THE MAKERS OF OTAGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20993, 4 April 1930, Page 10

THE MAKERS OF OTAGO

PIONEERS OF THE PROVINCE. Written for the Otago Daily Times.

By Condor.

XIII—CHARLES HENRY KETTLE, IS2O-ISG2. The city of Dunedin was laid out in 1846 by Charles Henry Kettle, who had been appointed by the New Zealand Company to carry out this work as part of the preparation of the Otngo block for the coming pioneers. Kettle was born at Sandwich, Kent, in IS2O. He received, a good education, and war mathematics master at Favcrsham School in his native country when he decided to emigrate to New Zealand. This resolve seized him early, for he was one of the passengers by the Oriental, which reached Port Nicholson on January 31, 1840. Among his fellow-passengers were E. Betts-Hooper, F. A. Molesworth, and the Hon. H, W. Petre, all of whom had a number of land orders, a quantity of machinery and merchandise, and high hopes for the future. They decided - to go into business together, and established themselves as millwrights and engineers on the banks of the Hutt River near the Maori’pa. Kettle obtained employment with them as a clerk, and all went well until September, 1840, when the senior partner, Betts-Hooper, lost his life in a boating accident in the river, and the partnership was dissolved.

Thrown on his own resources again, Kettle joined Captain Viliam Hein Smith’s .survey staff, where his mathematical knowledge was soon of marked assistance. He was appointed an assistant surveyor, and was in charge of the party which opened up the Ohariu Valley in 1841. For two years he was engaged in explorations and surveys in. the Porirua, Port Nicholson, and Upper Hutt districts. • In May. 1842, in company with a young cadet named Alfred Wills, Kettle made a long and adventurous journey round tho Tnrarua Mountains, exploring

at the same time a good deal of the Rimutakas. They left Karekare, near Foxton, the heffdquarters of the survey staff, on May 5, and proceeded up the Manawatu River towards the gorge, which they reached on the 11th. Passing through to the eastern side of the ranges, they turned south through thick bush and eventually got into the Wairarkpa Valley. After two attempts to find a passage through from Wairarapa Lake to the Hutt Valley they eventually succeeded, and reached Wellington again on June 8, having traversed a considerable’ tract of country not previously crossed by white men.

' The surveys haying been suspended owing to the , financial difficulties of tho New Zealand Company, Kettle in 1843 returned to England by the Brougham. He asrived to find the New Edinburgh scheme still being talked, about, and ho threw himself into it with enthusiasm. With George Rennie he paid a visit to Edinburgh to study tho lay-out of the old town with a view to the Now Edinburgh having lie advantage of the good points of the old. When eventually the operations of the Now Zealand Company were resumed, Kettle was appointed surveyor and civil engineer for a perior of three years at £4OO a year, specially to carry out the surveys for New Edinburgh. Before leaving again for New Zealand he married Miss Amelia Omer, of Dover. They took their passage in the Mary Catherine, and reached' Wellington on February 2, 1846. Without any waste of time, Kettle collected a staff of surveyors and labourers in Wellington,- and three weeks after his arrival there he set foot ashore at Koput,ai, near Otago Heads. His first work was to survey, the town of Port Chalmers aud to sound tho harbour for tho 'benefit of the expected shipping. Then he undertook a long journey on foot in South Otago through the Taicri and Tokomairiro Plains as far as the Nuggets, with the object of dividing into suitable survey contracts the whole of the Otago block. This work having been let out to the various parties, he returned to Dunedin and started on his magnum opus, the laying out of the future city. For this purpose he left Koputai at the cud of 1840 and brought his house up to the site of the new town. The laying out of the city has been fully described by Dr Hooken.

Whan the first ships arrived, Kettle was present to welcome them and to show the lenders the lay-out of their town. He was still chief surveyor for the company, and as such came into mild collision with Captain Cargill over .the custody of the Land Office and documents. Kettle, though an Englishman and though not really one of the Otago settlers, made up his miud that Otago was to be his home, and lie became forthwith one of its best citizens. He took part—not a popular part—in the meeting in 1851 which called upon Valpy to decline nomination to the Legislative CounciL He was one of the first four magistrates of tho province, and in this capacity was at all of the meetings which in the earliest days had to decide on public works and similar undertakings.

During the year 1851 Kettle made two long tours of exploration in the interior of Otago to inspect lands for prospective settlement west of the Otago block. _ He hail now been appointed to the position of Government surveyor, which he held until 1854. During the last three years he was also Deputy Registrar of Deeds for tic province. K|ettle then selected land in the South Otago district from the top of the Knihikn Ranges to the Clutha, and established his homestead in 1854 at Kaihiku Bush, with a woolshed of rough timber thatched by the Natives. He was a exemplary employer, and quite a number of well-known farmers of South Otago in later years could say that they commenced in the service of Mr Kettle at Kaihiku. He went in for merino sheep, and in 1855 had a flock of 2000. Incidentally it may bo remarked, for the admiration or the execration of later generations, that Kettle gets the credit of having been the first to sow gorse and broom for live hedges. Kettle gave up farming in 1860 and returned to live in Dimodin. Ho stood for a Dunedin seat in the Irovincial Council that year, but received only 18 votes. In the following year, however, he was elected to represent Bruce in the House of Representatives. In 1862 Kettle

was appointed Provincial Auditor. Ho died at his residence, Littlebourne, a few months later, on June 5, from typhoid fever, deeply regretted by a community that had always respected him. He was quite a young man and would undoubtedly have taken a high position in the province if he had lived. Hocken says that ho and Strode Were generally to be found on public questions in opposition to the general body of tbc settlers. That is scarcely to bo wondered at. They were not Scots; they were not of the body of emigrants wbo came out together _ to Otago; they were both nominated officials of the general Government. Thus lack ing several of the necessary qualifications for popularity, Kettle was a man of high principle and a ‘‘steady, earnest, and practical Christian.” He took from the first a keen interest in social movements, and especially in the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he was one of the founders and at the time of ids deatli the president. In 1800 lie took a prominent part in the young temperance movenent of Otago, being elected honorary secretary of the Otago Maine Xmw League. He was a good cricketer, and very fond of the game. Kettle’s eldest daughter (afterwards Mrs Macassey) was the first white girl born in Dunedin. Another daughter (afterwards Lady Roberts) was the first child christened by Dr Burns in the settlement. One of tho sons. Judge Kettle, was tho first native-born judge on the New Zealand bench. There were nine ohilrtrmi nlto^thpr.