“ CONVICTS ” OF DUSKY SOUND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19107, 28 February 1924, Page 11

“ CONVICTS ” OF DUSKY SOUND.

WRECK OF THE W AIK ARE, A MISTAKE REPEATED. CORRECTION AND AMENDS. (Fbom Ou.r Own Corrkspondent.) LONDON, January 10. An interesting and elaborately produced magazine has arrived from. New York. This is “The Log” of the Circumnavigators’ Club, an organisation .which was founded in 1906 and is composed of men who have made a circuit of the globe. “Luck to you” is the slogan of the club, and good-fellowship is its only aim and object. Some months ago the editor made a mistake regarding New Zealand. In the number which has been sent the grievous error has been duly corrected, and ample amends made for a mistake which was quite justifiable. In Volume 12, No. 1, The Log published an article written by ex-Preeident William E. Peck on the “Wreck of the Waikare,” which contained tho following sentence; “Dusky Sound, where we were wrecked, was discovered by Captain Cook, in the eighteenth century, and there was landed the first ship load of convicts consigned to New Zealand. It is surrounded by impenetrable forests and snow-clad mountains, making it inaccessible by land.” A letter drawing attention to this error was sent by Captain T. E. Donne, who is a member of the club and the keeper of records for the Great Britain branch. This letter is reprinted in The Log, together with the rest of the correspondence between Mr Peck and Captain Donne. It appears that Mr Peck quoted from an article which appeared in a rmnedin newspaper on January 6, 1910, describing the wreck of the Waikare under the heading ' One Who Knows Fiordland. ” The reporter’s information apparently came from Sir Thomas Mackenzie, and the latter is reported to have said, among other things: “Ilie first shipload of convicts ever consigned to New Zealand were disembarked at Dusky Sound, and unfortunately, in a sense, Dusky was the chosen place because, thanks to the impenetrable forests and the snow-clad mountains that abound, those incarcerated there could never get further inland.” SIR THOMAS MACKENZIE EXPLAINS. Sir Thomas Mackenzie was communicated with, and in due course he wrote to Captain Donne. In this letter he says: “The report as quoted from the Dunedin newspaper is the first 1 have seen of it, and in some respects not what X should have said. For instance, the convicts were not consigned to New Zealand. Never in tho history of this country was a convict consigned to this fair and free land. The Endeavour 1 a ship of about 800 tons, sailed from Sydney in bound, I think, for India.. She contained a number of time-expired convicts together with a number of escaped convicts. V/nen off the coast of New Zealand a row occurred over a woman convict aboard, not the first time in history has a ‘lady’ been, I believe, the cause of trouble. The ship then put into Dusky Sound and anchored in a pretty little harbour called Facile, nearly opposite to where Dick Henry had his house on Pigeon Island. It is said tho men scuttled the vessel, possibly with a view to settling m New Zealand. They, however, found food not too plentiful, and, as they wore not bushmen, could not penetrate inland; it would ■ have done little good to cross the mountains, because they would then, in turn, have been blocked by Dake Manapoun. So, after remaining some three months in Dusky, they, as stated in the Nows’ report, finished a partly built boat, which had been left in Duck Cove, and a considerable number Bailed away in her to Sydney. The remainder fitted up the ship's long boat and made for Norfolk Island, where they arrived in due course, as also the others in Sydney.” Mr William Peck finally writes: 'T know that Jimmy Birch will type this correspondence in an attentive manner, and undo any harm that may have been done to the fair name of New Zealand.” “Jimmy Birch” has certainly typed the correspondence in an attractive manper, and so everybody is now happy.