AN HISTORIC "LOG."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 11

AN HISTORIC "LOG."

HEMPLEMAN "PURCHASE" REGALLED. A MAORI IN , A CASK. A curious mistake was made in a Press Association telegram received during the week" to the effect that the log of the ship Piraki, "which visited New Zealand in the early days of the nineteenth century," was being sent nut from England to the Canterbury .Museum. Piraki was not a ship, but is the name of a bay at the entrance of Aknroa Harbour. It was the To Awaite of Canterbury, and thousands of bones of whales still bear evidence to the old days when the whalers "triedout" their oil upon .its beach. The "Piraki log" which Mr. F. A. Anson, who formerly had his homestead at Piraki, is sending to New Zealand is the log kept by George Zlempleman, who settled at Piraki as long ago as 1835, five years before the first French settlers came to Akaroa,( and fifteen years lioforo the landing of the "Canterbury pilgrims." Homplcman claimed to have purchased from, the Maoris, in 1837, the

greater parl- of Bank's. Peninsula, including what is now the town of Aknroa. When,'in 1843, he asked the New Zealand Government to : confirm ' his claim to this.. rich\ area, or grant him compensation, Henipleman submitted the , following certificate of' purchase which he claimed to have received from the' Maoris) and which is interesting for the light'it throws upon the rough-and-ready land, transactions of those days:— - "From'Mowry Harbour south to Flea Bay north, including Wangoolu; as agreed by the. undermentioned, viz.— by payment of one big boat, by name the-Mary Ann,-including two sails and jib. Extent of land fifteen miles east, south inland. Signed by . . John Tuhawaike [alias "Bloody Jack."] Toby X Partrigee. Jackey X White. .. Alloii X Tommy Roundhead. \ Tyroa X. Kikarobee X. WalkatowTce X Ahano. King John X. . Jackey Gay X Bangana X. And witnessed by Simon Crawley. • Jack X Miller. Alfred Roberts. James X Creed. Hfcinpleman's. claim to fifteen square niilei of land was kept by him persistently before the Government till 1576, and ho, received some recognition and compensation lor his claims, but not so much as ho thought due. Captain L : Anglois, precursor of the Trench settlement at Akaroa, claimed to have bought the same land and much more Irani the same Maoris in 1838, for ili-10. L'Anglois's supposed rights were made over to the l''rench company which colonised Akaroa. But to return, to Hempleman, the Jog which is now being sent out to Canterbury is not a new discovery Jaoabsoii, m his "Tales of Banks's i'HUnsula," states :-"The compiler Jias Jaad placed at his disposal a number of log-books, which comprise the clajry of George Henipleman. 'They are yellow with age, dating from November, 1835. . . . The records in Hempleman's dairy of the ovonts of 1839 are very \msatisfactory. There are baro statemoms, no doubt intelligible to those who knew ail about it, but to us, living so long ai'te-r, many bear no cohcrcJit meaning. Some of the most 'in■torestmg passages in tho diary refer to the murder of some northern Natives, who came from Queen Charlotte Sound, and who were working with Captain Hempleman." A great many of .the entries simply refer to the weather, boat-building, fishing, and the shooting of pigeons for the rough seaman's larder. It is not likely that much space will be. found given in the diary to the remarkable story of how Homplemnn "headed up' , in an empty oil cask a Native who 'had incurred his anger. Canon Stack relates the story as it was told to him by an old Maori; who, with other Natives, had protested to Hempleman against this treatment. "Homplemnn asked our busiiier-s, and when, we told him that we wanted to see his Maori prisoner, greatly to our surprise he aifoncc consented. Taking up a hammer that was near his foot, he walked up to a great cask that stood a fpw feet from his lious-o, and knocked bfl' the hoops round the top of it, and removed the head. Then, overturning the barrel without any seeming regard for its contents, ho told I'uaka to come out. Then, slowly and with difficulty, there crawled out a horrid-looking object, with ma Wed hair and filth-be-smeared body. The stench from the ca.sk wn.s quite overpowering, and we all shrunk back from it. Then Hempleman told us to carry tho man to the front of bis houso, but only Mohi could venture noar him. and ho did *n by holding his breath. Wo could not restrain ' mir tears at the sictlil of our friend, awl I wont lor s<llllo u-ntei- I<l wash olf tho iilt.ii,; but it wan long before

we got him anything like clean, ajid then his captor c:une and fastened him b.y the leg to an iron bar at the side oi ? the house." The prisoner, according to his own story, had been in the (■ask- for weeks. He was supplied at intervals with foot! and water, but the only air and light lie had came through the bunghole. Hempleman would hardly think it worth while to record at any length in liis "log" this little incident of the "good old days."