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Early Wellington

War Alarms

War Alarms.

In 1843, news reached the Colony of the disturbed state of Europe, and fears were entertained that England would shortly be engaged in war with France page 117 or some other great naval power, and that the settlers, in their defenceless condition, would be at the mercy of the foe. Some agitation took place with regard to the matter, and the Gazette of March, 1843, contained the following paragraph:

“We have been informed on undoubted authority that an extensive battery is about to be erected on Somes Island, and this entirely free of cost to the public; also, that estimates of the same have been accepted in the right quarter.”

In spite of war alarms, the Colonists were busily employed in their various avocations.

The Wellington Almanack was first published this year (1843), and cheese began to be made in the Colony with tolerable success.

The first windmill in the Colony was built about this time (March. 1843), and several tanneries were busy at work near the town. The tanneries found both the bark of the hinau, from which the natives got their dye, and the bark of the towai, or “black birch,” highly suited to their purposes.