Waterways of Early Otago

Evening Star, Issue 23503, 17 February 1940, Page 20 (Supplement)

Waterways of Early Otago

Inspiring Story of Pioneer Undertakings

By D. A. Young

It is a far cry to 1771 when Benjamin Franklin, the American scientist and statesman, then in England contesting the claims of Parliament to tax the colonies, propounded a scheme to settle New Zealand, so recently proclaimed a British possession by Captain Cook. The project proved abortive, as England was too busy with her existing colonial problems to undertake further responsibilities, but within very few years our waters were visited by traders, whalers, and sealers representing many nations. In I 792 Captain Raven of the Britannia, landed a sealing party at Dusky Sound, where, three years later, Captain Bampton abandoned the sinking Endeavour, some timbers of which remain to-day as a memorial of that event, and to remind us that there, in 1796, was built, and launched, our first sea-going vessel, the schooner-rigged Providence.

The story of the early whaling stations and trading settlements on the coasts of Otago and Southland has been told too often to require repealing, but the names? of Peter Williams, John Jones, Edward Palmer and his brother William, Tommy Chasland, Howell, and other old timers should never be forgotten, as

PROVINCIAL ENTERPRISE

We cannot study the records, literature, and history of New Zealand without being impressed by the unbounded enthusiasm and far-sightedness of the pioneers who established our Dominion on such a sound basis. The further we delve into the history of the Province of Otago, the greater are we seized with a feeling of admiration for the efforts made to establish a free and democrative nation here, and the mc*e we appreciate the need for a broader understanding and appreciation of provincial enterprise, vyhich sought expression in every direction, including the development of Otago’s waterways and the establishment of our shipping industry.

The organised expansion which began with the formation of the Provincial Government was justi fied and accelerated by the gold discoveries of I 861 that produced the revenue essential to open up the interior and to enable the building of roads, bridges, and railways. It was necessary ft obtain comprehensive surveys am

through them the scattered harbours and river-mouths they frequented became known, a factor which materially assisted in the promotion and success of the Otago settlement. From the information gained at these settlements, from the Maoris and from the few daring spirits who had ventured inland, and from the reports of Captains Herd, MeinSmith, and other navigators, the general character of Otago was known as a land of rugged mountains, swift rivers, lakes, plains, and swamps, with few natural harbours. The preliminary surveys undertaken by Tuckett and his assistants in the Deborah expedition of 1 844 were continued by Mr Kettle and his staff. The new province attracted many European travellers, explorers, geologists, and scientists of note, but historical novelists have neglected this romantic field, although it should prove a fertile one to cultivate.

data of the province, its natural features and resources, and of the mass of reports and statistics furnished to the Provincial Government by its officers, few provide such exciting and interesting reading as those of John Turnbull Thomson, the pioneer chief surveyor, and his able assistants. Their life was full of adventure, and to-day we envy them their' wonderful, though arduous, experiences in the then unknown interior. It is not generally known that in their reports of reconnaissance surveys undertaken early in 1857, both J, T. Thomson and Alexander Garvie referred to the finding of traces of gold, and it is of particular interest to know that four years before the sensational discoveries by Black Peter and T. Gabriel Reid, gold was taken from the Clutha and Tuapeka Rivers by Mr Buchanan, a member of Mr Garvie’s party, in sufficient quantities to indicate that it would be payable if properly worked by washing and sluicing. Mr Thomson reported the existence of coal and other minerals, and in March, 1857, he described a Native track between Milford Haven and one of the heads of the Waiau River, which river was descended thence by the Maoris in “ moggies," or flax rafts, indicating a practicable pass to the West Coast.

At this period, before the advent of coach and railway services, a journey of any distance overland was necessarily slow, hazardous, and fraught with many difficulties and problems in transporting supplies across hills, vers, and streams, so naturally the waterways became most imortant channels of communication. In 1854 the Ferries Ordinance authorised ferries to be established at convenient places on the rivers, creeks, and lakes within the province, the first of which was the Lower Taieri Ferry. The principal places then visited by shipping, apart from he Otago Harbour, were Waicouaiti, Moeraki, Oamaru, Motuata Island at the mouth of the Taieri River, Toetoes, Molyreux, Walkawa, Oreti, Aparima, md Awarua, and many of these '.arbours and anchorages were bartered by Captain Stokes and he officers of H.M.S. Ackeron. On December 31, 1859, Mr .Villiam Thomson was appointed rarbour master for the harbour jf Dunedin, and perusal of the transactions of the Provincial Council from that date reveals ;he active endeavours he made to safeguard navigation on the harbour and in and around the local toasts and waters, by improving the harbours, rivers, and roadsteads, removing rocks, snags, and other obstacles, buoying channels, and establishing lights and signalling apparatus. But what is very interesting to-day is that he was instrumental in having tenders called for subsidised steam services for passengers and produce on the Taieri and Clutha Rivers and Lake Waihola, and to maintain communication with the settlers there, especially during the winter months when the roads were practically impassable. The growth of the intercolonial and coastal steam services is too big a subject to be dealt with here, but the river services established in the first 1 0 years of the Provincial Government, deserve our attention. The Taieri River was navigable as far as Scrogg’s Creek near where, in 1862, the township of Grey town, now called Allanton, was established, and where passengers were landed. Small coasters loaded produce from the Taieri Plain on Lake Waihola. In June, 1859, following on a report on the coalfields by Mr Lewis, a wharf and discharging apparatus were erected on the Clutha River to enable steamers to ship from there the coal which had been tried out with success on the steamers Queen and White Swan. When opening the ninth session of the council in April, 1 860, Mr James Macandrew, as superintendent, dilated upon the vast importance to the province of maintaining a paddle boat to ply on the Clutha River for 40 or 50 miles from its mouth and for similar means of transport to be established on the Taieri River and the Waipori and Waihola Lakes. In addition to running to New River, Jacob’s River, and Bluff, a contract was let to Mr Frederick Greer to maintain his sea going Obercn, of 101 tons

