WAIMATE CENTURY REACHED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22791, 15 January 1944, Page 3

WAIMATE CENTURY REACHED

Visit Of First White Men

Bishop Selwyn And Doctor

Shortland

Waimate attains a century of pakeha history to-morrow. One hundred years ago white men for the first time set foot on Waimate soil, when, on January 16, 1884, a historic meeting took place on the shores of a lagoon near Lake Walnono between Bishop Selwyn and Dr. Edward Shortland. M.A. (Cantab.), Pi otector of Aborigines. On January 15, 1844. Dr. Shortland walked from the Waitaki river and camped that night in a dry channel of the Walhao river one mile and a half from the sea. His party (himself and two or three Maoris) walked .up the sea coast, but made only' six or seven miles for the day, passing “Lake Waihao” and other lagoons and camping that night (January 16, 1844) on the beach by the side of one of these "lakes” called Te Whakai-a-Kohika, the water of which was drinkable, most of the others being too brackish to use.

A Camp Fire Talk On this evening they lit the fire and pitched their tent and were surprised to see a man dressed in European clothing coming toward them. The Maoris soon said it was Bishop Selwyn, and so it proved to be. Dr. Shortland was travelling north from Otago, and the Bishoo was on his historic walk from Banks Peninsula to the Bluff. They camped together and spent a happy evening in conversation and comparison of notes. The lagoon, beside which the tents were pitched, was a little north of Lake Wainono (which neither traveller mentions), and it can be identified from Maori chartography. So far as is known, these visitors were the first white men ever to set foot in the Waimate County. Mr Michael Studholme (who became Waimate’s pioneer settler when he arrived in a bullock waggon in July, 1854, and built his whare) accompanied by his brother, had ridden through the district on their way from their holding at Rakaia to Otago and saw what a fine settlement it would make. Probably several other squatters also rode through, but only one—W. H. Valpy, who visited in 1852—left any record of the impressions made on him. C. O. Torlesse, the Government surveyor, was sent twice—in 1849 and in 1851—to survey and report. W. Mantell, accompanied by A. Wills, also paid two visits, in December, 1852, and October, 1848, to set aside reserves for the Maoris. There were visitors, but not the pioneer visitors. That honour is shared between Bishop Selwyn and Dr. Shortland.

An entry made by Dr. Shortland in his diary on January 17 reads: “After breakfast and prayers our encampment was broken up and we separated." Shortland camped that night near Timaru and stayed around this locality a day or two. He then resumed his journey in short stages, as it was January 25 before he came to a vaje called Te Takanga-o-te-kotuku, a few miles north of the Rangitata river, where he saw traces of the Bishop’s tent. The Bishop, going south, reached Waikouaiti on January 22, and on January 24 was at Otago Heads. Leaving there in a native schooner he landed on Sundav, January 28, at Ruapuke Island and preached the first sermon ever preached in Southland.