SIDELIGHTS FROM A SURVEYOR’S LETTERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21196, 29 November 1930, Page 26

SIDELIGHTS FROM A SURVEYOR’S LETTERS.

Written for the Otago Daily Times.

By N. S. Woods.

Mr Frederick Tuckett, surveyor to the New Zealand Company, selected the site for the future colony of Otago at Oteputi, a spot on the shores of the beautiful but sandy harbour of Otakou. It was not until later that the name'was changed to Otago. The arrival of Colonel Wakefield and Mr Spain in June, 1844, enabled them to confirm the selection made by Mr Tuckett A purchase of land was made from the Maoris, and in 1846 Mr Kettle was sent out to survey this purchase in preparation for the coming immigrants. From 1846 to 1848 Mr Kettle lived a rather strenuous life. His letters have been preserved to us, and, although in the main full of details of his surveying work, contain many valuable sidelights on Otakou in the years .immediately preceding the firs’t colonisation. • A small white population was already there, composed mostly of whalers and fishermen. Small outposts of a rather disreputable civilisation existed at Waikouaiti, Otakou, Port Molyneux, and on Poveaux Strait. Escaped convicts from Australia, or even from much further afield, found in these places a good sanctuary. Whaling vessels used them as ports of call for water or timber, or for the establishing of shore stations for boiling-down operations. Many a rogue who had shipped aboard a whaler to make good his escape to the South Seas found in these places the opportunity to desert before the return of hie ship again confronted him with civilisation and the law. At Otakou there was neither law nor customs duty. Might was right and “ possession ” the only law known. The Maori population had been vitiated through contact with the .renegade whites, and the latter had no hesitation in using the contact to their illicit advantages, But perhaps they were in principle only one degree worse than the Government, which bought half the South Island for a song from natives who had no comprehension of tbe vastnees of the territory they were alienating nor of the insignificance of the recompense they were receiving. This transaction is one of the sidelights to be obtained from a perusal of the correspondence of Mr Kettle. His first letter, dated March 2, 1848, records his arrival on Monday, February 23. It is full of his new task, and it is quite evident that he had already entered upon his surveying with ‘the energy and enthusiasm so typical of the man. By April of the same year we read that he had almost completed both the surveying of the Port Town (Port Chalmers) and the buoying of the harbour. Immediately this task was completed he turned his attention to the surroftnding district, and it must have been with something of the exhilaration of the ex-, plorer that he climbed first one hill and then another, with each progress finding more and more revealed of the hilly bush-clad land to which Fate had led him. Thus, on April 13, He wrote to Colonel Wakefield: “While in the districts [being surveyed] the other day, I made an excursion to the top of the Maunga Atua Mount, which you will remember in the high ranges on the western ■ side of the Taieri Plain. From thence I saw an immense extent of country stretching away into the interior of the island, north and south as far as. the eye could reach, comprising, I should think, nearly 700,000 acres of low, undulating grassy downs, free from swamp and easily accessible. ... I believe that few have any conception of the extent' to which this part of New Zealand is adapted for grazing purposes.” Towards the close of 1846 Mr Kettle was supervising the surveying of the Molyneux district, and in a letter' dated December 12/ he gives a full description of the country as it was when he found it. He was much impressed with the Molyneux River, and while on this subject revealed some of the difficulties which were deliberately set in the way of authorities and others . in preparing for the colonisation of the province. He wrote ; “ While speaking of the navigation of the' Molyneux River it is my duty to inform yon. that sWe persons of questionable character and authority have spread abroad false accounts of the dangers and difficulties in entering that river.” In the same 'letter he gave an account of the discovery of coal in that district, and again on January 12, 1847, he referred to this discovery as being one of great significance to New Zealand. , It seems strange that Me Kettle did not refer more frequently to the existing state of lawlessness. It was not until 1847 that he began to protest against it, perhaps because prior to that be had been too busily engaged with surveying the outlying districts, and perhaps because the approaching arrival of the first immigrants began to throw the question of law and order into more prominence. He now advocated the appointment of a permanent Government officer to look after both police and Customs. Spirits, tobacco, and other supplies were freely purchased from foreign vessels at , Otakou, Waikouaiti, and Moeraki, and he considered that there was urgent need to control these through the establishment of Customs. Of the spirits purchased. Kettle wrote on January 25, 1847; “It is a notorious fact that there are more spirits drunk in Otakou than in any other place in New Zealand where there is an equal population, I have ascertained that during the last six weeks there were 200 gallons consumed at what is called the Port, where there are about 100 people living.” In the saipe letter he stated: “ A considerable quantity of pernicious stuff is manufactured from- the cabbage tree, and other spirits originally bad are adulterated by turpentine. The consequence of this is that men are continually rolling about the beach in a state of intoxication .bordering on madness.” The progress of the surveying had attracted a number of better-class settlers to Otakou, and these complained of being continually annoyed and insulted. Depredations were common. On one occasion two people, were robbed of considerable sums. One of the delinquents was traced and finally persuaded to give back the money, but beyond rethe money the absence of law meant that nothing could bo done. Robbers went unpunished except where thoee robbed proved even more violent in their methods. On one ocasion Mr W. Charlton took the law into his own hands, collected a party of assistants, and organised a rounding-up of three bushrangers who had been making the Otakou settlement the object of their far from welcome attentions. Mr Kettle in his letter commenting on the incident seemed considerably worried as to the legality of Mr Charlton’s act. Complaints of violence similar to those prevalent at Otakou were also re- . ceived from Waikouaiti. No doubt 1 the Moeraki was just as bad, if not j worse, but there then was apparently ! no respectable element to complain. Mr Kettle wrote of the existence of six public houses at the part. His terse comment on the state of affaire there was: “ The state of the place is truly disgusting.” He went on to remark that “the presence of a magistrate here would in a great measure banish from this part of the coast a set of lawless characters who, I believe, are mostly escaped convicts.” The estimated white population at this time was:— Otakou 150 Waikouaiti 40 Moeraki 30 Total for Otago .. .. 220 By the beginning of 1848 more immediate preparations had to be made for

