SUNDAY ISLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUNDAY ISLAND

BY LONEHANIIEB.

OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT

According to recent* press reports another chapter is to be added to the his ton." of Sunday Island. 3lr. Wray, the owner of the yacht Ngataki, which recently returned from a cruise, is reported to have said that he had landed a Mr. Bacon and three other men on the north side of the island and there left them, evidently quite satisfied with the prospect ahead. What object, the adventurers had in mind was not disclosed. However, it. is safe to say that nothing of commercial importance will be brought about by private enterprise on Sunday Island, for it is now the property of the Xcw Zealand Government, and the only area that is available for settlement is about 275 acres —the portion granted the Bell family after many vears of undisturbed occupation of pretty well the whole island.

When this grant was made many people thought that the old-timer, who was a pioneer in every sense of the word, deserved more considerate treatment than was dealt out to him. Anyway, it was this small grant that cleared Bell and his family off Sunday Island, and perhaps it was just as well that it happened so, for the island is not a fit place for people of moderate means to attempt to settle on. A millionaire could make things comfortable enough, but, if a living has to bt.; wrenched from the soil, then the worker will have to live close to his job, as Bell and his family were doing when 1 first became acquainted with them, a bit over fifty years ago.

Then I was chief officer on a colonial whaler, and our ship had come in to the island for what our Yankee skipper termed " a mess of fish." Old days come back when I remember " the old man's " order as we pulled away: " Don't attempt to land." I'pon our nearing the shore on the north side of the island we were surprised to see seme people moving about on the beach and waving us to come on, for it was generally understood that the island was not inhabited. Well, we forgot what our skipper had told us, and we landed, to find that those we supposed to be castaways were the Bell family, now firmly established in their new home.

They had plenty of food and good shelter, but their stores had been used up long before we got there. Yet these people were happy. I asked Bell whatever induced him to settle on such an out-of-the-way place as Sunday Island, and he told me that he wanted to get away from the world —that is, the busy part of it —and he assuredly had done so.

Difficulty of Landing For three days we were surf-bound before we got a chance to board our ship again. Of course, there are times when the landing is quite good, but the uncertainty is one of the obstacles that lie in the way of settlement. The three places where landings were generally made are Denham Bay, on the west side of the island, the north beach and Fishing Rock. The lastnamed place is at the north-east end of the island, and I believe it can be used when the beach is not workable, but as it is a mile or more from Bell's section it is not convenient for landing goods.

In early times settlement was confined to West Bay, where there are about 200 acres of level land, and water could be got there by sinking for it. The first men that settled there were not farmers, and a small piece oi ground would supply all they needed for their own use and also a bit over to trade with the whalers. I had an uncle who lived on Sunday Island for a while, and that was how they matirged. This same man was mate of the ship on which I made my first voyage as a whaler, and the first place we called at was this island, on which he had lived when he was a young man twenty-five years before. Sunday Island had no settlers at this time (1876), but we found there Captain Bezer, of tho schooner Yibelia, and three of his men. The captain had a long story to tell.

" Abandoned " He said that, while he was on shore looking for fresh water, his mate had run off with the schooner, and for two weeks he and his men had been camped on the beach in West Bay. The captain could give no reason for the mate's conduct. All he knew was that he and his men had been heartlessly abandoned, to sink or swim as fate willed. Many years afterwards I heard the n.ate's version. He said that he came in with the schooner as Captain Bezer had ordered, that he could see no sign of a boat, that during the following two days he made a thorough search of the coast, and that at last he gave up hope and set a course for the nearest port, Auckland. Our skipper, on hearing Bezer's story, felt sorry for him and the other marooned men; so he cancelled the fishing expedition that bad brought us into the bay and ordered us all aboard again. A few weeks later we landed Captain Bezer and his men at Tonga, and then filled up our little ship with humpback oil —the first and the last Auckland whaler to bring home a full load.

The last time I saw Sunday Island was from the deck of New Zealand's last deep-water whaler. Although only a small craft, she carried three boats on the cranes. I remember we took shelter in West Bay, the very same place that I had come to on mv first voyage as a whale-hunter. The wind was blowing hard from the north-east when we anchored, but the water was smooth in the bay, and with plenty of chain out our anchor had a good hold. So no one worried.

A Heavy Sea A bit later we did, for suddenly the wind shifted to east and blew with such force that our windlass broke into two pieces. Consequently the chain was unshackled and let go. In a little while we had drifted out into the wildest patch of salt water imaginable. No sail we had would have stood five seconds there.

Luckily we had plenty of blackfish oil, which in quality is almost equal to sperm oil. I have had considerable sea experience, and I firmly believe that without oil that night our ship would have been posted as missing. We had a sea anchor well out to windward, and oil bags fore and aft and out on the bowsprit. But, judging by past experience, 1 am not in favour of bags if the oil can be put on the water in a better way. Our plan on the occasion 1 am teliing of was for four or five of us to drop about a tablespoonful each at a given signal from whoever was watching an extra big sea being built up. I find that in this way the oil spreads further and quicker than by any other wav 1 know of.

However, we got through all right, and a while later came up with a school of sperm whales and killed two of them. Both can be marked as the last sperm whales taken, by a ship owned in New Zealand, under the old style of whaling.