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Tales of Banks Peninsula

No. 12.—Jimmy Robinson

page 148

No. 12.—Jimmy Robinson.

The collector of these histories has been fortunate indeed in procuring the autobiography of one of the mast celebrated Peninsula veterans, and begs to thank the kind friend who took such pains to secure it for him. The true history that follows was sent in an autobiographical form, but it has bean thought better to alter certain portions into the narrative style.

The subject of this number, James Robinson Clough, was a native of Bristol. How he came to drop his surname one cannot say, but he was universally known as Jimmy Robinson, or Rapahina, as the Maoris called him. When a boy he ran away from home and took to the sea, as is generally the case when a boy does run away. After several years in the East India trade, he found his way across to America, and there joined a new Bedford whaler called the Roslyn Castle, which was bound south. On board this vessel he stayed three years, and met with many an adventure. Whales were much more plentiful in those days than they are now, so that at the end of this time the Roslyn Castie was a full ship She had some remarkably good takes off the Solanders, and for over three weeks her fires were never out. During one of these ehases our hero very nearly lost the number of his mess. A large sperm whale, a cow with a calf, had been singled out, and the chief mate's boat, in which Robinson was pulling bow oar, was the first to make fast to her. As soon as she was struck, the whale sounded, and the line ran out fast, but she came up almost immediately, and went straight for the boat. Turning close to it, she gave one stroke with her flakes, cutting it clean in two, and killing the two midship oarsmen, tossing the others up in the air. They dropped close to the wreck, and managed to hold on to the oars and wreckage until picked up by the captain's boat. The same whale was taken two daya afterwards. It was known by the iron in it, and turned out a large number of barrels. Calling in at Stewart Island for wood and water, four fresh hands (Maoris) were enpage 149gaged. who had been a trip bafore, and turned out good men at the oar.

After cruising about up the east coast of New Zealand, they ran into Akaroa, as their captain intended to recruit here for a month It was blowing a gale of wind from the north west when they made the Heads, and it was as much as they could do to work the ship up the harbour. Some of the squalls were terrific, and as they had her under pretty small canvas, it was no joke working her, where the tacks were so short. After getting about half way up, the wind was a good deal steadier and the harbour wider, and they dropped anchor abreast of the present town of Akaroa. This was in March, 1837, There were three other vessels lying there at that time, two being French, and one a Sydney whaler. The skipper laid in a good stock of pork and potatoes, the Maoris being very willing to trade, taking principally tobacco and slops for their produce. The crew were allowed to go ashore a good deal, and it was here that our hero fell in love with a young Native woman, who proved as good and fond a wife to him as any of his own country women could have been. She was the daughter of a Native chief named Iwikau, a chief of the Ngatirangiamoa, and was about twenty years of age. To quote his own words: "I was about twenty three myself at this time, so we were about a match. As money was of very little use here in those days, I took all I had to draw from the ship in trade, and as we had been very lucky, my share amounted to over six hundred dollars. Amongst my purchases was a five oared whale-boat, which the skipper would not part with until after a lot of persuasion. I had a good stock of clothing, dungaree, coloured cotton and tobacco, so that I was looked upon as a Rangatira Pakeha. There was another white man living here at the time, known as "Holy Joe," but how he came to be called that I cannot imagine, as he was anything but what the name implied. I always looked upon him as a runaway from Van Diemen's Land, and such he afterwards told me he was. At this time there were over a thousand Maoris living round Whangaroa Harbour, for page 150that was the Native name of it. There were also settlements in all the Bays round as far as Port Cooper, so that there must have been about three thousand Maoris on the peninsula, including those to the south of Akaroa.

