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Tales of Banks Peninsula

No. 24.—Mr. Thomas White

page 200

No. 24.—Mr. Thomas White.

Mr. Thomas White, though he must have been over 80 years of age at the time the writer compiled this, was then very hale and hearty, and lived with his son, Mr. George White, in their pleasant home at the head of Holmes' Bay Like many of our pioneers, he was an old sailor, and also a whaler, and in his long acquaintance with the Peninsula had seen it advance from a Maori populated resort of occasional whalers to the pleasant home of 5000 Europeans. Mr. White was an American, having been born at Rhode Island. He became an orphan at a very early age, his father being killed in one of the Mexican wars, and his mother dying, and his youthful days were spent under the roof of a friend of his dead parents. Rhode Island, as many people know is a great place for shipping, and at 14 Mr. White went to sea. He learnt the ropes in several uneventful voyages, the only part of which he seemed to dwell upon being a quarrel with the mate of a whaler at Rio Janeiro, which ended in his being left at that port, whence he shipped to England, arriving on the Thames on the very day of King William the Fourth's coronation. He shipped in a London whaler called the Timour, and in her he spent three years, one of his shipmates being our own Billy Simpson, who was afterwards in the Akaroa Hospital. The first part of New Zealand he visited was the Bay of Islands, to which place he came from England in a whaler called the Achilles. He left her at this place, and went to Sydney in the Sir William Wallace In Sydney he joined another whaling brig, called the Genii, and spent thirteen months in her on the New Zealand coast. His next vessel was the Caroline, belonging to Johnny Jones, of Otago, and on her being sold in Sydney he came to Waikaouiti in a brig commanded by Captain James Bruce, as a passenger. This vessel landed twenty three horses, which were amongst the first brought to this colony. From Waikaouiti he went to Otago, and was there engaged by Paddy Wood to go fishing at Oashore, and lived at that place page break
Thos. White.

Thos. White.

page 201some years, working for Price some part of his time.

During this time Bloody Jack's men killed a North Island boy, but otherwise all was quiet the whaling being very profitable sometimes, and an exceedingly poor game others Went to Port Levy, and from there made a journey to Riccarton for food, getting fifteen bushels of wheat from a store deposited by Gilbert and Harridge. At this time there were only two Maoris in Port Levy and none in Pigeon Bay, but they kept coming in their sea going canoes, many being from the North Island, and soon there were quite strong settlements at both places.

An old man named Jack Duff sold some bone and had money in his possession about this time, and mysteriously disappeared His wife last saw him in the company of a Spaniard and a man known as "Flash Harry." Provisions were very dear at times, twenty five dollars being sometimes given for a barrel of flour The Maoris as a whole were good to the whites, and Bloody Jack himself was a very good fellow indeed. Once he came to White's house and demanded food. It was given him of course, and a short time after a hog was sent as a present in return.

At Port Levy Mr. White married, and soon began to have a family around him. A tragedy took place when his son Harry was a baby. A Dutch whaling ship put into Port Levy, and the carpenter and several others deserted. The third mate made himself very active in arresting the men; and caught two, and got them back to the ship. The carpenter came to White's house, and the mate after him. White was on the verandah with Harry, the baby, in his arms, and the carpenter and two runaways were sitting at a table inside the house. The mate ordered the carpenter aboard, but, instead of obeying, he shot him through the heart with a pistol that was in his possession. Word was sent to Wellington, but the ship was away before any steps were taken, and so nothing was done. Had the doctor of the ship remained behind, no doubt the man would have been hung.

The Natives used to travel over the hills easily in those days of no roads. White has known a party to take two page 202tons of dog fish to Little River, the Maoris there bringing in exchange two tons of eels. An old Maori bearing the pleasant name of Rakikakinoki was specially celebrated for the way in which he travelled the hills. White was at Port Levy when the Flemings came out, in 1855, but a few years later went to Pigeon Bay. The Bay was full of sawyers at that time, and a man named Billy Webb, who kept a shanty at a place called the Pillar, on the road between Pigeon Bay and Holmes Bay, had sometimes as many as forty boarders One of these [unclear: barders] fell over the rocks and smashed his head, and the question of foul play was raised, but it is probable it was a pure accident. Several vessels were built at Port Levy and Pigeon Bay White himself assisted in building one 18 ton craft, and Damon built several. A vessel was built for the Natives at Nelson, and on her arrival Damon offered them twelve cows for her, and cows were cows in those days, but they would not sell. The Maoris grew many vegetables, and kept many pigs at that time, and as a whole dealt fairly with the whites. There was a big plantation of kumeras near where Mr Menzies' house stood, and it appears to have been the only place where these roots have ever been successfully grown on the Peninsula. Mr. White's life has been uneventful in Pigeon Bay. He reared a large family, who lived happily together till, in the ordinary course of things, they married, and went to houses of their own. After the whaling, White took to sawing and other work like the rest, and eventually settled on a small farm. A hardy and enterprising pioneer, he has done his share in reclaiming the wilderness and peopling it.