EARLY DAYS.

Southland Times, Issue 19894, 12 June 1926, Page 11

EARLY DAYS.

CAPTAIN STOKES’ IMPRESSIONS. ARTFUL METHODS OF TRADERS. \ A VISIT TO NELSON. — t NO. VIII.

Mr Bradshaw, away on duty till midnight, observed a pa where the people lighted a great fire to attract his notice and tempt his party to visit them. Two or three wild-looking fellows with faces painted in streaks of red and yellow came down to the shore. Bradshaw brought specimens of fossil shells, one a terebrakila of large size and very perfect form. Sunday, August 18.—At anchor. Under way at 12; came to about 4. Party landed and found a number of Maoris, who had poultry, vegetables, and fish for sale; but they, being “missioners,” would not deal on the Sabbath. Described their old chief as “all same as Rauparaha” in rank, it is to be hoped, not in character. Some Maoris guided the party to where coal was abundant on the banks of a river. In appearance it resembles Kilkenny coal. The Inflexible tried it when here. The crew of one of the paddle-box boats engaged all day in procuring a quantity for the Acheron’s use. Strata visible in the river’s bed and all along the beach, which was partly covered with very white sand. Bradshaw killed a couple of stilted plovers, which he consigned to Dr Lyall for preservation. Dr Forbes on shore all day investigating the geology of this harbour. An extent of good level land near the beach. CHEATING THE MAORIS About midnight the boat got off with coal, bringing several Maoris, among whom were Ruaparaha’s brother and nephew. Two Englishmen (sawyers) accompanied them, and remained all night. Next day they enlightened us upon their scheme for cheating the natives in the purchase of pork and potatoes, etc. “Besides,” quoth this conscientious pakeha, “what I get by this profitable traffic many’s the petty pickings gained in the shape of presents. A woman, for instance, whom I have formerly known in an adjacent bay, visits our settlement with a great kit of potatoes at her back. Seeing her approach, I straightway run out of my house and make towards her. The moment she catches my eye down goes the potato kit plump to the ground, and squatting by its side she commences a tangi, or crying bout, always attendant on the interview of friends long separated. Rubbing noses comes next, and that over my female visitor utters the salutation ‘Airemai!’ points to the potatoes, and then vanishes as abruptly as she came. Thus are they all eager to bespeak my goodwill as though I were the stronger, instead of the weaker party, and when they don’t I bide my time. “One gets sick. I have considerable skill in phlebotomy. He comes here to be led blood. Recollecting- an old grudge, I drain him till he staggers as weak as my cat. Another gets a whack with a tomahawk in the bush. The white man must dress his hurt, and I do dress it, rubbing in bluestone till he winces and roars like a bull calf.” How the scoundrel ventures to practise his rascalities on these irascible savages I am somewhat at a loss to conjecture. Both Maoris and white men get many presents while on board. To the latter were given, notwithstanding their delinquencies, a small collection of books, comprising the ‘Economy of Life,’ an odd volume of Scott’s ‘Antiquary,’ ‘Christian Armour,’ an English spelling book, and Prayer Book, to which Mr Evans added a monthly number of the ‘Athenaeum,’ the miscellaneous character of its articles being well calculated to amuse them in that dreary season w’hen there is a cessation of outdoor work.

