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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. John Webster

Mr. John Webster, Owner of the Opononi Estate of 700 acres, was born in 1818, at Montrose, Scotland. His father, Mr. Andrew Webster, was a merchant, and young Webster was educated at the Montrose Academy. In 1833 he went to Glasgow, where he entered the office of Mr. J. H. Patterson, general merchant and exporter. Like other land of his nation, young John Webster neglected neither business nor books, and he was especially fond of reading Robinson Crusoe, and other works bearing upon adventure and travel. These books gave so strong a bias to his mind that by the time he was twenty he was fully determined to visit other lands. Accordingly, on the 23rd of August, 1838, he left Glasgow, in the emigrant ship “Portland,” Captain Coubra, bound for Sydney, New South Wales, which they reached in December, after a passage of 138 days. Always an observer and a recorder of what he observed, Mr. Webster wrote an account of the outward voyage. Of those aboard the “Portland,” only Mr. Webster and the late Mr. Peter Monro paid passage money. Sydney was but a small place in December, 1838, and when Mr. Webster landed at the foot of George Street, the first sound that fell on his ear was the clanking of the chains of the convicts who were at work on the formation of that part of the street, and at that time the barracks of the soldiers occupied the greater part of the north side of George Street. He could have obtained employment in an office in Sydney, but he preferred to go up country, and went several hundreds of miles inland to work on the sheep station of Mr. E. Howe, of Glen Lee, on the Murrumbidgee river. It was an arduous journey, and several tribes of blacks were met on the way, but they were all friendly, and the smell of the gum trees, the novel aspects of the country, and the sight of wild men, naked and not ashamed, were elements of romance in the situation. At Mr. Howe's station ticket-of-leave shepherds took the flocks out to graze and brought them back at night to be yarded at the various out stations. A great drought set in, and grass became so scarce that the sheep scraped the ground for roots, and gum trees had to be felled so that they might eat the leaves. At the end of the year Mr. Howe sold his sheep and station, and brought 1000 head of cattle with the intention of taking them overland to Adelaide. To do this a number of men were needed, and Mr. Webster and James McLaurin, another young Scotsman, joined the party, which consisted chiefly of ticket-of-leave men. Many adventures were met by the way on account of hostile blacks killing the cattle and horses. When the neighbourhood of Adelaide was reached the party camped at the Gawler river, and the Governor himself visited the camp, which was left in charge of Mr. Webster. After the cattle were sold the party returned to Melbourne by the first steamer which had come to Australia, a small paddle boat with a speed of five knots an hour. As they went up the harbour they passed two or three square-rigged immigrant ships with people for the new settlement, and the little steamer was hailed with cheers as she passed them. The steamer anchored off Liardet's Beach, whence Mr. Webster walked through swampy ground, and crossed the Yarra in a boat to Melbourne, which was then a small struggling place, with a blockhouse, a police station, and very few private houses. There were stocks at the police station,
Mr. J. Webster.Hanna, photo.

Mr. J. Webster.
Hanna, photo.

The Woods of Opononi.

The Woods of Opononi.