the arrival of the Scotch immigrants. Mr Kettle gave a resume of the preparations which he was making. "As it appears to me most desirable that the immigration department should be where the labourers will bo mostly required) I have determined on erecting a house 80ft by 17ft at the principal town, there being already at the port' town several bouses and the large store capable of holding as many people as will in alk probability be required there for the present. , . .1 shall also have a large shed built, of rough poles and board (if I can get them) for a temporary shelter for baggage.” Such was the Otakou on which the first immigrants were to set foot. Before leaving Mr Kettle’s correspondence, however, it will be of interest to mention in fuller detail the contract for purchase from the Maoris which has already been alluded to. A letter dated June 19, 1848, contains a full account of this. The trip to Akaroa was made with Mr Kemp, the Government Commissioner, in H.M.S. Fly. Many chiefs from Otakon and Waikouaiti accompanied them to take part in the bargaining, The Maoris at first asked £IO,OOO for the area of land bounded on the north by a line from Kaiapoi to the West ,Coast and on the south by a line from the Kaihikn Range south of the Molyneux to Milford Sound. The white men offered £2OOO, to be paid in four instalments of £6OO at six-monthly intervals. The Maoris reduced their demand to £SOOO, but the whites remained adamant and finally secured their own terms. Of the first £SOO the chief Talroa took half for distribution among the Maoris south of Banks Peninsula, and the chief Tikan the other ' half for those north. With regard to Banks Peninsula itself, all the Maoris acknowledged baying sold - the whole of it to the French Company, The deed of sale to Messrs Kemp and Kettle was prepared in Maori and a map was affixed as the only means of definitely establishing the territory sold by the chiefs. It was a remarkably one-sided bargain.