UTHE VILLAGE AT THE HAVEN"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 April 1937, Page 19 (Supplement)

U THE VILLAGE AT THE HAVEN "

There was much merriment and hopefulness in the earliest days. “The village at the haven,” said a visitor to Nelson, Mr E. J. Wakefield, on 2nd April, 1842, “was all life and gaiety. Two large wooden stores and a house for emigrants belonging to the Company, in a hollow of the hills near the centre of business were all life, as labourers ; trooped in for their rations or rolled 1 casks and bales into the store. The Lord Auckland (the third emigrant .ship) was landing passengers on the ! beach, and the two Deal boats were being launched or hauled up by their ! weather-beaten crews or making trips ' to the shipping. j “Knots of curious whalers, on a visit jto the new settlement, were loitering j about among the cannons, ploughs and : cart wheels on the beach. Many of them seemed divided between contempt for the Jemmy Grants, as they called the emigrants, and surprise at the in** dustry and bustle. “CLOUDLESS DAYS” “The cloudless weather, hotter than I had yet felt it in New Zealand, and the vivacity of the scene made one think that races or a fair was going on and not a sei-ious settlement. All seemed affected by the bright blue sky and lovely scenery . . . every countenance beamed with good humour and enjoyment.”