Jimmy Robinson was present, and helped to hoist the English standard in Akaroa. His own version of it, as told to our informant, was as follows: —

"It was in the year 1840, in August. I had been up to the Head of the Bay getting a load of pipis, of which the Maoris are very fond. I had in the boat with me my wife and her youngster, who was about a year old, and named Abner. 'Holy Joe' was also with me, as I found him more useful in handling a whale boat than the Maoris. We were beating down with a light south west wind, when I noticed a ship come round the point with a fair wind. I said to Joe, "We shall get some tobaeco at last," as we had been out of it for some time. We then stood toward her: but when we got a bit nearer we could see her ports, and that, therefore, she was a man of war. I said. so to my mate, and he said, 'If she is, for God's sake let me get ashore.', I suppose his guilty conscience pricked him, or else he had not finished his time and thought he might be recognised. To satisfy him I said I would land him, and paid her head off for the shore. I had not got far when I heard a blank shot fired and saw some signals run up, so I thought I was wanted as a pilot perhaps, so hauled on a wind again and ran alongside. She had come to an anehor by this time a little above Green's Point, as it is now called, She turned out to be the British man of-war Britomart, Captain Stanley, who came to tha side and asked me to step on board, which I did. He asked me who the female was, and I told him, so be said, 'Ask her to come on board I could hardly persuade her, but she came at last, and squatted down on deck with the young one in her arms. The captain ordered the steward to bring her something to eat, so she soon had a good spread of pies, cakes and fruit in front of her, but she seemed so nervous that she could not eat them. The captain asked me to come below, page 151 so I went down, and he asked me all about the place, bow long I bad been here, and how many vessels had called, and their names, and how many Maoris were living here. I gave him all the information I could about the place, so he told me that I must be sworn in as Her Majesty's interpreter, as he intended to take possession of the islands in Her Majesty's name, and wanted me to explain it to the Natives, I was given a bell and a small ensign to roll them up next morning, which I promised to do. We got what we wanted in the shape of tobacco, and something to wet our whistles as weil, and went ashore, 1 sent word ail round to the Natives, and next morning there was a great muster on the sandy beach between the two townships. Three or four of the ship's boats were ashore, and a party of them were sent with me to get a flag staff. We had not far to look, as we soon found and cut down a kahikatea as straight as a die and forty feet long. A block and halyards were soon rigged on and a hole dug, and it was very soon up. After all the Natives were squatted down, and the chiefs set out by themselves on an old ensign, the captain commenced to read his errand here to the Natives, all of which I had to interpret; but there was so much of it, I forget what it was all about, I know, however, that it all ended up with "God, Save the Queen," after which the British standard was run up and a discharge of musketry fired by the marines. A salute was also fired with the big guns on board, over which the Natives got into a great state of excitement. he captain invited myself and several of the chiefs on board, where he gave us a grand spread, and I was presented with a lieutenant's uniform, and each of the chiefs had a marine's coat given to him, Next morning the French-vessel arrived, and landed her colonists, as is already known. The Maoris did not look upon their arrival with much favour, and, if it had not been for the presence of the ships, an attempt would have been made to drive them away.

"After this several other white men took up their abode round Akaroa, so I thought I would shift my camp, and page 152left for Ikeraki, taking all my possessions in the [unclear: whales] boat, including my three youngsters. I stopped there for over four years, but part of chat time I spent in Peraki, where there were always one or two whalers, from whom I got plenty of work, and made a good bit of money in the way of supplying them with vegetables and potatoes. On one occasion, during a drunken spree, while I was lying in my bunk, I was stabbed in the breast with a knife no less than sixteen times, and you can see the marks of them yet. (On exposing his chest, the marks could be distinctly traced.) I happened to have a thick monkey jacket on at the time, or I should have been killed. It was the whaler's cook who stabbed me, and the captain put him [unclear: inions] and gave him bread and water for a month for it. I made a good bit of money selling spars to the whalers. There were some nice silver pines growing in Peraki then, and I got as high as thirty dollars each for some of them. Drinking rum and working in wet clothes brought on a bad attack of low fever, and for three weeks I was in bed. As a last resource, my wife, who was a powerful big woman, carried me over the bills as far as Wairewa (Little River), where thare was a Native doctor supposed to be very clever. Anyhow he cured me with Native herb, so as soon as I got better 1 left my wife and family for a bit, and went up as far as Kaiapoi, taking a couple of the Maoris with me as guides. There were several large pas in that district also, one up where Riccarton now is. I spent a month or two going about from one to the other, and then I returned and stayed a few years on the Peninsula again. Daring this period I lost my wife, so I made up my mind to go round and live on the Plains. I left my two girla with their friend, and took my three boys round in the loat, with the assistance of a couple of Maoris I went right up the river Avon, and can say that my boat was the first ever taken up that river by a white man. We stopped at a small pa near the mouth of the river for a couple of days, and then proceeded right up as far as Riccarton, which took three days, as the boat was heavy and the liver ran with great force. Shortly after this I met Mr. page 153John Deans, who had come to settle on the Plains, and took him up the river to the place where he is now living, and afterwards conveyed his family and goods the same way,* I worked for him for a bit, helping him to put up his whare, and afterwards engaged with him as shepherd."

