Tales Told by an Early Pioneer

Lake County Mail, Issue 9, 23 July 1947, Page 10

Tales Told by an Early Pioneer

It was in the early part of the year 1862, I think, it became evident that • yre would have to accord a welcome to a little stranger, aryl, as the nearest doctor lived about 150 miles away, it was a matter for grave considerations an/to what was to be done, and no doubt Flint was more anxious than any of us when he thought of his wife’s condition, and the fact of no doctor’s attendance being procurable. I remember well, when the time was drawing nigh, that, at a meeting of all hands held in the men’s hut, it was suggested that as I had been in the habit of frequently visiting the dissectingroom when at college I must be the one having the best idea of surgery on the station, and I should, therefore, act the part of the doctor on the occasion —an appointment I at once firmly declined to accept. Then the suggestion that was offered was that as tylr Von Tunzelmann was a veterinary surgeon by profession, he should be invited to take up his residence at the station until the advent was over, and this proposition was actually carried out, although his services fortunately were never required. It shows, however, how independent the settlers were obliged to be in these ' early days, when such events were of frequent occurrence, far from the assistance of any doctor, and in this primitive manner was the first baby born on the Wakatipu Lake, and he was ■baptised many months later by the name of William Wakatipu Flint. Poor little fellow, he died when he was about four, years old, but the second child born on the shores of Wakatipu, also V th " a child of the Flints’, is still alive, I believe. After Mrs Flint was once more able to take charge of the men’s hut, an incident occurred which shows the smallness of the world we live in, and how apt one is to run across old acquaintances, even in the mtost outlandish places. I had ridden in from Hayes Lake in the afternoon of the 28th of July, 1862, and as I was pulling the saddle off my horse at the door of the men’s hut I was greeted by Mrs Flint, who came 1 out and said there was a gentleman in her kitchen who had arrived the previous day from Mr Von Tunzelmann’s and who fancied from the description he had heard of me that he must have known me in the Old Country. I was agreeably surprised to hear this, and in stepping inside the kitchen I saw the gentleman alluded to standing with his back to the fire, and whom I at once recognised as a Mr Mitchcl, who I had known when he was serving his country in the capacity of an officer in the 42nd Highland Regiment, and was stationed at Stirling Castle. He accompanied me back to the hut at Hayes Lake, and remained with me until Mr Rees returned from down country, when he asked permission to remain on the station as a cadet, and to gain experience in sheep farming, a request which Mr Rees readily agreed to. Mitchell had a very rough experi- / emce of Colonial life to begin with, and his career as a squatter was nearly brought to a close before he had fairly commenced, y Only a few days after ho had arranged with Mr Rees to remain on the station, Mr Rodgers, whoso station was situated about 12 miles south of the lake, came up to see what sort of country we were settled on, and, when he was going home, Mitchell and Maori Jack accompanied him in a small boat which Green had built. For some reason or other the sail belonging to the big whale boat was taken by them, and when about two miles to the north of Half-Way Bay, as we had called the cove opposite the Devil’s Staircase, a squall struck the boat and capsiaed it. Mitchell, being unable to swim, clung to the keel of the boat, whilst Rodgers, being a good swiminer,. struck out for shore, finding the distance more than he found himself capable of accomplishing, Me turned back and clung to the keel of ths boat also. Jack meanwhile could have swam ashore easily, but scorning

