Chapter XVIII.

On the 19th of May the John Wickliffe sailed for Wellington, thence returning to Bombay and resuming her old East India trade. A month later the Philip Laing also left for Wellington and thence for Singapore. In the middle of June Bishop Selwyn paid his second pastoral visit to Otago, and on this occasion spent two days at Dunedin. He found many members of the Church of England amongst the settlers. Of Mr. Burns he spoke warmly, considering that the settlement was fortunate in having a pastor of his character. During September and October of 1848, Mr. Burns made his first ministerial visitation, of which he kept very accurate notes. From these it appears that there were throughout the district 88 houses, containing 93 families, or 444 souls. In addition the total aboriginal population in the Block numbered 166, of which 111 were at the Otago Heads, 27 at the Taieri village, and 28 at the Clutha or Molyneux. It may here be stated that his first elders in the order of their election were Henry Clark, now living at Clarksville, James Blackie the schoolmaster, William Cargill, and Alexander (Sandy) Chalmers, who afterwards settled at the Half-Way Bush. James Adam, still resident near Milton, was precentor with a salary of £10 a year. Mr. Burns's stipend, which was provided by the Lay Association, was £300 a year. Before the end of the year the Victory, Blundell, and Bernicia, had added another 150 to the population. A list of the passengers is given in the appendix as complete as the writer has been able to make it.

Here it is fitting to speak somewhat further of the little English settlement of Waikouaiti, with the late Mr. John Jones at its head. So early as 1837, it was a whaling station belonging to Messrs. Wright & Long of page 107Sydney, and from them it passed into Mr. Jones's hands the following year. Of strongly marked character, Mr. Jones possessed great natural ability and shrewdness, and was closely identified with the progress of Dunedin during its early years. Born in New South Wales in 1809, he came down to Foveaux Straits in the South Island as a youth, and was there engaged in sealing. Saving money he returned to Sydney, where he followed the business of a waterman and accumulated considerable means which enabled him to speculate in the whale fisheries. He purchased from the natives large portions of land in the vicinity of Waikouaiti, and in March, 1840, sent down ten families to commence farming under the superintendence of his brother Tom. They came down in the Magnet, and were by name David and Hannah Carey and daughter, Joseph Beal, wife and daughter, Thomas Pasco, wife and son, Thomas Hawkins and wife, William Kennard, wife, two daughters and son, William Stirling and wife, William Trotter, Benjamin Coleman, wife and two daughters, William Coleman and wife, John Pullar, wife and son, George Glover, wife, son and daughter, and Tom Jones, daughter and son. Each family was promised sixty acres after two years' service. But they failed to agree with the manager who was superseded by one Thomson, who owned and named Cherry Farm which he afterwards sold to Mr. Jones. Still there was disagreement, and the families gradually dispersed in the neighbourhood and were replaced by others. At the time Mr. Tuckett visited the settlement, Mr. Jones had 300 or 400 acres fenced in and partly under crop, 100 horses, 200 cattle, and 2000 sheep, and from these Dunedin afterwards derived a great food supply. The whaling establishment was of course separate and distinct, and employed perhaps thirty men. No vestige whatever of this remains save the broken-down fence and overgrown graves of the little cemetery, which was close by Mr. Watkin's mission house. One head-stone, evidently of Sydney sandstone, barely decipherable ten years ago, recites the death of William George Thomas and Elizabeth his wife, who died in July, 1842, "leaving a family of ten children to lament their loss." A verse, doubtless from the poetry of the locality, says—

"The opening grave receives their dust,
All dark and cold they lie,
But, O, their spirits with the just
(Live up) above the sky."

This Thomas was the headsman of the whaling party. Early in 1843 Mr. Jones brought his family from Sydney and took up his residence on the farm at Matanaka, and as his sons grew up placed them on valuable estates in the neighbourhood. In 1855 he came to Dunedin, his house being situated on the site of the present Fernhill Club; here he remained until his death in March, 1869, at the comparatively early age of sixty. From his wealth, sagacity, and marked qualities he was one of the most important personages in Dunedin. He could make a corner in grain, determine plenty or scarcity, and disarrange the small money market. A law unto himself and to other people, he was always ready in time of need to support his will by force of fist. Yet he was generous and ever ready to help any scheme to advance the settlement.

