STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 575, 17 January 1882, Page 2

STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

No. 14.—Jimmy Walker.

Amongst the "Old Identities" of the Peninsula, one of the most remarkable was " Jimmy Walker," or " One-eyeii Jimmy,' a.s he was often called, from the fact that one of his eves was gone. Our informant telu; us that he believes his right name was Quinn, but no one ever called him anything else but Jimmy Walker, or one-<»yod Jimmy. The wiy iv which he first became known as Walker is rather curious. When he first came to New Zealand lie was a very strong and powerfully built man, standing over six feet. ]>eing not only a sailor, but a sailor accustomed to boats, ha eoou learnt to manage the canoes, when ho went to live amongst the Maories. After a short time he became sooxpert that none of the Natives could "hold a candle to him," as he used to say. The result was that the Maories christened him " Waka, , ' the Maori for a canoe ; and as his Christian name was Jimmy, he gained the appellation of Jimmy Waka, or Walker, which stuck to him till the day of his death. His first arrival in New Zealand was in the year 1839, when he landed Bay of Islands. He was then about 18 years of age, and immediately after running , away from his ship he went into the bush, where he followed the occupation of timber split. I ting for some time. He soon became very expert at this work, but as soon as he got a cheque ho used to knock it down, as was the fashion in those clays, in one of the neighboring gog shanties, which were common enough even at that early period; being established principally for the benefit (?) of Ute wluilcn who u.-ed i.o frequent the ooisL After n time: lie got tircl of this iif\.\ ; ;, ru went over to Auckland. When he got iiiere he was employed by Sir George Grey as a gardener. The great Proconsul took quite a fancy to this stalwart, good - looking, good-natured young sailor, to whom work seemed only fun ; but, alas! those good looks, which stirred the Governor's sympathy, were the cause of Jimmy's speedy departure Amongst Sir George's household was a very pretty Maori girl, whose susceptible heart softened at the sight of this hand, i

so/no stmnger, »nd she soon made known to Jimmy, in that unmis'akeable wny which is common to the sex, be they brown, or black, that she loved him. Nor was lie slow to return her affection, and the result was that they neglected their work that.they might be together. Sir George remonstrated with him. but in vain ; the greater the opposition, the fiercer burned their love ; and at last, finding all argument useless, he was dismissed. If they thought, however, that by dismissing Master Jimmy they were going to retain the girl, they wore much mistaken, for he had no sooner left than his faithful dusky belle followed him. She persuaded him to leave the haunts of civilisation and come to live with her tribe, and the syren's voice prevailed, and Jimmy went with her and spent some happy years amongst her Maori relatives. He soon acquired the native tongue, and became quite a '' Rangitiera nui" amongst them. Owing to his knowledge of the two tongues, he used to conduct the barter between the Sydney traders and the Natives. From them the hapu used to get supplies of slops, stores, grog, etc., and payment for these used to be generally made in kind. Jimmy used always to have a number of Natives in the bush employed at splitting poets and rails and shingles, for this purpose, and others were employed in flax scraping, for the same end. Jimmy was very sharp at the trading, generally getting the best of the bargain. After living in this way for eight years, the chief thought Jimmy was getting too bumptious, and tried to take him down. A serious row ensued, and Jimmy was very nearly shot by the enraged Rangitiera. However, he managed to escape with his life, though he left on« of his eyes behind him in the scrimmage) and so gained another cognomen. All his gear, however, was forfeited, and lie left the pah without anything but the muchdamaged clothes he had on his back. It is not recorded what became of her who had left Sir George Grey's household for his sake, but Jiuuiy used to hint that the eight years of connubial felicity had some, what chilled the first glow of their mutual

passion, and that there were some things that he left behind him that he regretted even more than his dusky bride. However, as Jimmy used to say, he was not long "on the broad of his back," for a very short time after he engaged with Captain Fun], of the American whaler Eiiz.i, wiih whom he remained two years. Daring this time the vessel was coast whaling, aud as they had good luck, she wa.s a full ship at the end of that period, and sidled for New Bedford. Walker, however, had no fancy for leaving New Zealand, so he was paid ,'oil: at Russell, in the Bay of Islands, and iroui thence he worked his way down the coast stopping at Akaroa. He lived here with the Maoris for some time, .and

afterwards went to reside at Little River

where he took out a bush license for splitling shingles and posts and raiis. He frequently employed a number of Maoris at this work, in the old style, paying them with slops and other articles of trade. At intervals he went io Chridtchtirch, where he invariably irot drunk. Shortly alter the Otago diggings broke out he found his way to them. He had excellent luck at first, but with his habits money was of little u.-e to him, for the faster he made it the quicKer he spent it. At the end of a few years the neighborhood in which he was working was pretty well exhausted, so he started on a prospecting tour into the little