But he found this sort of life too dull and solitary, so he left, and went north, where he engaged with Mr. Darby Caverhill, and managed his run for a bit. What is now known as Motanau was the place where they were living. He only stayed here about two years, and then went south again, and came across what is known as the Alford Forest. Being struck with the fine timber here, he thought it would be a fine place to settle, so he purchased the section where his house now stands, and he did very well out of it. He lived all alone here, his eldest boy being married, and living on Mr. Acland's station, Mount Peel, He happened to save Mr. Acland's life one time when he was crossing the Rangitata, and has been there ever since. His second son, George, he had not seen for some years. He went to live with the Maoris on the Peninsula; and his youngest he lost the run of altogether He sent him down to Christchurcb, about eight years ago, to get some tools and to get the horse shod, and he never heard a word from him since. He believed he got on the spree and sold the horse, and, being ashamed to come back, cleared off to sea.

Although living alone, Robinson's house was a picture of neatness. It was situated on the edge of the bush, about half way between McCrae's and Single Tree Point. There was a splendid garden of about two acres, filled with the choicest fruit trees, the sale of the produce of which brought him in a good bit of ready money. Living so close to a public house, most of it found its way there. When on the spree he would do almost anything for grog, and on one occasion, not having anything to raise the wind, he was seen endeavouring to sell a large family page 154Bible for a couple of nobblers. When away from drink be was a capital worker and a good bushman, and as there was always a good demand for fencing material, he sometimes did very well. About 1872 his house was burned down, and everything in it destroyed, What grieved him most was the loss of a little pet deg in the fire, and for days he kept looking for it round the bush, thinking it had escaped, but he saw nothing of it. Several of the neighbours lent him a hand, and a fresh house was put up and the garden renovated a bit, but most of his best apple trees had got killed. He was persuaded to be a teetotaler for a bit, and tried it for a time, but he went to see the Ashburton races in 1873, and being so well known in the district, his acquaintances wished him to have a drink. He explained that he was a teetotaler, but he would have a drink with them, and put it away in a bottle, and this he did until he had several bottles of mixed spirits, which he took back with him, and then commenced to break bulk, and until all was finished there was no work done. Drinking and hard living now commenced to tell on his once iron constitution, and a paralytic stroke, from which he suffered, seemed to hasten his end. He went down to see Mrs. Deans, who kindly offered to get him into the Old Men's Home, but he would not hear of it, so after staying in the Christchurch Hospital for three weeks, and feeling better, he set out home again to the Alford Forest. But he seemed past work, and lived, one may say, on the charity of the neighbours. He left the public house to proceed home one winter's evening, and was found dead about half way, with a half empty bottle of spirits beside him. It was supposed that he sat down to have a drink, and, failing asleep, was frozen to death. Thus died penniless in 1874, James Robinson Clough, a man who, with the opportunities he had, should have been a second Rhodes. It may Seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, that the end of the subject of this number and that of Walker, both men who were almost the first Europeans on the Peninsula, should have been so similar, both dying from the immediate effects of drink on the Canterbury page 155Plains When living with his two sons, Abner and Robinson, he used to make them read the Bible aloud to him every evening. He was working for a good while in the employ of Mr. Justin Aylmer at Malvern and other places, and bore the reputation of being an excellent bush man. His favourite book was a translation of Herodotus, which he was constantly reading. He told Mr. Aylmer that he had once resided in Sydney, where he had been employed in a store, fallen in love with his master's daughter, and married her. He was wild in those days, and, having a dispute with his wife, cleared out one fine morning, and never saw or heard of her again.

* It must be remembered this tale was related to my Informant some years ago when Mr. Deans was alive.