IN THE EARLY DAYS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10546, 24 March 1920, Page 4

IN THE EARLY DAYS

EXCITING EXPERIENCES LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND 100 YEARS AGO. Mr Alfred Henrjs Brind, of 23, Bay street, Reitone, last week received a letter from his grandson, Mr John McGaw, a well-known Sydney business man, concerning M>r Brind's father, the late Captain Brind, who made many (many exciting and all interesting) voyages from Great Britain to New Zealand in the days of 1820. The writer stated that on looking up tlio ''Sydney Gazette" of Saturday, August litth, 13£0, it mentioned that: "On Tuesday arrived'from the Sperm Whale fishing the ship Cumoerland, Captain Brind. She sailed, from England October £'7fch last and has procured nearly GOO barrels of oil. • Captain Brind. went into the Bay 'of Islands on March 21st and sailed again on the 28th, leaving - His Majesty's ship Dromedarv there—all well." . Mr. Alfred Brind (son of the old sea captain), who was 77 years, of age on March Btib last, gave a "Times" reporter an account or his father's career, as far as he could collect it. "The Rev. Williams mentioned in the historical records," 6aid Mr Brind, "was the old Archdeacon Henry Williams, who was my godfather.

THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. "It has been stated that my father, Captain Brind, took part in the most famous of Nelson's engagements, the Battle of Trafalgar, but of course I have not yet. found out from tne official records if that was a fact. It is more than possible, as my father was in 1803 an able seaman on the H.M.S. Enterprise, and rthe Battle of Trafalgar took place in 1805." Having secured his master'6 certificate, Captain Brind Itraded in and- out of the Bay of Islands in 1820 in the ship Cumberland, owned- by Messrs Green, Wigram and Green, large ship-owners of Blackwall, London, -where the Great Eastern was built. The firm a* that time owned, a large whalingj fleet. He had a great influence (mana) with the Maoris very much to 'Hie consternation of the missionaries: Ultimately he married a Maori chieftainess, whose father was the greatest native warrior at that time. A CHILD MURDERED. "The offspring of the marriage be r bweea Captain Brind and the Maori chieftainess was a little girl, and 6he was shortly afterwards murdered at the Bay of Islands by another chieftainess as an act of vengeance." In connection with the above I have been informed by Mrs Phillips mother of Mr Phillips, ..at one, time interpreter alt the Legislative Council, that beinfj the only living son and heir, I am entitled to large tracts of native land in the -vicinity; of Russell. I have also many, times teen told that according to the traditions of the Maoris I should claim...,the land. ; . '*" DIED FKQM GRIEF.

"My father's wife, as. ft result of grief caused .by the, 'murder ,of her child,.. died just before 1840. Captain Brind was. then on a trading voyage, and it was not until his return that he was informed of the happening. He again set off, and arriving back in England married Eliza Ann Snowswell, of Gravesend. Captain Brind brought his second wife out to the Bay of Islands, making; that spot his ,home, bringing out his house in sections and erecting it at Matawai May, near Russell. HONE HEKE'S WAR-

"In 1843 -while my father was away at sea. Hone Hake's force commenced a war against the whites. The whole of the inhabitants of Kororaka (Russell), including my mother, were burnt out and lost their all. They were taken into the stockade and afterwards conveyed by His Majesty's ship Hazard to Auckland. I was the only child toa6oompaiiy the whites to Auckland. "After the rising -had been quelled fcy. the English, the inhabitants wer« brought back, and my -mother (along with others) was compelled to live in a Maori wharo. When I was two years old, my father returned and found us penniless and homeless. CAPTAIN BRJND'S DEATH.

"From then until 1850 another three children were born, a son and. two daughters, and in the latter p,art of ISSO my father died, and was buried 'in the same grave as the child of'his first wife, who was buried just alongside of the old Anglican church in. Russell.

TROUBLE AT SYDNEY.

"Eventually we left ior Sydney in 1851, and en arrival there the whole crow signed off there as it was she enu of •the voyage ibr them. It was impossible, on account ot iKne rush to tue gold diggings, to obtain a new crew Of seamen. -ihe ship was tuerefore compelled to be in bydney harbour tor sevuu months. A* l»»t time seamen were setting £l2O for 'the run Home. Ultimately lihe ship left Sydney with a cosmopolitan crew, there being only two Britons. '"ln rounding Cape Horn on the Homeward voyage, in consequence of the bad steering of the' crew—tho members of which were not sailors—-wo got too far *duth, and into tho floe ice. Being wedged in 'by the ioe for several days, tiho vessel leaked very badly and all hands, including my mother and myself, were at the pumps day and-night.'* . ~ , ,' St- Helena was reached, and they remained there four months, effecting repairs,' arriving a.t Gravescnd abouii 1852, «hortlj; after tho' Duke of Wellington's death. /'"FOR. NEW ZEALAND.

• "In 1853," continued Mr Brind, "I went to the ship Essex as a.midshipman, and made mj voyage to Melbourne, and went on to a sheep statioii" at Mount Emu, in Victoria, until the owner, Mr W. Brown, sold out and went to England. In 1859 I ioinod hho Tbomtut Brown and voy&fted to Mauritius, and later returned to Now Zealahd.'' ' . . . ' Mr Brind was one of the officials of tho Railway Department who,.wis in attendance at tho opening of the Nelson to Foxhill lino about 1850. Resigning from tho railway ho joined the Anchor Shipping Company, of "Wellington, and was for 20 yearß purser pf their Teasels. Mir Brind recollects the tim«» when thoro were no "Onion Compftny vessels sailing to the const, with tho exception of the small Steamer Maori, which carried the mails Jx> the South Island.

Since then Mr Brind has seen tho colony advance and become a Domlrir ion.- Ho is now well over the allotted span, being 77 on March Bth; his wife bointr 7(5; they are at present residing at Petoue.