A REMINISCENCE OF RIVERTON'S WHALING DAYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2111, 9 August 1894, Page 22

A REMINISCENCE OF RIVERTON'S WHALING DAYS.

By J. P. Y.

I wonder how maDy readers of the Witness are aware that Riverton is one of the oldest settlements in the Middle Island. In the old days it was always upokeu ef as "TheKaik" (Maori village.) Seventy or 80 years ago, when whalers were much oftener seen on our coast than they are to-day, they made Ho well's Roads (our port), being a safe anchorage, a rendezvous ; and having made friends of the Natives, who were very numerous at that time, they often towed whales into port and "tryed them out" on shore, the Natives lending willing assistance, and in time forming a large part of the ship's crew. Of course some of the officers and seamen took to themselves Maori wives and settled here for good, taking up land and bringing back stock on their return from Sydney and Hobart, where they went to sell their oil and bone and obtain the necessary supplies.

A number of the officers — notably the late Captain Howell, Captain Stevens, and our Southland millionaire, Mr George Prinfcz — took up large blocks of country, thus paving the way for the settlers who followed them. These and others like them are the men who are now termed "social pests" — men who worked ds-y and night, undergoing incredible hardship 3 , knowing nothing about eight hours' work, eight hours' sleep, and eight hours' play, and often having to put up with rations that would make the so-called unemployed of the present day howl with disgust and anger if anyone dared to suggest their living on such, meagre fare, which they would swear was not fit to feed pigs on. Bub these pioneers of settlement had to encounter so many difficulties that the quality of their food or lodging received very little consideration so long as they had enough to keep life in their hardy bodies. Without their daring, ambition, and perseverance New Zealand might still have been in the hands of the Maoris. But, of course, they have done their devoir, and are no longer wanted by the men who crave to eDj'oy the fruits of their exertions, and would have them treated like as old glove.

Even the settlers who followed these hardy sons of Neptune had no e»sy times of it. Mr Henry M'Culloch, late R M. and warden in this district, and his partner, Mr Freeman JacksoD, now of Wanganui, who took up Birchwood run in the " fifties," bad to put in several weekß with nothing to eat but wheat and a cask of almost rotten corned beef. How would that kind of fare suit our labour members instead of the luxuries of Bellamy's ?

Being so (colonially speaking) ancient a people, it goes without saying that we are very staid &nd sedate, and not given to excitement ; still, we occasionally break oub in a mild manner, aud, having a prosperous goldfield in our immediate neighbourhood, it sometimes takes tb.u form of a gold fever, but it is always very slight, and wo are quite content to Ufc Strangers come in and_ appropriata any good thing in the district, as in the case of the Round Hill mining syndicate, one of the most successful hydraulic mining ventures in the island. We have also kuown for many years of a quartz reef just on the town boundary that carries gold even on the surface nearly good enough to p\y for workiug, and which at a depth is almost certain to increase in richness. If it was only rituate on an inaccessible part of the West Coast it would inevitably cause a rush. Bur, ble?s you, we don't get excited about it. Now and then we make a spasmodic attempt to do something with it, bat I suppose we shall just wait until some enterprising individual comes along aud makes a fortune oub of H, then we will open our eyes with mild wonder at our not having made our own fortunes out of it. We had rather a severe fit ot some kind of fever some two or three years ago, when several of our citizens woke up one morniDg with an intense desire to do something to improve the business of the town and district, and possibly distinguish themselves. They quickly made up their minds that the one thing needful to make everyone prosperous aud happy was a harbour fit to accommodate with safety sucb boats as the Ruahine and Gothic On making a caret ul survey of the mouth of the estuary they found that all that was necessary was to construct a breakwater near Howeli'a Point and a railway thereto, which would, without a doubt, divert nearly all the trade of Southland to our port Having imbued a number of ratepayers with their views they set about considering ways and means, and being all of the " right colour " determined to get a bill passed by Parliament to enable them to borrow enough money to construct the breakwater, knowing full well that if successful Government would be only

too anxious to build tb/i necessary mile or two of railway Our mernbjr being also of tho "right colour" has, after a lot of hard work, succeeded in getting the said bill through the Lower House, and possibly it may also successfully run the gauntlet of the House of Lords, after which there will be nothing more to do but get the money.