The poineers of early settlement in Marlborough underwent more trying experiences than those which fell to the lot of their contemporaries in other more tranquil provinces of the Middle Island. Dealings with the Maoris oft times ended in a conflict or massacre, and ruinous floods frequently devastated the land.

The first European settlers were the whalers, who settled in 1827 at Te Awaite, or “Tar Whire,” as it was more generally terned by Englishmen with little aptitude for following the musical Maori pronunciation. From conventent points of the surrounding headlands they could watch the monsters of the deep; and the industry of whaling, established so long ago, is still carried on with success.

Despite the tribal wars of the Maoris, and their occasional assaults upon the Europeans, settlement progressed surely, thoughslowly, although it was checked for a time by the Wairau massacre, of 1843. But the spirit of adventure was strong in the young colonists of Nelson, and in 1845 exploring parties moved towards the Wairau. Messrs Fox, Redwood, Ward, and Goulter were amongst the earliest settlers on the Plain, and in 1847 Mr. Charles Clifford and Mr. Frederick Weld (afterwards Sir Charles and Sir Frederick) shipped a large mob of sheep from Sydney to Port Underwood, and took them to Flaxbourne. in 1848, the European population of the province was 194, but Sir George Grey's payments to the natives, two years later, of £1,600 and £3,000, in liquidation of their claims to the Wairau, lead to a further increase of settlement. The newcomers were supplied chiefly by Nelson, and the settlers were mostly pastoralists, who took up runs in the Wairau, Waihopai, and Awatere districts.

An incident illustrative of the early days has been described by an old Marlborough settler, who relates that he walked from Nelson to Blenheim, and crossed the bed of the Wairau river, dry shod. On arriving at the northern bank of the river one evening, he decided to camp there until morning, but during the night the river had changed its course to some considerable distance behind him. As he walked over the dry bed he felt like an Israelite of old crossing the Red Sea, and realised that the days of miracles had not entirely passed away.

For this section, as for other portions of the Marlborough division of this volume, the conductors of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand have secured records of representative pioneers, the story of whose lives must prove of interest to the present generation and to future times.