and 25 horsepower on this service, and improvements to the Clutha River and the entrance to Lake Waihola were effected at considerable expense. About the same time, Mr John Jones took over the coastal steamer Geelong, of 108 tons, and the Taieri River was added to her usual run. The Endeavour was similarly employed by Mr James Craigie who, with Mr James Harold, afterwards owned The Brothers, which plied on the river until she was wrecked at its mouth when crossing the bar. In July, 1861, Mr J. T. Thomson furnished his report on the new goldfields, and, with the resultant changes in provincial policy and expansion, the question of internal communication assumed greater importance than ever. The harbour master investigated the need of improving the navigation of the Clutha River, and reported that a vessel smaller than the Obcron, up to a length of 90 feet and carrying 50 tons, with a speed of I 0 knots, could proceed to a point within 18 miles of the Tuapeka Goldfield. The then relative value of inland waterways is indicated by the report of Mr J. T. Thomson that a metalled road was not necessary to Tokomairiro, as it possessed suitable water communication via both Lake Waihola and the Clutha River, and although he suggested a route for a railway line, he did not consider the cost compared favourably with that of a road service.

In August, 1862, Mr William Reid Douglas, of the Woodhaugh Saw Mills, agreed to maintain a daily service (Sundays excepted) between Scrogg’s Creek and the head of Waihola Lake for a distance of about 22 miles by means of the paddle steamer Betsy Douglas, said to be the first steam vessel launched in Dunedin. The service was maintained despite the trouble experienced through the silting up of the constantly shifting channels in the Taieri River and the lake. Mr Alexander Brown, the founder of the Anchor line of steamers at Nelson, also maintained the 48-ton vessel Lyttelton on the river and lake during the gold rush.;

In November, 1861, Port Molyneux was officially gazetted, and it experienced a considerable increase of business as a port of mtry for foreign trade and a highway to the goldfields with an abundant supply of coal available in the locality. Steamers passed up the river as far as the mouth of the Tuapeka, and the schooner Clarendon was employed removing snags and obstructions. Messrs Murray and Jackson, of Adelaide, contracted to run a sternwheel steamer of about 150 tons between Port Molyneux, Pomahaka, and the Tuapeka River, up the Quao and down the Hatau branch. Captain Murray suggested further improvements to enable him to extend the ser-

vice above the Dunstan and so open the river up to within four niles of the Teviot, which was approximately the centre of all the principal diggings, both on the Molyneux and Lake Wakatipu. Services were established on Lake Wakatipu, and in December, 1863, regulations were gazetted providing that all boats carrying goods or passengers beyond half a mile from the shore of the lake were to be decked and of not less than five tons register. At this period sections in the new towns of Clyde, Cromwell, Frankton, Queenstown, and Kingston were offered for public sale. The optimism of the early settlers and the Provincial Council was justified and achieved only in the face of great difficulties and hardships. Contemporary papers and registers disclose the fearful toll of disaster that tempest and storm, treacherous seas, river bars, and other hazards wrought among what we regard as the mosquito fleet of that era, though most of the boats were fine vessels, often built locally or at Riverton and Waikawa to meet coastal and river conditions. Some were thrown away by culpable negligence, but the chapter of provincial enterprise here reviewed was enriched by the services of many hardy skippers who were responsible for the safe and regular transport of produce and passengers along these dangerous coasts and waterways, and who led a daily life of un-

remitting risk and hazard. More than 20 local coastal and river vessels were lost in the first 10 years of Provincial Government. The Taieri River and its bar claimed the cutter Napi and the schooners The Brothers, Salopian, Huon, and Sarah; the schooners Endeavour, Margaret, Pioneer, Mount Alexander, and Ann Jane were wrecked in the Clutha or at its mouth; the schooner Kate and the cutter Onward were lost at Toetoes Harbour; and the brig North Star, the barque Caroline, and the steamer Oscar were wrecked at the New River, Invercargill. The Oberon, after being wrecked at Bluff in 1861, ' was rebuilt and renamed Guiding Star, only to become a total loss in the New River in 1862. The White Swan, with Mr William Fox, the Colonial Secretary, Chief Justice Arney, and several members of Parliament on board, was wrecked south of Castle Point on June 29, 1862, on her way from Auckland to Wellington, where the seat of government had recently been transferred.

The Betsy Douglas survived until December 27, 1871, when she struck a rock and was lost near Charleston.

These disasters of far off days are almost forgotten now, but the names of the vessels should be remembered for the part they played in establishing the trade of the province, maintaining communications for the scattered settlers, and assisting provincial enterprise to ensure the success of the colony.