RURAL RAMBLES. THE OTAGO PENINSULA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2058, 3 August 1893, Page 35

RURAL RAMBLES. THE OTAGO PENINSULA.

By Aparata Rbnata.

in. Fishing on the sea coasb of the Peninsula is indulged in to some extent, and sometimes great quantities of fish can be had in the pools. The nearest fishing place is at Lawyer's Head. A rather dangerons path leads down to a ledge of rocks, from which a line or crayfish net can be used. Many good hauls of- crayfish have been got here. The rocks at Tomahawk afford some sport, and last year at this season (July) a visitor from Dunedin found the pools on the rocks off the beach full of mackerel and sprats.

Seal Point is one of the best; places for fishing off the rocks ; bub being private property permission has to be obtained to fish on it. This, however, is a matter easily arranged with Mr Robertson if the fisherman is wise enough to take no dogs, which have often destroyed many valuable sheep here by frightening them over the cliffs. The point in easterly weather protects the fishing ground. Crayfish are very plentiful, and often more are caught than can be carried away. My companions on fishing excursions generally brought a staunch Shetland pony, and this fellow had to carry 13 or 14 dozen crayfish and some red and blue cod and " Maori chiefs "on some occasions, Hapuku or groper can be caught sometimes, and red cod are often to be found left in pools by the tide. Last month no end of sprats and barracouta were frightened into these pools by porpoises, and they were secured by the settlers and a visitor from town. Sufficient spratß were cast into the pools to supply the city for a week or more with fish. This annual visit of the sprats always takes place from May to August, when the porpoises are travelling northwards. The shoal of sprats seems to take the same direction, and almost every year some of these shoals get driven ashore on the point. When this happens thousands of sea birds take possession of the place and make a lively scene of it. On a Queen's Birthday some years ago I happened to go on to tha point when one of these shoals were driven ashore. Both on the point and to the far end of Sandfly Bay, a distance of two miles, the sprats could be secured in carb loads. Many writers on New Zealand fish mention these shoals of- sprats — some remarking that while sailing through them off Otago Heads they could be dipped out of the water with a panuikin ; and this is literally true. The extent of these shoals is often further than the eye can see. They appear to get broken up by other large fish and repeatedly enter Obago Harbour and reach as far up as Anderson^ Bay. This year they have been caught below Port Chalmers in the ordinary Seine net. Perhaps they are not more noticed because they cannot be distinguished from ordinary mullet while in the water. They are a very superior fish for the table, and some day these facts will be more fully recognised and made use of by some enterprising fisherman or capitalist. Thousands of tons of smoked imported sprats come here from all parts of the world. The famous sardine is only a different name for our sprat, and we pay duty and freight for what goes to waste at our very door. Such is the result of want of enterprise displayed by our capitalists.

Cape Saunders has many fine fishing places, and near the lighthouse large blue cod are to ba caught off the rocks. Flounders are plentiful in both Hooper's Inlet and Fapanui. The latter supports two fishermen. Spearing flounders by means of a torch made of dry flax leaves is generally successful if undertaken with a rising tide on a good dark night. It is, how* ever, rather cold work in winter. iDside the Otago Harbour there are no end of good places to haul in a Seine net. About the Kaik mackerel are very plentiful at some seasons, and six tons are sometimes caught in one haul. Garfish, or piper, as they are called in Auckland, are also very plentiful in summer. -. For many years, while living on the Peninsula, I worked a small Seine with the help of my brothers, and caught no end of garfish, flounders, cod, sand eela, mullet, &c, and a few salmon trout weighing from 131b to 151b. Of course these were always carefully put back. The Tomahawk lagoons have plenty of perch and trout in them, but they are very hard to secure, having such a large sheet of water to wander about in. There can be no doubt that the Kaik will some day be a great fishing station with a steamer trading to it and keeping up a regular supply for local and export uses. It is a good locality for a fish, guano, and oil factory.

The Maoris have had many villages about the Peninsula in ancient times, and no end of good curios have been found on the site of these. Taking Tomahawk as a starting point, a village existed between the lagoons and the ocean. There are some axes and pieces of mere meres, orwar olubs, in the museum which were found about here, and I have seen a splendid patu patu, 'or whalebone war club, with a human figure and arabesque work oarved on its handle, which was found at Tomahawk. Travelling east, there are Maori ovens to.be found everywhere along the cliffs, and at Paradise a few adz;es have been found. On Mr Boberfcson'a property, near Seal Point, some magnificent greenstone adsses and no end of other sorts of implements have been found. Maori cooking places, or ovens, are to he seen about his pro* perty in almost every part, Sandfly Bay has had its village, and towards the far end there are a lot of seal bones, cooking stones, and pieces of flint and greenstone lying about on the sand. Some good curios have been got among these, and about the settlers' paddocks further inland. The best adze I have ever seen came from near here, and was picked up by a settler. Its existence was a historical fact among the Maoris long before it was accidentally discovered.

