Tales of Banks Peninsula
No. 2 Okain's Bay
No. 2 Okain's Bay.
Most of the Bays have got their names from some trifling incident. Okain's is no exception. Captain Hamilton, well known in tha early times, and who used to trade between the Bays and Lyttelton, was passing the Bay in his vessel one day, and happened to be reading a book on deck. The book chanced to be by O'Kain, the Irish naturalist. Captain Hamilton therefore called the Bay after the author, and it has been Okain's ever since. Okain's is perhaps the largest of the Bays round the Peninsula, being much wider than any of the others The creek which flows down the valley and empties itself into the Bay can be dignified with the title of river without mis application. The flat rises so gradually from the beach that the tide is felt for more than a mile from the mouth of the creek, and fairly sized vessels can navigate it. The beach is a great stretch of sand, and the constant work of reclamation is going on. There are two Okain's, Big Okain's and Little Okain's. Little Okain's lies to wards the East Head. It is a small narrow Bay of a rugged nature, and is remarkable for the many giant karakas that thrive there still. It was here that Moki, the renowned chief of the Ngai Tahu, landed first on the Peninsula during his expedition against Tu te Kawa, the great Ngatimamoe of Waihora (Lake Ellesmere)
It is not exactly known whether the Maoris had a pah in Okain's itself. It is certain, however, that they visited it a great deal in their bunts for provisions. Their headquarters were Pah Island, a small islet lying round East Head It contains about three acres, and its formation rendered it a splendid natural fortification for the Natives. The Maoris inhabited it to the time when the first settlers came to Okain's, and traces of them are visible to the present day.
The population of the Bay at the commencement of its settlement consisted chiefly of runaway sailors, and people who had reason for leaving the busy world for a time. page 279There, safe from discovery, they employed themselves in sawing timber, which was plentiful, dense bush covering the whole Ray, a large proportion of it consisting of im mense trees As manv as twenty or thirty pairs of pit sawyers worked at a time. Their mode of living was a very reckless one. They would saw a quantity of timber, send it away, and with a portion of the money it fetched, buy a quantity of provisions to last them until they could get another lot of timber. The rest would be spent in grog. When they got over the spree, back they went to work again, and repeated the same process. These men, had they liked, could have become wealthy, as timber saw ing was a very profitable employment in those days, but they preferred the wild mode of existence, and there is no single sample of a man who departed from this rule
It was chiefly in Okain's that the whalers in the early days got their spars, and shiploads of them were contin ually cut and sent away, the Bay being famed for its fine timber. Very dense was the bush. It was in fact difficult to travel far through it in any direction. When a track wanted cutting, all hands in the Bay set to work for the common good. About two years after the first real settlers came—that was about 1850—a track was cut over to Robinson's Bay for the purpose of communication to Akaroa. It was a very rough one, and those that are now in the Bay that travelled it think that it would have far from satisfied the present inhabitants. It was better, however, than the untracked bush, and the hardy pioneers were too accustomed to difficulty to think much of the hardships a journey to Akaroa cost them. Before this track was cut it was nearly impossible to get to the harbour, and, as in other bays, men continually lost themselves while attempt ing it.
The first people who really settled in Okain's were Messrs Fleuty, Harley, Mason and Webb. They were there before 1873. They bought up fifty acres among them. Mr Thos. Ware, who soon afterwards arrived, bought one fourth of it from them, and still owns it. Mr Webb afterwards went to Laverick's, and died in that Bay. page 280Mr Mason remained in Okain's until his death in 1893
The tidal wave of 1863 is well remembered by the old settlers. It spread a long distance up the Bay, flooding the houses on the flat. It left behind a thick sandy deposit, covering all the herbage, and it was some time before the latter grew again. A vessel that was being built down close to the river was carried off the stocks and floated round the Bay. No harm, however, was done to her. As may be supposed, the event caused great consternation.
There have been few casualties in the Bay. In the very early days a boat belonging to Mr John Roberts was cap sized, and two men drowned A boat, also, coming from Le Bon's was lost, and two men met their fate. Those who have passed through Little Okain's in late years may have noticed the wreck of a small vessel lying half buried in the sand. She has now completely broken up. Her name was the Sea-devil, and she once belonged to Mr Thacker Soon after he sold her she was driven ashore during a gale, and became a total wreck.
Messrs Moore, Sefton, Gilbert, and others were also very early settlers in Okain's, They took up land on the same principle as Messrs Webb, Mason, Fleuty, and Harley, three or four of them buying up a fifty acre section and going into partnership.
As the bush was cat down fires became frequent, and a great deal of damage was done at times. The great fire which started in Pigeon Bay about five and forty years ago spread to Okain's. The fire lasted for a long time, and for weeks the sky was scarcely seen through the thick volumes of smoke. There have been several bush fires started in Okain's, but none as bad as this one. The summer had been a dry one, and the wind was favourable to its spreading. The whole Peninsula was ablaze, and after it bad died out many wild pigs were found burnt to death. The native birds besides were never so plentiful afterwards as they were before the fire.
As in Le Bon's, the creek swarmed with eels of a [gap — reason: illegible] size, and in the bush pigeens and kakas were plentiful. It page 281was no difficult thing for a man with a gun to live in the bush in those days.
About three years after they came, Messrs Mason and Fluety commenced dairying, their old partners, Messrs Webb and Harley having left them and sold out their property. Messrs Ware and Thacker soon started other dairies, and year after year as the bush was cleared others went in for dairy farming. Mr. Ware brought the first sheep into Okain's about forty-seven years ago.
Mr J. E. Thacker came to Okain's about fifty eight years ago from Christchurch, and gradually bought up land, the six thousand acres purchased in all, now forming a magnificent estate, He erected a sawmill about thirty five or thirty seven years ago, and soon cut all the timber in the Bay. It was the largest sawmill ever at work on the Peninsula, and could cut 70,000 feet in a week, so that it did not take long to clear the land, a large number of hands being employed. The building in which the engine and machinery were once located was in good preservation about twenty years ago, and was used as a wool-shed. The tramway to fetch down the logs to the mill went away to the top of the valley, and parts of it are still to be seen. The Alert, Jeanette and Elizabeth were the vessels employed to carry the timber to Lyttelton, and they had all they could do to clear it away as it was cut.
The Okain's Road Board was formed in 1864, and the present road to Akaroa was made in 1878.
Okain's has settled down to a quiet, peaceful existence, the inhabitants being chiefly dependent on the production of cheese, grass seed and wool, and as long as these commodities command any price this fertile Bay is bound to give generous support to its healthy and happy sons and daughters.