page 617 and when Mr. Webster was going the rounds on his arrival, he found that the steamer's cook and carpenter, who had gone ashore before him, were already imprisoned in these ancient instruments, probably to restrain them from painting the infant metropolis in lurid red. Mr. Howe formed a new station at Broken River, nearly 200 miles from Melbourne, and engaged Mr. Webster and Mr. James McLaurin to drive fat cattle into town. This was rough works, as wild country, peopled by warlike blacks had to be traversed, sometimes with insufficient rations and badly cooked food. In 1840 Mr. Howe arranged another trip with cattle from Sydney to Adelaide, and again engaged Mr. Webster and Mr. James McLaurin. It started from the head waters of the Murray river and the party was the first to try that route. Mr. Webster was entrusted with preparing the necessary outfit, drays, supplies, etc., and conveyed them to the Murray to await the arrival of the cattle. One of the articles in the equipment for the journey was a water-tight punt on wheels. When a large river had to be crossed stores and other things were placed in this punt, which was then launched and ferried over to the other side; horses and cattle swam across. This trip was in charge of Messrs John and Edward Howe. On the 29th of August a start was made with 1000 head of cattle, and the long, dangerous journey of 1302 miles was finished by the end of January, 1841. Three hundred cattle were lost by the way, some through being drowned in crossing rivers, and some through being speared by the blacks, who sometimes attacked them from ambush. Mr. Websters own horse was speared, and also one of the men of the party; on one occasion the party had a fierce fight with the natives, and more than once they killed several through having to fire on them. Webster and McLaurin usually went ahead to look for a good camping ground. On one occasion they discovered a river entering the Murray from the north, and Mr. Webster named it the Edward, after Edward Howe. In after years Mr. James McLaurin became a wealthy squatter on the river Edward, but he has been dead for some years, and Mr. Webster is now (1901) the last survivor of that overland party. Few, if any, people living know the origin of the name Edward, as applied to the river in question. On returning to Sydney, Mr Webster shipped in the “Jupiter,' for New Zealand, and landed at the Bay of Islands during 1841. His brother, Mr. William Webster, had two years previously arrived in the colony in connection with Mr. Gibbon Wakefield's colonisation scheme, and had brought out a sawmill plant and been the first colonist to start a sawmill in New Zealand. Mr. John Webster joined him at Hokianga. The Maoris were then peaceful, for though they were a fine race of warriors, the missionaries had obtained a beneficent influence over them. Dr. Logan Campbell was then at Hokianga, and he and Mr. John Webster used to pull in a canoe together to visit the Maori chiefs. Dr. Campbell's first visit to Hokianga was made in the barque “Bolina,” Captain Daldy, chartered by Brown and Campbell to load spars and other produce for England. Dr. Campbell has ever been held in the highest esteem by Mr. Webster, and is now (1901) his oldest living friend. In those days a good deal of trading was done with the Maoris. Mr. Webster was at Hokianga through all the troublous time of Heke's war in 1845, being with the friendly native allies under Tamati Waka Nene, and he and the late Judge Maning were much together during that period. Mr. Webster has written a history of the war, which students of the subject hope will be published some day. After Heke' war Mr. Webster went to Auckland, and in 1849 was supercargo for a vessel belonging to Messrs Brown and Campbell, and as such visited California. He then joined Mr. Benjamin Boyd, of the “Wanderer,” a fine yacht which carried twelve guns, and her midship gun, “Long Tom,” is now in Albert Park, Auckland. During a cruise amongst the Solomon Islands, a fight took place at Guadacanar, on the 15th of October, 1851, between the natives and Mr. Boyd's men, and Mr. Boyd himself was killed; an incident which is referred to at some length in the general introduction to this volume. Shortly after Mr. Boyd's death the “Wanderer” was wrecked at Port Macquarrie, and Mr. Webster went to Sydney, whence he proceeded to the Turon goldfields. Subsequently he visited the Victorian diggings. He discovered a valuable reef at Mount Alexander, but could not work it without machinery. He, however, filled a candle box with specimens, one of which was twenty-one pennyweights. With that he went to London, where he visited Mr. Boyd's friends, by whom he was lionised, and was introduced to notabilities at the house of Lord Rosse, and had the honour of showing his sketches of the islands to her Majesty the Queen and Prince Albert. He also attended the meetings of the Royal Society where he met Sir George Grey, who had been recalled from the Cape, and he saw British troops embarking for the Crimea. Mr. Webster returned to Hokianga in 1855, when he married the daughter of his old friend, Mr. George Frederick Russell, of Kohukohu. Mr. Russell died shortly afterwards, and Mr. Webster entered extensively into the timber trade with his younger brother, Mr. A. S. Webster, who had offices in Sydney, and who received and sold tea cargoes from China, shipped in return timber vessels, and traded to India, China, South America, England, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The timber they dealt in was all in long lengths; spars for three-deckers of the British navy, Chinese junks, etc. The brothers were in the business from 1855 to 1874, when they sold out their timber areas and ships to various purchasers. Mr. Webster had previously bought 700 acres of land at Opononi. It was then so bleak as to be little better than a wilderness, and for several years all his efforts at planting were frustrated by the winds. However, by persevering with thickly planted trees, Mr. Webster at last succeeded in making Opononi an ideal idyllic homestead and pastoral farm, where he has for years entertained distinguished visitors to the district, and has had for his guests the Earls of Glasgow and Ranfurly, and other New Zealand Governors. There he himself, too, after his strange eventful history, filled with moving incidents by field and flood, has for years been spending in genial quietude the evening of his long life. Mrs Webster died some years ago, and for some time one of the sons, Mr. George Webster, has managed the property, and acted as agent for the Northern Steamship Company, in which his father is a large shareholder. Mr. and Mrs. Webster had a family of four sons and three daughters. Though living in retirement Mr. Webster has never ceased to take an actively intelligent part in matters bearing upon industrial progress or intellectual movement, and he has long been a member of the New Zealand Institute, the Polynesian Society, and the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.
In Mr. Webster's Grounds.

In Mr. Webster's Grounds.