REMINISCENCES OF AKAROA.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 70, 20 March 1877, Page 2

REMINISCENCES OF AKAROA.

My acquaintance with Akaroa and its inhabitants dates many years back, to what will now be termed the Good Old Times, and often spoken of with a kind of mournful tenderness and a sad shake of ,the head by many, as much as to say, " Ah ! those were the times, we live now in a degenerate age." They were good, there is no denying, and I humbly add my mite of sorrow to the general heap, and wish we had them back amongst us now. Soft goods and stores were then only half as dear again as they are at present, and houses only cost about twice as much to build as they do now. Then, at that time, you had no difficulty in disposing of your fruit in any quantity. All you had to do was to pack it, send it down to tlie jetty, and wait for tlie first steamer's arrival to take it to an empty market, when high prices were the rule, low ones the exception. We then possessed no effeminate useless institution as a telegraph office, consequently never were bothered with the news on what clay of the week the steamer sailed, and thus it made it quite a game of chance, as to whether said fruit would be taken on at once or would be on the wharf a fortnight or so, till it had thoroughly matured and ripened. This made the fruittrade a very exciting business, quite a rouge et voir in fact, and supplied gratis to the Akaroaites a pleasurable excitement, which now being done away with, so many try to find in imbibing strong waters, playing billiards, betting, &c, &c. Another pleasant source of excitement, also supplied gratis, was the cheese market. At times it would command the munificent remunerative figure of per lb. After having, perhaps, stood at 9d for some time before, and a thrill of joy would pervade the household when the bread-earner brought home the glad news, it bad actually I reached 4d. Various legends float about now, concerning this state of things in those halcyon days, which I may relate some future occasion. In those days the Akaroaites liked good tobacco, and smoked the calumet with double relish if the weed contained therein had come direct from the flowery land of America in a Now and then, a Yankee whaler called in our harbour, and for a long time .afterwards the storekeeper's tobacco was one of the unsought for, unbought articles of commerce. Do not think for an instant, gentle reader, that I insinuate that the people of Akaroa were in the habit of buying tobacco from the American fishers, and smuggling it ashore (to avoid a small charge of 2s Gd per pound, which a thoughful Government has seen fit to put on it to make the social weed more valued), and thus account for the non-sale of the tobacco in the shop. Oh dear no, it was regret at these kind strangers, departure for fresh fields and pastures new, which so spoiled their appetites and upset them, that it took them some months to regain their usual spirits and resume their smoking as before. Besides, even if any one in Akaroa was naughty enough (and the thought casts a reflection on our moral characters) to wish to evade this slight charge at the customs, it would have been impossible to have accomplished this feat,f or Government had placed on board the whalers officers to see that no good tobacco was sold at the absurd price of Is 6d per pound, and so you will see at once the thing was impracticable. The officers were always on the gui vive, never went down into the cabin with the skipper to have a glass of todi (that's Greek for lemonade) at night, and no boats ever put off from the shore again, so that I think I have proved that nothing wrong ever took place in this way. Alas these times are fled, never, never I fear, to return. No whalers ever make Akaroa now and give us the benefit of the company, and destroy the love of smoking in us for two or three months, nothing now enters but weather-bound schooners, steamers, ketches, and such fry as these are. Yes the halcyon days have iled from Akaroa, and the primitive simplicity and good feeling that used to prevail. Then it was no uncommon thing to see cheese on the jetty bound with various bindings, which gave it a picturesque romantic appearance. One would be graced with a newspaper, and you could enjoy the pleasure of reading it, at the same time inhaling the cheesy fragrance, another with a bit of bed curtain, what soft-goods-men call chintz, I think, and a portion of a worn-out dress of the good lady who manufactured it. Buyers then could get the pick of newspapered one, the chintzy article, or the ornamented with the good lady's dress, and having this variety, which always pleases, would be satisfied. One anecdote, Mr. Editor, to- illustrate that primitive genial kind-hearted and friendly disposition of some of the inhabitants of peninsula, which made strangers love them so, and I have done with this letter. I was walking in' company with a friend, and feeling dry, and being near an hotel I asked him to come, we would slack our thirst. Consenting to this, we approached the building to get our lemonade and sarsaparilla, whenl noticed a friend standing outside conversing with a number of strangers to me. I asked him to come and join us, and to my delight and astonishment, all his friends, such was the kiud-

ness and geniality of their natures, did not let him go alone, but came and shewed their respect for me, by having drinks at my expense. I have' felt a warm regard m for them ever since, which I trust timo ■' will never dissipate or destroy, and I will always remember the kindness and goodfeeling they shewed to me on this occasion, a stranger and greenhorn. .^f MOAPAWK.