SETTLERS BEFORE THE SETTLEMENT

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 47

SETTLERS BEFORE THE SETTLEMENT

The careful manner in which the purchase of the Otago lands from the Maoris had been proceeded with was of course told in the other settlements, and it was only natural that some should repair hither at the earliest opportunity. To the foremost of these Dr Hocken gives the honour of being the bona ,fide pioneers of the new settlement. Here they courageously remained for more than three years, until, indeed, reinforced by the arrival of the emigrants in 1848. These first settlers consisted of two families, connected by marriage, and who arrived at Koputai (Port Chalmers) from Ne'eon on December 30, 1844. The names of community at Taieri — the Andersons, his son John, and John's wife Isabella; also Mr and Mrs Alexander M'Kay, the two wives being sisters. The descendants of these first settlers form a fairly large community at Taieri — the Andersons, M'Kays, Allans, Thomsons, M'Caws, and others. On their arrival they discovered that there was but little prospect of employment, but youth being on their side, and having faith in the future, they determined to remain and encounter the certain hardships of the new condition. The M'Kays settled at Koputai, and opened the first public-house there, giving to it the name of " Surveyors' Arms. The site is that now ocupied by the Port Chalmers Hotel. The Andersons tame on up the river, as the whalers called the harbour, and finally decided to make their home at the pretty inlet opposite the present Dunedin, and known after them as Anderson's Bay. Time passed

very wearily until February, 1846, when there suddenly appeared on the scere a whaleboat containing Mr C. H. Kettle and; a party of surveyors, bent on apportioning the territory previously acquired from the Natives. John Anderson got immediate employment with the surveyors, and built a small house, which was long afterwards occupied by Mr Pelichet.