OLD NEW ZEALAND

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1932, Page 8

OLD NEW ZEALAND

THE EARLY NAVIGATORS.

M3OAS ON THREE KINGS.

AUCKLAND, August 4. Soane interesting sidelights dal early New Zealand History have' been given by Mr Alfred, Taine, of Auckland, who, though now resident of that "city for many' years, was bain. afthe Lower Hutt in 1852. Mr Taine’s 1 parents, then in temporary resident© there, were the late' Mr And Mrs J:' J. Taiiiie', who left England ' for New Zealand i» 1839, an(l they continued residing in Wellington for • the next twenty-five years. 1 f '"’ '" ; '' !v '- ;

A recent newspaper article on the possibility of Tasman’s creW hSving ■seen a live ihoa bird on the! Three K,ings Islands' is discredited by Mr Taine, who opines that the objects .scion "were actually natives, and that they danced aiid jumped And shouted defiance at thedr would-be visitors, who Were so terrified at what 'they saw 'arid hdard that they ’ returned to” their ship reporting that they had seed giants in form, in voice, and in'walk: Mr Taine asks how such a large bifid' as the moa could live on an island he knows bp be bare and barren, except for patches of low scrub? He reminds us that in 1520, when the Portuguese navigator ‘ 'Magellan discovered the i strait now bearing his name, he reported havihg seen 1 'men of huge stature, who posed exactly as Tatenmn’B men described the groups on thh Three Kings, and cried out and AtAVldd- 1 their weapons in the air in the same way.

From that time, it was customary for historians td reffer to the ’ PAtagonia.n giants, 1 and even Commodore Byron, 1 known as “Foul Weather Jack,” >and uncle to the poet, delbribed them •as giants in 1764, but later‘voyagers found them to be natives of tall build only.

MAORIS ON THREE KINGS. However, tihe largest • island of'the Tliree Kings is of oonsiderahle extent: Maoris did live there and had cultivations, and about 1840 the chieif was' known by the name of Pom Bowline. About twelve years later Bishop Sel,wyn established tlhCre the Three Kings College for Maori hoys under the superintend once of Mr afid Mrs Reid. It was on the high sugar loaf rod of the‘Three Kings that the steamer. (El in samite was wreck-, d with great loss of -life on (November 9, 1902. The main inland is large, and in TAsmari’s day it was no doubt covered with trees and vegitation and had its streams of water.

Mr Taine also refers to the mythical] 'story of a Spaxiish ship having enter©*' the harbour of Wellington at Some ref; mote period* the 'tali'having heefi based on the rerevery from the hnr hour bottom some fifty years ago 6f a Spanish helmet;- now in the Dominion Museum. ’ a "

Mr Taine’s information on this helmet is new' and "interesting, and .is thb effect'that' An 'immigrant of 1840 had purchased the article when eniIxarldng at " Gravesend for New ' Zealand, believing the iron headgear would be serviceable as protection when' he landed among, the savages of ' New Zealand. On 'h is -arrival here he learned a helmet was quite unnecessary, and as he was sufficiently" encumbered with his goods and chattels; and Uot'anybf his fellow immigrants cared to ace/fept' the iron hat, he got rid of it in 'the most easy way—by tossing it ovefibourdv ' *'”■*

OLD CANNON SHOT. Also interestingly reminiscent are Mr Taine’s remarks about old cannon shot found about the harbour lands of' (Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland, and" about which much bvrong theory ! h&s :; ljefeii given. He well remembers cannonballs being found about Welling- . ;ton*ihany years ago, and that “long (anterior to this on' gala days and the Birthday, the ; warships then in' ‘Pott Nicholson would fire shotted gun sal Ate. He' often' watched these gunsdischarge ' front ijh.is parents’ home on Wellington Terrace, plainly seeing the' eaWonballs, riohochetting ' over the water'as they bounded to their m trk, .{frequently Somes Island, or »me other t<> be uninhabited spot of the harbour.

At Stanley Point, Auckland, Mr Taine says there 1 can now he plainly seen shot-holes in the sandstone cliffs through gains' being pointed and trained toward ‘ the ,cliffs vrife "salutes wiere fired, afld occasionally these old cannonballs Have been 'dug butt The “Saihe salutes ! were no doubt also fired in Otago harbour,' where recently bid cannonball's have been found.

The of 'o’d coirs in varieus nations' being recovered from our harbour bottoms are attributed by Mirj Taine' to aocidentlly dropping over* chips’' sides when • 0* the quay or an-' cbored in the fairway, and Some coins may -haire come ■fl’bm the' purses of pockets of'people droivned in tile'early days. '■ In thodb times there were no handy savings banks, and many set-' tiers, soldiers," sailors and otheha car-, riled thbit.money about with'them: A igreat many deaths by drowning occurred in " those" days'; and" in thebe' ways the old and strange coins gob scattered about the harbour beds, yi

SIMPLE, HARD LIFE. Mr Taine, though now eighty yens of age, is wonderfully artd actrVby and, like his parentis, who hotli lived to a grbat age, attributes' 4 this to the simple, hard and' healthy life of the old days. ; v - : '" iv '■ ’ I When a young man he joined this ship “May Queen” as an apprentice | in 1873, and after’ arrival in London