100 Years Ago

Hutt News, Volume 13, Issue 25, 29 November 1939, Page 8

100 Years Ago

BAY OP ISLANDS IN 1880 A VOLUNTARY REFORMATION Kororareka,. Bay of Islahds, has often been stigmatised as a sick of iniquity in the wild dayfl before 1840. This was to some extent another case of giving a- dog a bad name and hanging it. There is much evidence that the haphazard little settlement had considerably reformed itself by November 1839, one' hundred years ago. The settlement was really very small indeed. In 1839 tnere were about seventy white permanent residents, twenty or thirty weatnerboard houses, —"white-painted and verandahed cottages of wood" — and a nearby native pa. There were, of course, a good many other European residents round the picturesquely indented shores of the Bay. There was James R. uxendon, United States Consul at; o«.iato, who kept up a considerable establlßhment. At Palhia there was an important missionary, settlement, and other settlements in the Bay neighbourhood. Traders like Gilbert Mair and Jel Samuel Polack were men of substance, and one presumes, therefore, reputation. ' GROWING RESPECTABILITY When Helton Mathewj Hobson's Surveyor-General, landed with the rest of the "Herald" party before j the Treaty of Waitangi negotiations in early 1840, he wrote in his diary about "the half-drunken, impudent I devil-may-care sort of look of the European inhabitants — and the | squalid debased appearance' of the 1 natives." Perhaps these were na- 1 tives from the pa of Pomare who ! was himself a grog-shop proprietor, j On the other hand there was quitej a lot of evidence of new respectabil : ity. Dr. Jameson, for instance, an 1839 visitor, mentions that the in- ' habitants maintained public order j almost unbroken from a sense of en lightened self-interest. 'xiie only people who ran riot were sailors ! newly ashore from snips on long ' voyages, who after all would have made something of a stir even in a ■ civilised port. As early as 1835 an attempt had been made to impose prohibition at the Bay of Islands. ' COMMERCE DRIVING OUT BEACHCOMBING In the old days the Bay of Islands had simply been a place where crews of ships called for water and fresh provisions. But in later years trading with the nauves had become more important than supplying ships. The trade was mainly the buying with over-valued trade goods of maize, potatoes and pork from the natives for sale in JSydney. The merchants and tavern keepers were known to have considerable sums of specie in their possession, yet they never suffered molestation. Commercial bills were in circulation and were duly honoured. "In a word, no statements could be more widely at variance with truth than those which repre- ' sented the Bay of Islands to be a nest of outlaws and criminals." 1 RUNAWAY CONVICTS MAKE THEMSELVES SuALiCE In the old days on the rare occasions when a British warship called at the Bay at least a tii.. the population tooD-to the bush the duration of its stay. But latterly the escaped Australian convicts and fugitives from justice, who ha<; found the New Zealand no-man's-land so convenient a means of escaping troublesome ties and obligations, had been moving on to mote remote corners of the vast Pacific, partly because of the increasing pro bability of British occupation. In any case for many years the Syd- j ney Customs officials had been in ' the habit of searching all outgoing shipping for escaping convicts and j

absconding debtors. On tlfe other ' hand one of the leading citizens of I Kororareka, one Turner, was a tin.v. , expired Australian convict, j AMATEUR JUSTICE i The more reputable inhaoitants Kororareka had been petitioning the British Government for increased protection tor a number of years. In ' "1838, however, they rather reluctantly took matters into their own hands, forming "a judicial association, the members of which, uia-. pensing witli the tedious and ex- ' pensive forms of justice, scrupled not to act as constables, and to apprehend summarily the culprits they were to try." The Association had the backing of the native chiefs. Its chief weakness was that there was no appeal against it, and one of the offenders it tarred and feathered had committed merely the indiscretion of coming from Australia to collect a debt from an Association ' member. But generally its proceedings were prudent and just. Relations between Maoris and white men were much more delicate Newcomers very often inadvertently transgressed Maori laws and laid themselves open to the plundering raid with which the Maioris punished social indecorum. Once a quarrel between a Frenchman and some Maoris was patched up through the | good offices of Bishop Pompallier, head of the Roman Catholic Mission The Bishop, who was a man of character and left a deep impression *on the life of the place, built his mission headquarters at Kokorareka during 1839. Other missionaries used their invaluable influence in making the relations of white men and Maoris more amicable. Perhaps the most considerable factor in improving the moral atmosphere of the Bay was the steady influence of the missionaries on the Maori people. By 1840 they had practically renounced cannibalism, and no longer regarded war as the | natural pastime for men of spirit. But if the missouary civilised the ■ Maoris, it was the trader who reapi ed the benefit.