The early means of communication between Dunedin and Waikouaiti, and thence to the interior country, was by whaleboat, which was often uncertain and sometimes unsafe. Soon the old Maori track by the Half-Way Bush and over the crest of the Flagstaff Range was followed. Though overland, this was by no means free from the danger of descending fog, ravines, and mountain swamps, and the bones of many a lost traveller attested the deviousness of the path. Yet with unerring certainty, and alone, Mr. Jones traversed it once a week. Commonly enough a group of young men might be seen scrutinising Flagstaff morning after morning, from the comfortable quarters of the Royal Hotel, and when its shoulders were bright and clear would wing their flight up country. At length the gold days and Cobb's coaches ended this uncertain travel, and now that long and anxious day's journey is accomplished in an hour-and-a-half. But with Mr. Jones the glory of Waikouaiti and its possible future departed, and it is now but a pretty and deserted hamlet of some historical interest.

On the 7th of January, 1849, an important event took place in the arrival of the Ajax. Important because Mr. William Henry Valpy with his family was on board, a large employer of labour, and thus amongst other ways very acceptable to the requirements of the young community. This gentlemen was born at the Forbury, near Reading, in Berkshire, in January, 1793. His father, the Rev. Richard Valpy, D.D., was the eminent schoolmaster and editor of the well-known Eton Latin Grammar, and his uncle, A. J. Valpy, the well-known publisher of the Delphin and Variorum Classics. At fourteen he entered the page 109Royal Navy, but, not caring for the sea, exchanged with his brother Captain Anthony Valpy, and went to Hailey-bury College to prepare for the Honourable East India Company's civil service. He then proceeded to India, where he remained for thirty years, filling various appointments of district judge, governor-general's agent, &c. He married Caroline, daughter of the Rev. Richard Jeffreys, a chaplain in the Service. On his return he settled at Cheltenham, where, with a few others, he inaugurated the Church of England Training College. After a severe illness he was ordered to New Zealand as the only hope of perfect recovery. He brought out a large staff of servants and stores of all kinds; also flour and sawmills. These were erected at the Water of Leith valley, where their ruins are still to be seen; they were afterwards sold to Mr. Edward McGlashan. After a short time he settled at what is now known as St. Clair, on a property of about 120 acres which included the present cliffs. This he called the Forbury after his father's school. He owned also the whole of the Caversham flat—which he named after the birthplace of his mother near Reading—and many town sections, amongst them being Fern Hill and Mr. John Hyde Harris's Grange property. He had sheep runs at the Waihola and Horse Shoe Bush. It will thus be seen how valuable and enterprising a colonist he was, for not only did he employ labour upon these acres but he never hesitated to make roads or carry out other work which should have been debited to public expenditure. He spent £1200 a year in wages, and as a matter of curiosity it may here be said that he was considered to be the richest man in New Zealand and worth £2000 a year. In every way a gentleman and of highly sensitive nature, he probably found the new surroundings not always congenial. Still he identified himself thoroughly with everything that tended to further the interests of his fellow colonists, and to raise the status of the settlement. On the demise of the News he advanced £50 for the purchase of its type, in order that a new paper might be established without delay. In the early part of 1851 he was nominated by Sir George Grey to a seat in the Legislative Council, which he accepted. For this unlucky step he was violently criticised and was drawn into a controversy for which his gentle nature was quite unfitted. He did not, however, take his seat. He died at the Forbury on the 25th of September, 1852, in his sixtieth year, leaving a wife, son, and three daughters, one of whom was married to Mr. page 110James Fulton, M.H.R., of the West Taieri. Though an Episcopalian he was a warm supporter of Mr. Burns's ministry and of the religious scheme under which the settlement had been founded.

The first anniversary was celebrated efficiently enough. Two days, the 23rd and 24th of March, were devoted to it, and the large sum of £70 was subscribed to ensure its success. On the first day there were aquatic, followed by rural, sports, with prizes varying from £7 for the rowing match to half-sovereigns for different athletic performances. A hurdle and a hack-race occupied the second day; for these, four and three horses entered respectively. The prizes were £10 and £8, with the entrances of a guinea added. The hurdles were three feet high, and the heats were twice round the course, which was situated on the level adjoining the Eglinton road and the western side of the southern cemetery. "The sports passed off free from accident," says the News, "whilst some few were in a state to remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly." In the evening, a ball was held at the Commercial Inn, situated on the present site of Butterworth Bros. in High Street. About fifty people attended, who paid 5s. for single and 7s. 6d. for double tickets, and danced until six in the morning. Very differently was the day observed by another section of the settlers, who kept it as a day of thanksgiving, humiliation, and prayer, and attended two services in the little church, at eleven in the morning and two in the afternoon. From this relation it will be apparent that even so early the members of this young Scotch community were by no means actuated by the same sentiments.