to leave his mates in danger he remained by the boat, and as one or the other lost hold by the rolling of the boat, Jack went for hini and brought him back; and this went on for nearly two hours, the boat gradually drifting ashore. But as this happended on the fith of August, the dead of winter in New Zealand, the water was bitterly cold, and the fingers of Rodger and Mitchell gradually became numbed, until they were scarcely able to hold on. On one occasion, as the boat rolled over. Mitchell lost his hold and went down, and as he rose again to the surface he found that he had come up under the boat and, catching one of the seats, he drew himself up out of the water, and into where there was some air in the bottom of the boat. When another roll came he again lost his hold, and this time rose some yards from the boat, when Jack swam out for him and brought him back, but during the time he was doing this Rodgers appaiently had slipped off, and sank never to rise again. Mitchell’s hands were now powerless, and Jack, going to the opposite side of the boat, held on by his wrists across the keel, and so they hung for some time, Jack chanting a Maori death song, and Mitchell wondering what was the next thing to happen. Suddenly Jack stopped singing, and asked Mitchell if he had a knife in his waist-coat pocket, but he was unable to take it out, as his hands were so stiff, when Jack, bending pver the boat, took it out and opened the blade with his teeth; then, hooking Mitchell’s numbed fingers over the keel of the boat, he asked him to hold on for a v few minutes, and diving down he cut the halyards of the mast, pulling it out of its socket, and rising to the surface, he rolled the boat over, and climbing in over it, pulled Mitchell after him. The boat, of course, was full of water, but it was sufficient to .float them, and taking an oar out from under the thwarts. Jack began sculling in the direction of the shore, and accompanying himself with a dismal chant. When a few hundred yards from the shore Mitchell fainted, and when he came to his senses found Jack carrying him in bis arms, like a child, to high ground. Then Jack took ofl all his own wet clothes and hung them over some bushes to dry, whilst he dragged the boat up higher on the beach, and took out the blankets etc., which were sticking fast under the thwarts. Towards evening Jack rolled Mitchell in the wet blankets, as best he could, and laid him down amongst some long ferns, telling him that he intended walking around the Lake side to Von Tunzelmann’s station, and to keep up his spirits, as they would bring help to him next day. This plucky feat he accomplished in a marvellously short space of time, reaching Mr Von Tunzelmann’s during the night, and having easily persuaded that gentleman to come at once with his boat, they rowed across to our station, when Mr Rees and others put off with assistance for Mitchell . Arriving at the place where Jack had left him lying, they were witnesses to a very strange sight, and one -which •I think worth recording. As they hastened from the boat up to where Mitchell was lying covered with the wet blankets, a collie dog was seen to jump off the top of him and run away into the scrub nearby. This was a dog belonging to George Simpson which had escaped when a pup from the boat about a year previous to this date, and had never been seen since, and Mitchell told them that, after Jack had left him the previous evening, the dog came stealthily forward and lay down on top of him, and, but for the

heat of its body, Mitchell declares he would not have survived the night of intense cold, everything being v/et about him, Mitchell remembers seeing the boat come to the shore and his friends .lumping out, but he apparently fainted, and was found by them in a dead swoon. It was long ere he recovered the effects of his long emmersion in the water and all his toe and finger nails came off, owing to the intense cold he had been subjected to. Poor Rodger’s body was never found, but about three years after this date a skull was picked up on the beach, on the opposite side of the Lake to the bay which Mitchell and Jack had drifted into, and which bay, before the date of this catastrophe, had been named by us as Colin’s Bay, after the collie pup which had turned up so opportunely to the salvation of Mitchell. Shortly after, Mr Rees and 1 went down country together, I having arranged for the lease of the Buckleburn Station from him, which necessitated the signing of some papers, and during our trip the gallantry of Maori Jack was a subject on which we both enlarged to everyone that we saw, with the result we collected subscriptions to the amount of about £IOO with which a dray and a team of bullocks were purchased and presented to Jack by the admirers of his gallant conduct, and he shortly afterwards started as a dray man, conveying goods to the diggings. He also received the medal of the Humane Society from Britain when the account of his bravery reached that country, and, in addition to this, I purchased in Dunedin, on Mitchell’s behalf as a present for Jack, a handsome silver hunting watch, and had engraved on it the following inscription — • Presented to Jack Tewa For his gallantry in saving my life, when nearly drowned, in a boat accident on Lake Wakatipu on August 9, 1802. James Mitchell. Returning from Dunedin I joined Mr Rees at the Pomahaka, and we brought Mrs Rees back again to the Lake accompanied by a new nurse girl, and Mary Rose, and as well a baby named Cecil Walter, which had been added to the party during their stay down country.

(To be Continued,)