Pioneers of 1840

In 1840 the Triton sailed up the Hokianga from Sydney; she brought the Revs. T. Buddle, G. Buttle, H. Turton, G. Smales and J. Aldred. All these names are worthy of remembrance; in every case but one their long self-sacrificing toil and the affection with which they came to be regarded give them a permanent high place among the makers of New Zealand. The one exception was the Rev. J. H. Bumby; he did not survive long in the mission field. In 1840, after visiting many places on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf, he was drowned when on a canoe voyage, soon after leaving Motutapu Island for Whangarei. Mr. Creed—always a marvel to Maori and European alike for the wonderful beard he displayed, covering most of his chest like a hairy cuirass—was one of the two missionaries who settled in turn at Karitane, on Waikouaiti Harbour, Otago, where the celebrity Johnny Jones had his whaling station and farms.

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Ironside was sent to the South Island also; his station—generally known as the Cloudy Bay station—was at Ngakuta, in at the head of Port Underwood; a narrow ridge separated it from Queen Charlotte Sound. It was he who, when the Tuamarino tragedy, generally known as the Wairau massacre, occurred in 1843, was the first European on the scene after the retreat of the survivors, and he buried the victims of the Ngati-Toa's guns and Rangihaeata's tomahawk.