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Tales of Banks Peninsula

[section]

The first white men to visit the South Island were the traders, who dealt in what is now considered a nefarious trade—that of Maori heads. They also bought flax from the Maoris and curious, giving the Natives clothes and trinkets in exchange. It was not till the thirties that the whalers appear to have made any fixed cruises down to the South Island. The first whaling station in the South Island was that in Preservation Inlet, the date of which could not be ascertained. The only thing known about it is that it was much older than the whaling station in Otago Harbour, which was started on March 17, 1836. Stations were started almost immediately after at Waikouaiti, Taieri and Timaru, We known that George Hempleman started the whaling station at Piraki in February, 1836, so it can be said that the Piraki station was the second earliest in the South Island. The most remarkable thing about the Piraki Fishery is the record of Hempleman's doings from 1835, when he set out from Sydney in the brig Bee up to 1844, when the narrative ends abruptly. The whalers who visited the Peninsula from 1835 onwards were of all nationalities—Americans, French, Dutch and English. A number of them were employed by Sydney firms as Messrs Weller Bros., Messrs Cooper and Levy, Messrs Long, Richards and Wright, and others. Many of the whalers combined trading with whaling, and sold stores, clothes, farming utensils, etc., to the early setttlers. In fact, the whalers were a God send to the pioneers of the forties. On the whole they were very fair in their dealings, and the traffic, which waa always carried on in kind, proved very beneficial to the early settlers. In many cases, when the pioneers were reduced to using the dried manuka leaves or seeds of the biddy-biddy for tea, and were tired of pigeon pie, the whaler's arrival with grocery stores was welcomed with zest. Besides the necessaries of lives, many of the boats carried a stock of household ornaments, the Americans, in particular, usually having a large assortment of clocks. page 267It must be understood that a large number of whalers visited Akaroa port simply to lie up for a time, or to have a few weeks jollification, and, as Captain James Bruce, of the Bruce Hotel, knew these men wanted some relaxation after weeks of privation, he provided for them accord ingly, as is told in a previous article. We purpose here simply to give an account of the lives of the various men who owned whaling stations on the Peninsula, and as far as possible we will give them in chronological order,