1853 - Rochfort, J. The Adventures of a Surveyor in New Zealand... [Capper reprint, 1974] - CHAPTER II.

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CHATTER II.

WE restrained our impatience to go ashore till next morning, when we found Lyttleton a very different place from what we had pictured it to ourselves--a colony little more than a twelvemonth old. The town lay in a hollow surrounded with lofty hills 1100 feet in height; the streets were generally well laid out; and the snug little weather-boarded houses, (with chimneys made out of flour-barrels,) each standing in the midst of a neat little English garden, formed a delightful contrast to the wild hills around. There are several good hotels facing the sea, also a custom-house and emigrant barracks. The society in the town is very tolerable, but many people have found out their mistake in going to a Church settlement; they had foolishly bought their land in England at a high price, and when they got out found it a long way off the settlement, and not fit for cultivation of any sort. A hill at the back of the town is so steep that it is impossible to open a communication of traffic with the interior, so goods from the shipping have to be sent round by water to Christchurch, the principal town. At the back of these hills is a level plain, forty miles in width, on which Christchurch is situated, fifteen miles from Lyttleton. There are several sheep-farms here; the owners have to pay fifteen shillings a ton for sending their wool to the port for shipment, which of course greatly reduces the profit; and the channel of the river leading to Christchurch is so shallow and tortuous that only craft of fifteen or sixteen tons can get up it. No doubt in time it will be a fine sheep country, but the

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want of timber is, and always will be, severely felt; there are only two or three small patches, which belong to private parties, who ask an enormous sum for them.

Returning across the range to Lyttleton, you have a beautiful view of the shipping lying at anchor in the bay, and the timber-covered hills on the opposite side. Looking back over Christchurch, you see the base of the centre range rise, at forty miles' distance, from out the plain: tracing it upwards, you lose its snow-capped summit in the clouds. On going down to the beach, some Maories 1 came ashore in a canoe. They were about building a market-place to trade with the white man. They are a fine race of people, standing generally about five feet seven inches, well proportioned and of a light copper-colour. The ugly practice of tattooing is being discontinued. The women are generally very handsome, but, as they are made to do all the work, they soon lose their form. Their manner of greeting is very curious; they rub their noses together, and then cry and bawl for some minutes; after which they gradually cool down, and talk over their news.

The next day we got leave to take the ship's boat, and had a sail up the bay, which is about three miles deep, enclosed by lofty hills. Near the end is Quail Island, which formerly belonged to three brothers: the two eldest were taking a load of fire-wood from the mainland, when the boat in some way upset, and they were both drowned. The Maories are said to have had a hand in this, but it has never been proved. The surviving brother now holds the island, and supports himself by rearing cattle and goats. It contains about 200 acres of land.

We pulled ashore in a little cove, and found a number of oysters. It was now sunset, so we went aboard. The tide-waiter had come off, and the captain, afraid of his men running away, had put this functionary on guard; he was marching up and down the quarter-deck with the captain's double-barrelled gun on his shoulder, which he verdantly believing to be loaded, was swearing to shoot, in cold blood, and without the slightest compunction,

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any man trying to leave the ship. The captain asked us if we would take our turn to guard during the night, which we did; however, George (one of the sailors) watched his opportunity and got away. He had been in the colony before, and knew most of the sailors in the coasting trade: he had managed to communicate with some of them in the course of the day, and they kept a boat in readiness and took him off when the coast was clear. In the morning the captain looked as black as a thunder-cloud: he thought we must have assisted the man to get off. He now sent two of the hands ashore with the long boat, full of cargo; they returned to the ship in the afternoon, "happy and glorious:" one of them wisely "turned in;" the other turned the skipper out, and said he must have some more grog. This was refused, for it was evident that he had had too much already. The man then caught Captain K... y by the coat to enforce his request, and tore the collar half off. The mate immediately knocked him down, which subdued him a little. Thinking he could not revenge himself on the mate, he got up and threw overboard a little dog which had been given to him ashore. Our boat was alongside, however, so we picked it up. Not satisfied with this, he next threw his cat overboard; this we also saved; after his wife a sailor loves his cat. A revulsion of feeling now took place in the man, and he said, as his cat had gone to the bottom, he would go down after her. He was assured she was safe; but, no, he still insisted the cat was drowned, and he must go down after her. "Let him go," said the captain, "it will cool him a bit." He deliberately stripped, and let himself down by the cat-head, when, finding himself so near the water, he changed his mind and hung on as long as he could, but at last the muscles of his arms relaxed, and he dropped into the water. The boat was kept handy, and he was picked up after being made to swim till he was tired. He was then pulled alongside, and we got a tackle from the yard-arm to hoist him in on deck; this was made fast round his waist whilst he lay exhausted at the bottom of the boat. At this stage of events there was a pleasure-boat full of ladies coming out for a sail; the man who was steering, seeing something

