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White Wings Vol II. Founding Of The Provinces And Old-Time Shipping. Passenger Ships From 1840 To 1885

Queer Characters

Queer Characters.

"There were some notorious characters in the settlement, known by such names as Cranky Bill, Joe the Convict, Paddy Burke, and the like," says this old pamphlet, evidently referring to the settlement at Otago Heads and not at Waikouaiti. "Some of these fellows would steal or do anything but work for a glass of rum. Amusing stories are told of some of their doings, such as selling to Mrs. Anderson, at the grog-shop, her own washing-pot and frying-pan, or stealing all the hams and bacon from a chimney where it had been hung for curing. These men would part with anything for drink, even to their boots, and consequently their outward adornments were often of the oddest and most incongruous character—flax shoes showing below worn-out moleskin trousers, a ragged old blue buttonless shirt, and a dilapidated remnant of a hat, the necessary adjustments and connections to this strange costume beingpage 94 made with flax. There was also John Bull, a giant for strength, who could carry a boat that two ordinary men could not lift. Then there was a man named Little Christie, rather a helpless individual, totally unfitted for such a rough life, who, having a few hundred pounds, visited Otago on spec. He named Portobello after his native place in Scotland. His speculations proved unprofitable, and he was so much reduced that he had to subsist on fish and pigeons given him by some of the settlers. Potatoes could always be had from the generous Maoris, and Maori cabbage (sow-thistle) could be had for the gathering. Little Christie bought a Maori woman with part of his money, and when he was hard up she took him away south on a mutton-birding expedition."

Up "the river", as the present Dunedin Harbour was called by the whaler-settlers, was a favorite pig-hunting ground. Parties of four or five would go up to the head of the river, or rather estuary, four three or four weeks at a time in the fall, kill a winter's supply of pork, salt it on the spot, and put it into casks. The usual camping-ground of these pork-hunters was in a gully between the present High Street and Rattray Street, now one of the busiest spots in the splendid city the people of to-day have inherited as a result of the heroic pioneers.