MURDERING BEACH

Otago Witness, Issue 3775, 20 July 1926, Page 74

MURDERING BEACH

EARLY OTAGO HISTORY. AUCKLAND, July 13. A tragic episode in the early history of New Zealand was recalled at a meeting of the Anthropology and Maori Race Section of the Auckland Institute laa<fc evening when a paper by Mr H. D. Skinner, entitled, “More Light on Murdering Beach,” was read by Mr Gilbert Archey (Curator of the Auckland Museum). Murdering Beach near Otago Harbour, was noted in the early part of last century as the most prolific site for greenstone in New Zealand. The incident that gave it its lugubrious name occurred in December, 1817 The brig Sophia, from Hobart, anchored in Otago Harbour on December 11 to prepare for a sealing expedition, and the following day the master. Captain Janies Kelly, a daring navigator* who is said to have made himself famous by a voyage round Tasmania in an open boat in 1815, proceeded in a ship’s boat with six men to Murdering Bay, called in those days Small Bay. Leaving one man in charge of the boat, the captain and the five remaining members of his crew went on shore to barter with the Maoris for potatoes. Suddenly, according to an account published some time later, there was “a horrid yell,” and the white men were set upon by about 60 Natives. The five men fought desperately, but only two gained the fcrcat alive. Returning to the ship in Otago Harbour the survivors found on board about 150 Natives, who “pretended to be very friendly.” Being informed by his mate that they intended to take the ship. Captain Kelly formed his crew into a solid square on the quarter deck. The chief thereupon ordered his men to attack and a hand to hand fight ensued, the crew using their large sealing knives as weapons. The account proceeds: ‘‘The Natives began to fall so fast before the knives that a great number jumped overboard and were drowned and many were swept out to sea by the strong ebb tide that was then running, and there was no chance of their getting on shore as the tide was running at five to six knots on the ebb.” The report places the number of Maoris killed at 16, and the number drowned at 50, with as many more wounded. Of the ship’s crew two men were slightly wounded. The Maoris made an attempt to capture the ship the next morning by concealing some 40 men under the mats in the bottom of a canoe which they brought alongside. The ruse was discovered however, and a volley was fired into them. They nevertheless tried to scramble up the ship’s sides many being run through with boarding spikes in the attempt. Next day. m order to forestall the plan of the Maoris to launch their canoes two armed boots were sent ashore from the ship, and while the Maoris were kept at a distance with muskets, their canoes were sawed each into three pieces and removed to the ship for firewood. The final passage in the narrative ran as fellows: “The Maoris having become more excited and inflexible at this attempt to seize our boats, we determined at onco to land, set fire to the town and burn it to the ground. This was on the 26th of December, 1817. It was a fine, clear summer day. blowing a fresh hot wind from the north-west. W e landed nine men but kept the boats afloat. On our approach the Natives ail ran to the rising hills and left us in full possession of the town. A fire was lighted at the weather end, and in about four hours the beautiful city of Otago, as we then called it, was laid in a heap of ashes.” Captain Kelly later retired from the sea and occupied the post of harbourmaster at Hobarttown, Tasmania. In his paper Mr Skinner finds certain discrepancies in this account and notes particularly that 12 days are unaccounted for. he came to the conclusion that the account of'the doings in the harbour is part invention and part grotesque exaggeration, with a small remnant of truth, and that one of the events unreported is the burning. in addition to the town of Otago, of a village at Murdering Beach, where three men were killed. He says: “Had Kelly any motive for hiding his actions during those 12 days? The answer is that had too heavy a retribution been exacted by Kelly and his crew the fear of punishment in the courts would have constituted a powerful motive for concealing part of the story. That an unduly heavy punishment was inflicted on the Maoris seems to be indicated by a letter from Mr J. B. Weller, found among Kelly’s papers after his death, warning him that a|ter 15 years had passed any vessel belonging to him still ran grave risks in entering Otago Harbour. Hence it is probable that his behaviour to the Maoris had gone beyond fair retaliation, and a sufficient motive existed for the suppression of part of the story. It is clear from this letter that the Otago Maoris regarded Kelly’s actions as much more than balancing accounts for the loss of three men.”