AKAROA, THE LOTUS LAND OF THE SOUTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 89

AKAROA, THE LOTUS LAND OF THE SOUTH.

By Thus. J. Pembekton-.

The views of Akaroa in last week's issue of the Witness recall many events of the infant days of the colony, when the whaling industry was attracting adventurers from vail parts of the world, and -the cominghng of the native and European races had begun. It was not long before these hardy sailors had taken wives from among the Maori tribes, and begun, to look upon ' New Zealand as their home. Then began that insatiable land grab, the evil effects >f which it took many years to rectify. For a bundle of old clothes or ,a few rifles and ammunition, large tracts of country were purchased from the chiefs, and in subsequent years it 'taxed all the ingenuity of Governor Hobson to unravel the complications that arose from these alleged purchases. Long before the pakeha had set foot on Banks Peninsula, however, it had been the home of many powerful Maori tribes, and although their glory was on the wane at the beginning of last century, the native, •who is an historian above all things, has preserved a history, where the events of later, years in connection with foreign expeditions have been forgotten. The land is rich in legendary lore, and relics of the past, J^ut to-day only the pas of Port La\y, Little River, Tikau, the Kaik, and Rapaki, in Lyttelton Harbour, have been rescued from the wreck of the great race that onoe peopled those jrdbded mountains. For the rest, ancient fortifications tell their tale of deadly battle and rapid annihilation.

After the sealers, of whom little is known, had left the shores of New Zealand in the first years of the century, the advent of the whalers began : and it was not leng before they discovered the finest of New Zealand's harbours, and made it one of their chief .stations. Of the events that preceded 1 August of 1840 little is known, saye what was gleaned from runaway sailors or those who settled after the whaling days were done. One marked trace of early European occupation is to be found at Island Bay, on the southern coast of the. peninsula. During the past 40 or 50 years few people have visited this place, and two huge blubber cauldrons, of great thickness and enormous weight, have lain- undisturbed since the day they were abandoned, and the beach near by is white with the bones of captured whales. In Akaroa Harbour, however, there is nothing now left to tell that it was for many years one of the most important whaling stations of the southern sets.

In the year 1838 a French whaler named Langlois claimed to have bought for a trifling consideration", the first instalment of which was 150 francs' worth of secondhand clothes, the whole of Bank's Peninsula, with the exception of the Bay of Hikuraki and Oihoa, and in 1840 at his instigation the Compte de Paris, with a large number of immigrants, left France to form a colony at Akaroa, and, it is said, to annex the South Island in the name of their country. At the time this vessel arrived in New Zealand nraters the French frigate L'Aube, commanded by Lavaud, and H.M.S. Rritomart, commanded by Captain Stanley, were lying in the 'Bay of Islands. By the Treaty of Waitangi the sovereignty of the South Island had been ceded to Great Britain, and Governor Hobson, who was then in charge of New Zealand affairs, determined to defeat any foreign attempt at colonising. Although Lavaud maintained that no such policy was intended by the French Government, Captain Stanley wa3 hastily dispatched to preserve British rights, and after a stormy passage down the coa^t he arrived at Akaroa Harbour in the Britomart on the 10th of August, 1840. Four days later Lavaud sailed in, to fihd the British flagflying on Green Point, and the English warship in possession. In the meanwhile the Ooinpte de Paris had been detained to take in water at Pigeon Bay., on the north of the peninsula, and it was not until the 16th of August that the immigrants arrived, only to find they had been forestalled, and all their hopes dashed to the ground. The part the French officer Lavaud played in this plot is doubtful, for, although he assured Hobson that annexation was not contemplated, subsequent investigation proved that the French Government had much to do with the expedition. Of those who came to New Zealand in the'Oompte de Paris with Langlois seven were still living in the colony at the beginning of 1904, and the story told by one old Frenchman, 78 years of age, seems to point to the fact that Lavaud had later instructions to prevent Langlois from doing anything inimical to British interests. Although the. French ininiigra'j.t ship might have