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unusual going on, immediately "hauled his wind," and brought them close alongside us. Jack was still lying in the bottom of the boat, with the rope fast round his waist; one of the seamen was down with him. "Jack," says the latter, "now don't expose yourself to the ladies." "No," says Jack, and overboard he jumped with a view of better concealing himself from their sight, escaping their boat by a few yards. "Hoist away!" shouted the captain, and up came Jack, like Neptune out of the sea, to the song of "Rouse him up cheerily," whilst nothing was visible of the ladies but a cloud of parasols. Their boat was quickly out of sight.

Here we engaged a new steward to work his passage to Sydney, who I think was a Derwenter, 2 from what I have since seen of them. He had not been on board many days, when Mr. T......y, the mate, saw him taking some wine-bottles forward to throw overboard, but, perceiving one amongst them to be full, he watched where he stowed it: carrying it to the galley, he accused the steward of stealing it. The steward denied the charge, and was very impudent. The mate soon lost his temper, and broke the bottle across the man's head, inflicting a severe wound, for which he was taken before a magistrate, and fined three pounds and costs. The mate determined to revenge himself on the passage to Sydney.

We were now expecting to have Captain A.......e's wife as a fellow-passenger to Wellington; but were disappointed by Mr. L... 's coming on board in her place. He was a pleasant man, and amused us with an account of the colony.

Being ready for sea again, we set sail. The second day we crossed Lookers-on Bay. The shores are very high and rocky, and there is seldom any beach between the highlands and the sea. Having passed this, we sighted the Kai-Kora range, which rises in some places above the snow-line. The mountains in the interior are visible at sea until they terminate at Cape Campbell. Crossing Cook's Straits, we made for Baring Head, and passed between it and Cape Terra-witti; the latter is surrounded

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with rocks. A narrow entrance, bounded by steep and rocky hills, partly covered with wood, except opposite Cape Terra-witti, where a sandy beach occurs for about two miles--this passage leads northwards into Port Nicholson. The bay extends about eight miles, and is about five miles in width, surrounded by steep hills, furrowed by ravines and covered with timber, except at the north end, where a gorge occurs in the mountains: through this the river Hutt runs. The valley of the Hutt is very fertile; some of the land is fetching as much money as the same space would do in London. At night we came to our anchorage off the town of Wellington, which lies on the western side of the bay, and is very straggling, being built along the beach. The principal road (between the sea and the houses) is very bad in places, and the broken bottles which are carelessly thrown into it lame many horses. Strong winds are very prevalent here, raising the dust in thick clouds, during which doors and windows are carefully closed-- but in vain; the insidious dust creeps in and covers every article of furniture in the room: indeed, these winds are sometimes so strong that on one occasion a whale-boat, which was anchored a little way off the shore, was lifted bodily up and deposited in the road, killing a woman and a child who happened to be passing at the time.

The buildings are either timber, or brick and timber blended, the better to stand the shock of an earthquake. Several houses were at first built of brick and stone, but the severe earthquakes which occurred a few years ago destroyed them, burying several persons in the ruins. The two Protestant churches are pretty good specimens of architecture. There are many Roman Catholics, and their cathedral is the finest building in Wellington. The governor's residence stands well, commanding a fine view of the bay. Not far from it a large hotel is in course of erection; it is four stories high, and built entirely of wood.

Having been furnished with letters of introduction, we lost no time in making use of them: however, it is seldom they are of any service, as people in the colonies have

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too many sent to them to be able to give attention to all. The first of these was to Mr. H.. t, a solicitor: he arrived at a good time for gentlemen of the law, when everything was in confusion on account of the breaking up of the New Zealand Company. He was very kind to us, and did all in his power to advance our interest; and advised us to take a trip to Whanganui, where he thought my brother might get a run and try sheep-farming (for as an architect there was no field for him), and I might get a practice in my profession. He introduced us to Baron V. n A.....f, an extensive land-agent, proprietor of the above-mentioned hotel, and one of the earliest settlers in Wellington.

