FIRST PENCARROW LIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 18137, 29 November 1922, Page 5

FIRST PENCARROW LIGHT

FROM A COTTAGE WINDOW. Mr Samuel Hart, lightliouse-leeper at Pencarrow Head, is somewhat of a student of lighthouse history. He recently received a copy of the Wellington Harbor Board’s year book, and in writing to Mr Barnett, assistant secretary of the board, ha_ recalls an interesting bit of history concerning the original lighthouse at Pencarrow. “Referring to the paragraph about ‘Beacons,’ on page 73,” he wrote, “I have heal’d that a light was exhibited from the window of a house occupied by Captain Deck, and after his death his widow continued the light. Certain it is she received a pension from the Marine Department for many years. It would have made the history of the harbor beacons more complete if Mr Ekdon Best had included this light, if it existed, in Iris narrative. “ His map of Wellington Harbor and its surroundings appears to have a pa marked at .Pencarrow. There are traces of what are apparently sites of whares a few chains from the tower, and near the lake are a large number of stones, which were formerly used for Maori ovens. There are plenty of cels in the lake, crayfish, and pawas among the rocks, fish in the sea, and sand for his kumera plot. There is a ngaio (tree) still standing about midway between here and Bona Bay, upon which, as late as twentytwo years ago, I used to see Maoris from the Ilutt hang their pawas to dry. Once dry, they would keep for months for use as required. Speaking of pawas, they can bo seen in thousands not far from the boat channel where the two beacons are.” Mr Hart's note about the evidences of Maori habitation at Pencarrow is very interesting. It may not have been an established Native village, but in _ the old days the easiest access from Wellington to the Wairarapa by land was round Pencarrow and Orongorongo into Pallker Bay, and tho chances aro that this route was favored by the Natives, as well as tho first white settlers in tho Wairarapa. That being so, Pencarrow, which is a much more pleasant place than it looks from the sea, would probably have served as a wayside stoppingplace—a stage-end on the journey to and fro.