DEATH OF MR G.L. HEMPELMAN

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 374, 20 February 1880, Page 2

DEATH OF MR G.L. HEMPELMAN

On Monday afternoon last the grave closed over the remains of one who in the early chapter of New Zealand settlement was certainly a historical character. In the cemetery of St. Peter's, Akaroa, on the above date were interred the remains of George Hempelman, the first white man that ever crossed the hills and gullies of Banks Peninsula. In the clear sunlight of of Monday afternoon, looking at the distant sky line of the hills that surround our inland harbor, which the deceased, according to the treaty of the Native tribes, once called his own, and the half dozen mourners that stood by the grave one was at once impressed with the solemn meaning of the words of o'ir English order for the Burial of the Dead, that we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The subject of the present notice, Mr George Hempelman, was born at Altona, the principal city of Schleswig-Holetein, in 1799, and was therefore in his 81st year. At an early age he chose the sea as his profession, and after being employed in the inferior grades of the service, came to the coast of New Zealand on a whaling cruise from Sydney in 1835. In this year he left a party of whalers in Peraki, and returned from Sydney in the following year, when he made the celebrated purchase of land from Bloody Jack. The purchase was completed in November, 1839, and is described as being from Mourey Harbor South, to Flea Bay North, including Wangooloa (Akaroa), a distance of fifteen square miles. The original deed is signed by all the Native chiefs the consideration being a big boat named the Mary Ann, including two sails and jib. This large purchase of land was afterwards practically ignored by the Government, aud gave rise to the well-known Heinpelman land claims, which have been the terror of every Land Commissioner and Canterbury Waste Lands Board almost up to the present day. In March, 1853, Col. Campbell, who had been appointed by the then Governor, Sir George Grey, to examine all the land claims in the Canterbury district, reported to his Government that Heinpleman was entitled to 2650 acres of Crown land, situated within the block which he purchased from the natives. The land was selected, but never Crown granted, and as the progress of settlement went on was all sold with the exception of about 650 acres between German, Kobinson's, and Barry's Bays. This fine estate was afterwards parted with to enable the claimant f .o carry on legal proceedings against the Crown for the recovery of what Mr Herapelman considered his rights. Successive Governments repudiated Hsmpleman's claims, but the deceased up to the day of hip death was strong in the assertion of his rights, and at the time of his death was getting his papers in order to prefer a claim before the Native Commission shortly to sit in Akaroa. We may take the opportunity some day presenting to our readers copies of the documents under which Hempelman maintained his claims, which, apart from any other interest, throw a curious light on the manners and customs of forty years ago in the place in which we now live.

In Mr Henipelman's diary, which he daily kept for many years, many strange stories are told of the old Natives and of their barbarous customs, of which he was a spectator. Mr Hempleman was an accurate observer, and, like all sailors, fond of telling his yarn. The vast and varied experiences of the subject of this notice in days so early that even the French had not arrived in Akaroa would would form an interesting chapter in the early history of the Middle Island, and we understand the materials are at hand for the purpose. During the last few years of his life the Government had made arrangements that he should be cared for at the Hospital, Akaroa, and it was during one of his walks from that institution that lie suddenly fell down dead, and with his life ends a connecting link between the early dawn of New Zealand settlement and its present state of advancement, and it is interesting to note from his journals the progress of the Peninsula fiom the day he landed and found it in the state that nature left it to the day when he left It filled with the happy homes of prosperous settlers. His life was one of worry and anxiety beyond that of most mortals, but at a ripe old age he goes to " where beyond these voices there is peace."

To the Editor of the Alcaroa Mail.