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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Mr. George Magnus Hassing

Mr. George Magnus Hassing , Headmaster of the Heddon Bush School, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1837, was educated in the Royal Vajsenhus, and went to sea at the age of fifteen years. After visiting India, South and Central America, and the Californian goldfields, he sailed for China, where, as mate of a Peruvian vessel, he traded among the coastal ports for two years. This was rather an exciting period of his life, as the coast of China was at that time infested with piratical junks. Leaving China in 1856, he made a trip home, and in 1857 he paid his last visit to Copenhagen. Then followed a voyage to Bombay, where the troops had just come down from Cawnpur, after the terrible massacre during the mutiny. In February, 1859, he arrived in Lyttelton by the barque “Ambrosine,” Captain Parson, and in the following year settled at Oamaru. Mr Hassing engaged in supplying timber for the runs in the neighbourhood of Lake Wanaka, and was the first man to open up the magnificent forest on the Makaroa river, at the head of the lake. When the Dunstan “rush” took place, he was one of the earliest on the field, and afterwards established the first ferry to Albertown, which proved highly remunerative. Subsequently, he established ferries and stores at Sandy Point and Rocky Point, on the Upper Clutha. In 1864, in company with the late Mr William Docherty, he explored the headwaters of the Haast, Clark, and Landsborough rivers, and discovered a magnificent area of grass country. The intrepid explorers spent ninety days without seeing a human being except themselves. After following the West Coast “rushes,” Mr Hassing returned to Lake Wanaka, in 1868, and engaged in trade on the Lake, where he build several vessels. He sold out at Wanaka in 1874, and acquired considerable mining interests at Cardrona; but as he was swamped out by the great flood, in 1878, he changed his occupation, and obtained the appointment of headmaster of the Cardrona school. Mr Hassing, who is a frequent contributor to the Scandinavian press, is also an active member of the Order of Freemasons, and takes a deep interest in the progress and general welfare of the Heddon Bush district. He was married, in 1875, to the only daughter of the late Mr Joseph Price, of Westminster, London, and has one daughter. Mrs Hassing arrived in Wellington, in 1869, by the ship “Forfarshire.”