STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 591, 14 March 1882, Page 2

STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

No. 21. — A Lady Colonist's Expe-

RIENCES.

Mr and Mrs Peter brown left Glasgow in October, 1839, in the ship Bengal Merchant, bound to Port Nicholson with immigrants, under the New Zealand Association. The Bengal Merchant was commanded by Captain Emery, and had on board about a hundred passengers. She was the tirfit emigrant ship that ever left Scotland for New Zealand. The passage waR a fine weather one, and the pansengers were all well during the voyage. The events were few and far between, consisting , of the birth of one child, a marriapre, j and the death by sunstroke of a boy. No land was touched at till Port Hardy was reached, where a few hours' stoppage took place, and the Maories were seen for the first time by the new colonists, who were astoniehed at their primitive costume, one red shirt being the only European clothing amongst the whole hapu. Port Nichol son was reached early in February. 1840, and the new comers landed at the Petoni Beach. There were very few Europeans living in the place, only one lot of immigrants having landed previously, some fortnight before. The immigrants were not by any means delighted at the appearance of their adopted home. There were no houses, those on shore living in tents or small makeshift whares of the most wretched description. Such a thing as sawn timber was unknown, and all the

fittings of the ship were landed and made into three buildings, one for a hospital another for the company's store, and a third for the ammunition. There were a good many Natives about, and they were of course utterly uncivilised, much shock-

ing tiie newcomers, who were frightened with their wild dances in honor of the arrival of the Pakehas. There were no

licenses at this time, and the consequence was, that every one who could buy a gallen of grog started a small hotel on their own account. The Natives were in consequence often much excited by the drink, and to lose control over their actions. Mrs Brown and most of those who came by the Bengal Merchant went to the Hutt Valley, and took possession of come land close to the river. Mr Hay (father of the present Pigeon Bay family), who was a passenger also, settled in Petoni, and so did Dr. Logan, the ship's doctor. The arrangements made by the Association for settling the newcomers were exceedingly bad. They had been told on leaving Scot land that they were going to a land flowing with milk and honey, but discovered that there were neither of these commodi-

ties; in fact, the Bengal Merchant had on board the first cow ever landed in Wellington. Those purchasing 100 acres in England had been given a cabin passage, but when they asked for their land it could not be given to them, as it was not yet surveyed. The British Government, too, objected to Crown grants being given till it had been shown that the Natives had been paid 5s an acre for the land. The consequence of this was that every one squatted where they liked, with the pleasant knowledge that they might be turned off at any moment. The surveyors, amongst whom were Mr Deans, who afterwards went to Riccarton, wore commencing operations. They laid out the town first, and each purchaser of 100 acres rural land got his town sec- 1

tion of an acre, but for the rest of their purchase they hud to wait till the claims of the Natives had been adjusted. Tlio result of this unsatisfactory state of things drove many away. For instance,

Messrs Hay and Sinclair left nrul settled in Pigeon Bay and others scattered far and wide. Mr and Mrs Brown and the others w)>o had squatted on the banks of the river Hutt soon found out their mistake in M>irig to live so near to that treacherous river. On the Ist of June, 1840, Mrs Brown's first son was born, and that same night heavy rain set in and the following morning the river had overflowed its banks, and the flood was over 2ft high inside the house. The bed in which Mrs Brown was lying began to float and as it was impossible to move her, it was proposed to suspend the mattrass to the rafters of the house As this latter, however, was a very temporary erection made of small scrub in its rough state tied together with flax and daubed over with mud, Mrs Brown objected, fearing the whole structure would give way and she would be drowned. Her entreaties were at last listened to, and she was left where she was. Fortunately when the tide turned the river began to fall gradually, so the suspension was never carried out. This flood distroyed many goods and utterly disheartened the colonists,. During that day and the following no fires could be kept alight to dry anything, and altogether misery was the order of the day. At Petoni und the Hutt the people from each vessel were in the habit of making a separate settlement as it were. Of thene one was known as the Cornish Row being at tho Hutt. One of the people in these wVrires set his bouse on fire anH as they were all built very close together the whole row was burnt and onebhip's immigrants left homeless. To add to their discomfort on that same night the colonists experienced their first earthquake. It was a very severe one and terrified the new comers exceedingly, but luckily no one was hurt. In fact the houses were of such a frail discription that if they had fallen bodily on anyone he or she would have been none the worse. The only food was the company's rations, eked out with an occasional piece ef fresh pork from the Natives. Ihere were no vegetables but some wretched Maori potatoes and Maori cabbage. Mr Peter Brown was a baker and soon after this he went to Petoni where he was baking for a Mr Duncan, a fellow passenger. Shortly after this \hi settlement was shifted some seven miles round the beach, from Petoni to Thorndon,and the old huts were abandoned and more substantial buildings erected. After three years Mr Brown got an offer from Mr Oonnell to take charge of a bakery at Akaroa, where there were then a good many residents. He accepted the offer, and he and Mrs Brown left Wellington in 1843. and sailed for this port in the echooner Scotia. On Board the vessel were Mrs Knight and child. Mrs Knight was afterwards named Mrs Webb, and settled in Laverick's Bay, and the child is the present Mr Knight, now residing at Laverick's. The trip took a long timeover a fortnight—for a head wind forced the vessel to Jay for a time in Cloudy Bay. However, all went well, and they landed at Akaroa in May 1843, the first person to welcome them ashore being Mr Bruce, the proprietor of Bruce's Hotel.

(To be continued.)