LETTERS FROM OTAGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26904, 16 October 1948, Page 6

LETTERS FROM OTAGO

A SAWYERS’, BAY PIONEER •-letter from John Thompson, sawyer, Otago, to his father, Thomas Thompson, Dalkeith, and other relatives.

Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, 18th October, 1848. . . . Now, dear parents, surely we may say goodness and mercy have followed us all ouy days, and in all our wanderings over the mighty deep. I -intend going to “Sawyers’ Bay,” five and a-half miles distant from Dunedin, ' and about a mile and a-half from Port Chalmers. I think it will be the best place in the colony; it is covered with wood of a very large size. I have been in the bush, and have seen the trees standing so thick that it was impossible to go amongst them, and plenty five and six feet through. The .wood here is all evergreen, summer and winter .are both alike. It is very warm just now, and this answers to the month of March in Scotland.

, The Natives have the appearance ot being very quiet, many of them can speak good English. I have spoken to many of them. I think they have descended from the Jews, they are so exceedingly hard, and would have all that they see, but we are not afraid of them. The white people who have lived amongst them for several years give them the. highest character. . . . 'We have had a long voyage, nearly • twenty-two weeks on water; however, We have been well, and have had food iii great abundance. - When we landed at Port Chalmers 'the company showed the greatest kindness to all of us—they sent eight sheep and a ton of potatoes on board; we , got 101 b of mutton, 761 b of potatoes, grid before we left the ship they gave 'each of us eight days’ provisions to Igo with, besides what we had saved from the weekly allowance. The company have been very liberal, -l ean scarcely name all that we have ‘ had from them. My ground is to be in “Sawyers’ Bay,” Lot 14, wholly covered with wood, the best in the colony. I have a water frontage which is of -great value, the harbour is about three ' miles broad, opposite the place, and T t have the best river running through ' my ground that is on this side of the \arbour, except the “Water of Leith.” The tide comes up the river (running through my ground) to within twenty or thirty yards of our houses, besides the public, road is to go that way from Port Chalmers to Dunedin. It will jje the first road in the c010ny..,.