In a bay about a mile wide at its entrance stands the settlement of Nelson. As to Nelson itself, it much resembles a comfortable English market town, lively enough, at least to our eyes. Of respectable shops, well stocked, there is plenty. Places of public accommodation hang out their signs of entertainment for man and horse at conspicuous points, as in the Old Country. One of higher pretentions than its compeers, known by the Maori name of “Wakatu” (or place of rest), boasted attractions which at once monopolised the patronage of our gentlemen. Here likewise seemed no lack of private hospitality, and from many pleasant circumstances not occurring elsewhere Nelson was voted by the Acherons, —and deservedly—to be the most agreeable, warm-hearted community they had hitherto visited in the islands. A HAPPY COMMUNITY. The favourite because oft-repeated exclamation of its humbler residents, “We are all quite independent and care for no man,” though a little self-sufficient, is no idle vaunt. The general aspect of things both in town and country leads a stranger to think so. A peasantry well clothed, lodged and fed, strong for labour and contented in spirit, is, alas! a prospect non-existent in the social composition of Europe. To be satisfied that settlers of every grade enjoy abundantly these temporal advantages in their adopted country one need only pass through the highly fertile district within twenty or thirty miles of the port. These farms are upon the well-known Waimea Plains. A good wide road traverses the district as far as “Fox Hill Village,” whence bridle and sheep paths lead to Cloudy Bay, upwards of 100 miles to the east. The settlers atribute all the merit of the satisfactory progress of this settlement to the superintendence of Mr Fox, the New Zealand Company’s principal agent. When in 1844 the affairs of this body fell into temporary embarrassment, it was at first resolved to discharge all their workmen here —l5O in number. Very little land comparatively was then under cultivation, and food proportionately dear. Foreseeing the evil the sudden cessation of employment must create, he proposed and succeeded in arranging that the men should be still retained for three days’ labour each week, the other three days to be occupied in raising supplies to meet the reduced wage. His proposal met with cheerful acquiescence. The emigrants went to work with a will; but as labourers, being then not bona fide proprietors of land, they fixed themselves on untenanted portions of the surrounding waste, and, in colonial parlance, became squatters, Mr Fox privately winking at an irregularity justified by the necessities of the times, but which, as the company’s servant, he could not officially sanction. The Nelson farmers chiefly employ bullocks for agricultural labour. They are a large breed, and when the stranger meets them drawing the loaded wain he easily imagines himself in Hampshire. The further you go from town, the larger and more important grow the farms. A German establishment amongst this is spoken of by some of the officers who called there as having by its superior arrangements afforded them much gratification. Dr. Forbes saw a magnificent barn having an area equal to that of the Acheron’s deck, where every kind of produce was housed. On the day after our arrival at this anchorage the Cornwall, a fine emigrant vessel, arrived direct from England.

DEVOUT NATIVES

Monday, August 21.—The Natives ashore, being missioners, never fail to utter a thanksgiving before every meal. They assemble daily for prayer in a large hut kept specially for religious worship at the sound of a very primitive bell, which is an old gun barrel struck upon with a piece of copper. Their conversation turns much upon points of doctrine and the relative pretentions of Wesleyanisms and the Established Church. Even where less than a dozen Natives congregate they often differ about discipline as churchmen and dissenters, each arrogating to himself religious superiority and sending their children to different schools.

Blowing hard all day, the gale increased during the night, and continued all the following morning. About noon, the sun having shone out, we steamed from Massacre Bay, anchoring (6 p.m.) under shelter of. Tonga Island, a pyramidal rock clothed with bush, at the entrance of a small semi-cir-cular bay. Bright sand occupied the beach, flanked on either side by precipices. The mainland has hills of moderate elevation, more than usually free from timber. No inhabitants. The boats engaged sounding. Lieutenant Phillips and Dr Forbes returned from shore with geological fragments. Wednesday, 22.—At anchor in Astrolable Roads. A little fleet of canoes visited us, loaded with potatoes, fish, corn, pigs, etc., for which their owners chaffered with their usual Jewish love of gain. There were women and children, dogs, cats, and parrots. Males and females formed a picture gallery of “most damnable faces,” rendered still more hideous by deep, ragged scars which few of them had escaped. One fellow was a rare spectacle. Not a single tattoo mark had he anywhere save on his nose, and that was elaborately ornamented with azure furrows, as if the operator had there concentrated all his art. We named him “Blue Nose.” Clean and snowwhite, his blanket hung about him in graceful folds, secured on the shoulder by a boar’s tusk pin, delicately set off wjith a slight carving. Their taste for ornaments — every object, even of common use—is very prevalent amongst the Maori. In the afternoon anchored in a little bay called Kai-teri-teri. IMPRESSIONS OF NELSON Friday, August 24.—Steamed down Blind Bay for Nelson. The hills rising above the beach, in their freedom from timber and scrub, bear some resmblance to those around Port Cooper. But there the resemblance ends, for no human habitation met the eye at the latter place; here, however, frequent cottages line the shore and the hillside. One comfortable English-fashioned dwelling, to which was attached a large well-cultivated garden, enclosed by a hedge of the goldenblossomed gorse, stood opposite our anchorage, and attracted the more attention because that plant, being not indigenous to New Zealand, must have been perpetuated from seed brought out by the proprietor of the clearing, who probably was desirous at once to create a familiar and graceful memento of the land he had quitted. On a point stands another conspicuous building remarkable for being once the property of Mr Thompson, police magistrate, who fell at the Wairau quarrel. Numerous small houses, each with its patch of cultivation, lie between, from which, as the steamer passed inshore, there was a vision of many eager faces at every open door. Presently the whole of these worthy Nelsonians descended the beach and tried their speed with the Acheron, shouting a welcome as they ran. The brow of the hill also soon became peopled with the curious of another class. <