On the following day we dined with him, accompanied by Captain K... y. We met a pleasant company, consisting of a countryman of the Baron's and his wife; Mr. W... e, a regimental doctor; Mr. H.. t, and several others, whose names I do not remember. The Baron amused us with a curious anecdote. He began by telling us that the natives were very fond of tattooing their hinder quarters, and, when the ship he came out in arrived in Port Nicholson, several Maorie chiefs came on board and walked round the decks curiously examining everything. Some of the lady passengers naturally enough had the curiosity to look at them: they misinterpreted this, and thought the ladies were admiring their tattoo; so one of the chiefs, willing to gratify them, strutted up to a fair one, and deliberately turned the ornamented portion of his person round for her examination, at the same time shouting Kaupi!! Kaupi!!! (good!! good!!!). We discussed politics over the Baron's wine (which by the bye he took great pride in having good) till a late hour. When the party broke up, we retired, and tried to wake up some of the sleepy publicans, but without success, and were just thinking of turning ghosts and wandering about till daylight, when we fortunately met a watchman, who volunteered to guide us to what he described as a "remarkably quiet and genteel private boarding-house." He led the way to a small house, with Sailors' Home inscribed in large letters over the door. As we preferred sleeping anywhere to

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wandering about till dawn, we rapped with our knuckles, and the landlord, Mr. Boodle, himself deigned to open the door, dressed simply in his shirt, and grasping a tallow candle. His face showed the unmistakable remains of two very black eyes; while his wife's nutcrack, lantern-jaw visage, bearing a great resemblance to his own, especially about the eyes, was peering at us from the half-open door of his dormitory. He led us up stairs, where we threw ourselves, undressed, on the straw beds which were ranged up and down like a hospital ward, and were shortly lulled to sleep by the heavy breathing of several sailors, who had evidently just come home from a "spree."

At daylight in the morning we were up and stirring. Going down stairs we paid Mr. Boodle for his excellent accommodation, and were on the point of quitting, when who should come in but the sailor who ran away in Port Cooper? He was coolly smoking his pipe, but, on seeing us, looked quite taken aback; nevertheless before the captain could articulate, "Halloa, Mr. George! I've got you now," the said George was getting out of the back parlour window. "Landlord," says Captain K... y, "go and fetch a policeman." --" Couldn't, sir, at the price; I should lose all my customers, --unless," he added, pausing, "I had five pounds for my trouble." In the mean time George was over the garden wall and far way, and six or seven stout sailors barred the passage till our runaway had got a good "offing," when we were allowed to depart in peace. "Never mind," says the captain, "I'll give him three months yet, if it costs me twenty pounds out of my own pocket; I shall catch him when he least expects it." And so he did, a few months after, when he came into port unexpectedly.

We went aboard to dinner with the captain, and then brought our luggage, which amounted to several tons, ashore. Here let me caution the reader against taking out a large and expensive outfit. I took out one which cost me about £60, and found almost everything was useless to me; nearly the whole is lying untouched in Wellington. Suitable clothes may be bought in the colony for little money, by doing which you save the cost of moving

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and storing them: this is a very general mistake amongst emigrants.

Mr. H.. t recommended us to a boarding-house in Willis Street, Te ara flat, kept by a Mr. Edwards, where we were "taken in and done for" at a pound per week; we made ourselves at home, and were soon on good terms with our four fellow-boarders. Mr. W.......h was a young man of about five-and-twenty, studying for a clergyman. He expects to be ordained in two years by the Bishop of New Zealand at Auckland. Mr. S... l was a tall peculiar man, rather too fond of drinking, quite the opposite of Mr. W.......h; he was noisy and quarrelsome: he held a good appointment under government, but was always in debt, and shortly after ran away to the diggings, leaving his salary heavily mortgaged. The other two were brothers of the name of H.. l, who had just finished their "cadetship," that is, they had been learning sheep-farming under a settler, and were waiting for a remittance from their friends in England to begin on their own account.

A few days after Captain K... y called to take leave of us; he was now bound to Sydney: he had agreed with the owner to work the schooner between the Australian and New Zealand colonies for three years, and then she was to be sold. We tried to sell our tobacco, and took samples of it to the several stores, but could get no offer equal to the price we had given for it in London, so we gave it into the hands of Messrs. H.... y and J.....n, auctioneers, to dispose of, and went ourselves up the west coast.