At the end of this first year, some progress had been made in opening up communication with the outlying districts. Comparatively little was added to this from year to year, until indeed the large influx of population in 1861 produced a veritable transformation. A road had been commenced from the south end of Princes Street, and passing over Hillside, extended to Green Island Bush, a distance of about five miles. From this Mr. Valpy ran a connecting road to his Forbury property and on to the beach. From Look-Out Point it passed on afterwards down the Lower Kaikorai, generally following the line of the present main road, and within a short distance of the lignite beds which already had been discovered at Saddle Hill. Boat communication commenced at Scrogg's Creek, about fourteen miles from town, opening up the Taieri page break

From a sketch by]
Port Chalmers, 1850.
[Mr. (Sir W.) Fox.
[To face p111.

page 111and Waihola navigations and a large tract of country, and forming a link in the chain of communication with the Clutha. A second proceeded in a north-westerly direction past the York Place Cemetery to the Half-Way Bush, and towards the head of the Taieri Plains. The third followed the line of George Street to the head of the North-East Valley, and thence a bridle-track over the hills led to the landing-place at Port Chalmers.

By a pleasant fiction these were called dray roads; there was not an ounce of metal upon them, and when the fine weather—that best roadmaker—was past, they reverted, at least in parts, to their old condition of hopeless bogs. This was attested by the embedding of many a confiding bullock dray, which, journeying once too often, remained for weeks in its new resting-place.

Anderson's Bay was approached by a footpath five feet wide and double ditched, which commenced near Hillside and cut across at the back of the present gasworks, emerging upon the present road at View Street. Later on, access was gained by a similar footpath, which ran parallel to the present road, and was used until the seventies. In the town, a short wooden jetty, abutting upon a primitive stone pier, had been erected, and was equipped with a crane equal to three tons weight. From time to time this was extended, and a V branch thrown out from it, quite sheltering a large covey of small sail, until in 1863 its terminal point touched the intersection of Jetty and Vogel Streets at the present Harbour Board offices. These jetties were afterwards buried, with those of Rattray and of Albany Streets, in the great harbour reclamation, which commenced in 1862 and ended about 1880. Five hundred yards of metalled pathway extended along the beach line from the jetty to the Maori landing-place, and thence to the church or schoolhouse. This facilitated the landing of goods, and introduced the new arrival to streets neither metalled nor made.

It was not long before the seed of dissension appeared in the young community. The fifth number of the News, long known as "Number 5," indulged in a very free and unfavourable criticism of the Otago block, contending that it was wholly unsuited for agricultural settlement, and that the Company and the Lay Association were guilty of little less than dishonesty when inducing farmers to purchase and settle upon pastoral lands. Nothing more untrue or injurious to the progress of the settlement could have been devised than such silly utterances, founded as they were on the most immature data, or rather on the page 112merest surmise; yet a little tact and judgment would have prevented mischief. These were not forthcoming, and after scolding the editor Captain Cargill withdrew his subscription for forty copies per issue. Thenceforth the paper became an enemy, and the mouthpiece of many discontented persons who found themselves surrounded by the inevitable difficulties of the pioneer without courage and fortitude to meet them. A still more unfortunate occurrence was that connected with the Rev. Charles Creed. This gentleman, the Wesleyan Missionary at Waikouaiti, had for five years ministered to the whalers and Maoris at Otago, the Taieri, and as far south as the Molyneux. At the end of the first year the population numbered 745, of whom 476 were Presbyterians, and 180 belonged to other Protestant churches, chiefly the Church of England. For these provision was made that service should be held at the gaol every Sunday, and whenever possible conducted by Mr. Creed. Shortly after these arrangements became publicly known Captain Cargill addressed a long and, as it would now be considered, intolerant letter to Mr. Creed, pointing out that there was no necessity whatever for his services, which, under the circumstances, were intrusive and must entail neglect of his own special duties. Mr. Creed handed this letter, together with an indignant protest, to the News of May, 1849, and it found its further way into other colonial papers, receiving severe criticism. Doubtless the remonstrance had some justification, but it was certainly indiscreet and raised angry feeling. The desire to preserve the Free Church character of the settlement was evidently intense.

The library, which consisted of more than a thousand volumes—principally donations—was brought out in the Philip Laing, and was housed in the school-house by the beginning of the second winter. The charge was the moderate one of 1s. 6d. per quarter, and for an hour on Saturday evenings the books were given out. These consisted for the most part—probably three-fourths—of sound solid theology and biography, and poetry. The light literature contained Scott's, Dickens's, and Thackeray's novels, Shakespeare, and many moral tales. Blackie, the publisher, presented a set of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Chambers's, a set of their publications; and there was a good collection of practical works on the arts and sciences. Captain Blackie, of Caversham, one of the earliest settlers, was a brother of the eminent Edinburgh publishers.