Phillips, mother of Mr Phillips, at one time interpreter at the Legislative Council, that being the only living son and heir, 1 am entitled to large tracts of Native land in the vicinity of Russell. I have also many times been told that according to the" traditions of the Maoris I should claim the land. "My father's wife, as a result of srisf caused by the murder of her child, died just before 1840. Captain Brind was then on a trading voyage,'and it was not until his return that he was informed of the happening. He again set off, and, arriving back in England, -•married Eliza Ann Snowswell, of Gravesend. Captain Brind brought his second wife out to the Bay of Islands, making that spot his home, bringing out his house in sections and erecting it at Matawai Bay, near Russell. HONE HERE'S WAR. "In 1843, while my father was away at sea, Hone Heke's force commenced a "war against the whites. The whole of the inhabitants of Kororaka (Russell), including my mother, were burnt out and lost their all. They were taken into the stockade, and afterwards conveyed bv His Majesty's ship Hazard to Auckland. I was the only child to accompany the whites to Auckland. "After the rising had been quelled bv the English the inhabitants were brought back, and my mother (along with others) was compelled to live in a Maori whare When I was two years -old mv father returned and found us penniless and homeless. "From then until 1850 another three children were born, a son and two daughters, and in the latter part of 1850 my lather died, and was buried in tho *same grave as the child of his first wife just alongside the old Anglican Church in Russell." Mr Brind is himself well over the allotted span, being 77 on March 8.