OTAGO'S FIRST WHITE BOY

Southland Times, Issue 23995, 9 December 1939, Page 12

OTAGO'S FIRST WHITE BOY

Beattie’s History of Thomas Kennard

THE FIRST WHITE BOY BORN IN OTAGO. By H. Beattie. A. H. and A. W. Reed, Dunedin. Price 7/ 6. [Reviewed by F. G. HALL-JONES]

THOMAS BAKER KENNARD: Born May 6, 1841, at Waikouaiti; died February 29, 1936 in his 95th year; married in 1863 and enjoyed 68% years of married life.' Kennard’s parents were among the 11 families brought over from Sydney to Waikouaiti on March 18, 1840, by Johnny Jones to found a farming settlement. Southlanders will have it in mind that W. S. Trotter, later of this district, came over with this party. The first white child born in Otago was Julia Carey and the first boy is the subject of this volume. His reminiscences are of especial value for two reasons—his remarkable memory over a long career and the qualifications of his “Boswell.” Herries Beattie is probably the greatest living authority on the history of the southern part of the South Island and readers will be already familiar with his series of articles on the Southern Runs. As a small child Kennard learned all the bush-lore, superstitions and customs of the Maori children such as I have not seen recorded elsewhere. His youthful recollections were of the whalers, and we hear of Tommy Chasland and “Dutch Harry” (Wixon) of the South. Dunedin had him at school for two years among the children of the first immigrant ships. When he was 12 his father built an accommodation house on a small farm at Goodwood, and callers with beards of all styles came under young Tom’s observant eye. McKenzie of Edendale passed north with his big red bullock en route for his sheep-stealing adventure in the McKenzie country, and Alex McNab cam? south to Knapdale. Thereafter he moved among the farm-

ing community and In 1859 he accompanied Brock with a mob of 150 cattle for Thomas Newton’s run at Orepuki. (Query: Was this the Brock whose “Bob Apples” delighted his backers at the Riverton races of 1863?) Southland was entered at the Long Ford (Gore) before Dan Morton had arrived to disturb the wild pigs and native birds. The route seems strange to us today and is reminiscent of Roberts’s trip to the Waiau in 1857. Kennard and Brock took their mob of cattle past Croyden, the Waimea Station at Longridge, the Elbow, Roger’s Moonlight Station, Dunrobin (Basstian’s), down the Aparima and across the Narrows to Colac Bay. Even when returning Kennard followed the back trail without spying out Invercargill. There followed a spell of droving in Otago Central, then the round of the diggings from Gabriel’s Gully to Cardrona, with many anecdotes, haps and mishaps. In 1863 he married Mary McNicol and in 1875 settled at Waimate. In 1889-90 he was again in Southland, particularly in the Waikawa district. He enjoyed the best of health and vigour until a few months before his death. His early, arrival,, his. observant eye and retentive memory, and above all his well-qualified biographer have given us a unique story of the pioneer days and the pioneer people of Otago and Southland. Kennard does not remember the Maori name of Tommy Roundhead. He was Haereroa. The reviewer has one criticism to offer in respect of this and many other historical books, even Hocken’s “Contributions,” and that •is the lack of an index.