! arrived first, Luvtuid seems to have tak<m especial care to detain her people on their ' voyage dawn the coast, and himself look every 2->r et> aution to allow Stanley to amve first, oven to Ihc extent o f aimlessly cruis- ) mg outoid-j the- heads under the pret-enrs lhat »V'}3ihor conditions were unfavourable for making an entrance. So -far cs those in authority wore concorned, a'l was perfect courtesy, and the English magistrate found a temporary r.bode on board tho French wars'np L'Aube : but tho immigiants, who wer© allowed to land and b.-iild shelter houses and make g-'urdons pending a decision, resented bitterly for many years the trick that had been played upon thorn. It was not until .af tar a lapse of nine years, however, that the question was settled. Governor Hobson proposed to deal with the French as British subjects, and give them 50,000 acres of land in the north, thus doing away with then* legal claim for compensation • for- the outlay on the expedition; but- to this proposition Lord Stanley objected, and so 30,000 acres was decided upon ; but the land was never selected. In 1847 the Frcnoh endeavoured to &ell their claim to tho New Zealand Company, but La'iglois, the original adventurer, strongly opposed this movement, and so for two years no transaction took place. Finally, in July, 1849, a year hefore the founding of Canterbury provii.ee. the official liquidator of the French Company , forfeited the rights for the sum of £4500, and most of the settlers were conveyed to the French Marquesas. Those who remained lived to realise that under tho British flag they enjoyed greater privileges than jbhey cotild ever have hoped to procure tiom their own Government. The French occupation has left its mark, and the peninsula abounds with the orchards which were so dear to the hearts of the alienated people, and reminded them (=o much of their motherland. Tne oldfashioned Louses are for the most part of . French design, and the oldest and biggest families are French people, though they have long since ceased to speak their native, language. As vsoou ?s Canterbury had been founded. Banks Peninsula became the timber market not only of that province, but of many parts of the growing colony, so that 45 I years ago the settlement was at 'the height of its activity. Then began the Gargantuan task of denuding the mountains of theii forest, for, save for a few hu-idred acres on the northern coast, every part was il'iekly wooded from mountain top io water's edg-e. Year by yeav millions of feet of timbei were shipped away, and in as place was planted That luxuriant rocksfoot grass which to day is know n in the gram rrarkets of tha world. Sixty -five years have passed sinco the hardy settlers first began their task. «-nd row, though enough bush rotnakis to lend a charm to the hillsides and vulleys, the work ;s I finished. No more is the slumbrous peace disturbed by the- crash of forest giants, ivor the loveliness marred by the ' blackened scars of bush fires Tho hundreds of bushmen have gone, and ihi last timber mill has ceased to work. Bounded on all sides by the sea, and practically cut off from the outer world, the people preserve characteristics essentially the ; r own, and the rigorous competition which nmrks the advance* of civilisaticn in the more enterprising parts of t'-e colony is < ntirely absent. In the town of Akaroa itself tho ch-Aiigclessness is eppsc!ally noticeable. Old identities die off, but their children are their prototypes, and so to-day we see a place in almost every respect as it was 40~ .years ago. and as it will be 50 and a hundred years to come. It ii a little world in itself, which moves "slowly and defies the ravages of time. The produce from this land of milk and honey is well known throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand, but especial interest attaches to the grass-seeding industry. About this time of the year all the cattle and sheep are being driven from the top parts of hills to lower levels, or else disposed of in other ways, and thousands of acres of grass are allowed to reach maturity. Thus left unmolested, the oocksfoot reaches by New Year a height vaiying from 2ft to sft, and the hiils are clothed with a mantle of luxuriant green. By the end of January th's has changed to a rich brown, and the influx of the army of j grass-seeders has begun. The steamer sei'vice is improved for the season, and every day sees shiploads of men pouring into the bays. In a few hours they are scattered over the hills, tents are pitched, and tho work of reaping has begun. For the tiaie

being they are lost to sight, but as soon as darkness comes over the scene, numberless little points of light reveal the positions they have chosen for their temporary homes. And men of every lype seek tlrs ie=;pite from town life, from the criminal fleeing from justice to the student coxr/bining pleasure with money-mak-ing, from the man who comes to work like a slave — for it is slavery — and earn his cheque, to the man who lets his strip mates do his work, who works like a horso in the presence of the gang-leader, but who disappears beneath th© long grass in the gullies in his absence. Day after day the rich. seed goes down before the sickle of the reapers; day after day the green of the undergrass replaces the rich brown of the ripened heads ; and when the reaping is finished the more satisfactory work of threshing and bagging begins. " The oldfashioned flails, made of two stout sticks fastened together with raw hide, are used, and a large sheet is spread on which to thresh and retain the seed. It is vigorous work, and the hours are from daylight to dark; but the camp fire and the ample meal when the day is done seems to well repay. Long before the work is finished the grass-seeder has registered a solemn vow never to hold a reaping hook in his hand again ; yet the ". . . life somehow has a strange inviting When oiicg to the work they have put th&ir hand," and year after yeav finds the same mon back to their camps in the mountains.

Only to those who have- learned to love this " island valley of Arilion," whore the long-hidden waters from the mountains a hundred miles away bubble forth at a thousand different points, can the subtlety of its beauty fully appeal. The blue waters of the land-locked harbour, the mountains guarding like sentinels, this most precious of Nature's giffefa the babbling streams in every valley, the murmur of the wavelets on the shingle, the willows, slips from those thai' wept above tho grave of the great Napoleon, tho strange notes of the native birds, all have their chirm : and the tranquil beauty gf this je^el of the southern

seas will ever have a strange fo c cinai-:or» for those who have wooed its opiate air. For them it will ever bo a haven of rest, a garden of dreams.