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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

Piraki

Piraki has the double interest of being the site of the first settlement made by white men in Canterbury, and the last haunt on the Peninsula of much that was distinctive of nature there before Englishmen settled in New Zealand. The founder of the settlement, George Hempleman, was born at Altona, in Schleswig-Holstein, in 1799, and died, in the act of eating a peach, on the 13th of February, 1880, at Akaroa. Nearly the whole of his life in New Zealand was passed at Piraki, where there are still thousands of whalebones to testify to the success of his whaling station; though, as stated by the author of “Tales of Banks Peninsula,” the sand has drifted in patches over what seems to have been the principal part of the settlement, which was not far above high water mark. The same interesting writer observes that the upper portion of Piraki valley is more beautiful than any other part of the Peninsula, because it is still in a state of nature—one great mass of varied foliage, musical with birds; a place of hill and crag, creek and woodland where the native pigeons still abound, and the moko mokos, tuis and other birds swarm in thousands. A wise and humane people should contrive to conserve all this life and loveliness, not only at Piraki, but elsewhere throughout the country, without prejudice to the progress of practical settlement. Man does not live by bread alone, and the unimpaired beauty of nature stands in the front rank of a country's assets.