At the entrance to Hooper's Inlet a number of flint knives of good make and many stone implements have been found, there having been a village here. Cape ' Saunders and Little Papanui have supplied collectors with some splendid specimens of Maori ingenuity. The latter place had a village, and there are tons of seal bones about, and among these very fine greenstone adzes have been found. Recently a gentleman who has a sheep farm at Papanui Inlet was travelling through the bush on the top of Mount Charleß, and while jujnping down from the trunk of a fallen tree he struck something with his foot, and be.ing possessed with a fossicker's instinct, looked to see what it was, and picked up a beautiful stone adze Binor lOin long, with a hole drilled right through the blunt end of it. This was real good luck, and the posseseor is very proud of his fiad, and well he may be. Strange to say that Maori ovens and fish and seal bones are very plentiful on the mountain, whioh is 1400fb high. All round Papanui Inlet Maori implements are found. There is a small island about the Bi'ze of a house at the head of the inlet, and here Maori history gays a native died and was left there, and to verify tbis a brother of mine searched it a.nd

found human remains and neck ornaments, &c, on it. At the mouth of the inlet there have been two settlements which Maori history says were depopulated with measles. In one of these skeletons have been found on the surface, and some have been dug up and are now in the university, being used for comparative purposes. With one of these a beautifullymade neck ornament of bone with carving on it was found. It was in the shape of a fishhook with a short shank, and is now in a private collection in Anderson's Bay. The position of many skeletons found here proves that the victims of the measles were allowed to die, and received no burial.' Some Maoris have been found buried here in a sittipg posture — whioh is the usual Maori way of placing the dead for their funeral ceremonies— and their skeletons dug | up. Many greenstone ornaments and implements have been found on the site of the villages, and along the coast to the Otago Heads. Inland, opposite Wickliffe Bay, there is a cave wherein skeletons and implements have been found. At Pipi Eairiti, another old settlement, many implements have come to light. At the heads, while excavating the position for the big guns and barracks, a number of good adzes were unearthed. The Lower Kaik was a great place for finding bone fishhooks, spear heads for pigeons and flounders, shell ornaments, and eyes of wooden hei tikis made of pawa shells, &c. Flintlocks and curious-shaped steel tomahawks of French make were often found, showing contact or intercourse with whites when these places were populated by the natives. The Kaik proper has supplied our museum and private collectors with no end of greenstone implements. Every bay and point from the Kaik to Anderson's Bay has signs of natives, in shell heaps, ovens, or implements picked up. I have picked up one greenstone and four other adzes just by chance along here, and I know of dozens of others found by friends. I also found a fine flint adze about a mile in the bush from the shore. All through the bush heaps of shells of pipis are met with where the' ancient Maori either camped while bird-trapping or looking for a suitable totara tree to convert into a canoe. To myself and to those who , remember and take an interest in the Maoris, both as they were 30 years ago and previous to the advent of Europeans, these signs of a large population centinually leading an active and wandering life are very interesting. The Maoris during -$heir eanse journeys up and down the harbour and along' the coast were evidently in the habit I of landing almost anywhere when a gale of I wind commenced, or they wished to have a ' hunt for birds, or seek berries, or cook food. Some places where creeks enter the harbour have been favourite camping grounds, and level points also, judging from the quantity of shell fish that have been consumed about them.

Scarcity of palatable food was possible among the natives, but their bill of fare was never exhausted, as they could always fall back on the f ernroot and marine algse, whioh were both plentiful and nourishing. Strange ihat all primitive and some civilised nations have #in times of scarcity resorted for food to marine plants, which have great nourishing powers. The Icelanders use Iceland moss and the Irish Irish moss. I have seen goats eat immense quantities of sun-dried marine plants. ' To any one exploring the West Coast Sounds a knowledge of this fact might come in handy. I have heard of a case which occurred not 1b years ago where a knowledge of edible marine plants would have relieved some Europeans of a few days' distress for want of nourishing food. There are three varieties or more of Chondms crispus in the Sounds, all of which are palatable and exceedingly nourishing. The natives from the Peninsula were in the habit of procuring eels and fernroot about the Kaikorai and Green Island lagoon, at the mouth of which the tribe had a village. Modern or imported game can be got on the Peninsula in the shape of Californian quail, which are very numerous in patches of bush and annoy the settlers by eating all grass and .clover seeds directly they are sown. Babbits are to fee had and shot at Sandymount, j Hooper's Inlet, and Papanui Inlet in great numbers. Wild cattle were very plentiful a (few years ago on Mount Charles, and afforded the settlers good sport and an acceptable and never-failing supply of good beef. Lord Onslow shot some here a few years ago. The bush getting oleared away is, however, reducing their number, and very few will remain in a year or two.

I think I have now written all that is necessary about the Otaga Peninsula, but not. all that is interesting of its history and settlers by many a long page. There is no doubt that with its sunny aspect, unrivalled soil, proximity to a market, and easy access, it can and will supply Dunedin with the best of farm produce for many a long year to come. Its settlers are the most industrious, hardworking, prosperous, and respectable in the colony, and I wish long prosperity to them and their gem of the Peninsula.