explored back country, accompanied by his mate. They travelled to places that no white man had previously visited, and it was then that "Jimmy" had the adventure of his life. This was no less than catching a jjlimpse of a living specimen of the great apteryx, the huge moa bird. One need hardly «ay that Jimmy's tale about his meeting with a live moa was much doubted, but to the day of his death he always swore that it was a fact, with such earnestness as left no room to doubt that he himself thoroughly believed ho had seen that great bird, that is supposed to be extinct. Whether ho and his mate (who also affirmed the same thing) were suffer ing from some strange hallucination, or whether they really did see this wonderful creature, will, probably, ever remain a mystery, but there is still a wide stretch of unexplored country in the county known as the Fiords, and it is possible that in this almost inacessible region that a last specimen of the moa may yet be found. Our informant gives us the tala told to him by Jimmy in almost the same words that he used in relating it, "We were camped," says he, " out in a deep gully a little above the creek which wo had been prospecting for the last three days, getting the color in most places. The hills all round us were mostly covered with tussocks with here and there a little patch of bush in the gullies. On this particular evening we had just knocked off work and were put— tii i(.r ihingH a bit straight after supper, when I was astonished at hearing my mate sing out —' Good God, Jimmy, what's that.' On turning round I could scarcely believe my eyes, for there, right in front of us, standing on the opposite side of the gully, was the Moa bird that I had so often heard of from the Maoris. It was walking -about, and as the sides of the gully ' were pretty steep I should say the bird was not more than 150 yards from us and a bit above the level of our camp. As soon as I saw it I knew nt once what it

was, so I told BiJi, my mate, it was the Moa, and that the Maoris were awfully frightened of it. At that he got very nervous and began to shake. The Moa, I should say was about eight feet six inches or nine feet high, and from the knee downwards you would think he had a pair of officer's boots on, quite shiny and black. His feathers were a lightish grey color, and his head he seemed to be able to turn round any way, as it would first look at* us with one eye and then turn round and look with the other. I must confess I felt a little bit skeered myself as we had no gun or anything, only a tomahawk, to protect ourselves with. However, after he had surveyed us he cleared out, taking immense strides as lie went and in the dusk of the evening he was soon lost to sight. My mate got so excited over it that he wanted me to break up the camp and make tracks back. He could not sleep a wink the whole of the night, and roused me up at daybreak next morning. After some persuasion on my part I got him to consent to follow the trail a bit. On getting over to where it had been standing we found a pile of its dirt, and a little further on where there was a small spring in the side of the hill, we noticed quite distinctly the track of its feet in the soft earth. I have a pretty big hand, and I spread it over the footmark, but could not span within three inches of it, from my thumb to my middle linger end ; and from the depth it sunk in the soft earth, it must have been a good weight. We followed on for aliout two miles, but could see no sign of it, but coining to a small flat, we noticed that the heart of several of the cabbage trees hud been pulled out, and part of them eaten, so that we were pre ty sure it was done by the moa, as there vvmh no one else in the district but ourselves. My mate waa determined to leave the place, and as our lucker was nearly run out, I was compelled io go back with him. We had about 8 ounces a-piece for a little over two months work, so we packed up and started back, arriving at Qneenstown in about a week. We told our tale there, and were of course called liars, and several other nice naves. I got locked up over it, and this is how it happened. I had described the whole affair to three or four up country hands, and when I had finished one of them, I forget his name now, called me a by liar. I hauled off and gave him a plug in the eye. Then we had a regular set to, the finish of it doing that several of us got locked up, and when called upon before the Magistrate next morning, I teld him the provocation I had got and how the row commenced, so he let me off pretty light. Me seemed to have eoine i'aith in my story, and got me and Bill to recount the wliole of it to him—several of the storekeepers offered to fit out an expedition to try and capture the moa. I offered my services to lead them to the place, and th -y also engaged an Ar.tb who was reckoned a de-id shot to go with us, but he got his neck broke while breaking in a young horse, so that kept us fwr a bit. [ had now run through all my money and having a bit of a quarrel with those who were getting the thing ready for a start, I "chucked it up."

This is the story just as he told it to our informant, and on venturing to dwiibt the veracity of his statement he flew into a most violent passion, a:id wanted to know wlmt good it would do him tT make up a bundle of lies. Ho seemed quite earnest over it, and really we cannot l>ut believe th re was some truth in it. He said he intended to have another go for it some day, as he reckoned if he could get it alive it would be as good as a pile to him. Several times he tried to get the Little River Maoris to go with him, hut in vain. In one of the bush fires at the River his whare was consumed. It stood on Mr White's ground, just after you commence the rise of the hill, about a quarter of a mile from the corner. Like most of the old hands, Jimmy came to an untimely end. After leaving the River he struck south, and was found dead on the banks of the Rangitata, close to SirCracroft Wilson's station. A bottle of Hennesy was his only companion ; it is needless to say it was empty.