LIFE AMONG THE WHALERS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 51, 28 January 1884, Page 3

LIFE AMONG THE WHALERS.

Namutox, I* THE DATS THAT WE WENT WHAtING A LONG TIME AGO, Towards the close of 1858, after having sojourned unprofitably in Auckland for two years, during which time I had participated In the hospitality of Government House, lived beyond my means, and had been assured by Colonel Gore Brown that letters of introduction from Sir W. Molesworth (the then Secretary for the Colonies) were “ very much a matter of form, you know, Mr. Narrator, but I shall not lose sight of you, and am happy to see you in the colony, good morning ” — having also presented many other such epistles, and found them mostly dead sea fruit, ending in ashes and disappointment—l stood one evening at the end of Wynyard Pier (there is no Wynyard Pier now, I suppose) the apprehensive possessor of £1 ss. 4d., neither more nor less—a stranger in a strange land. “ The wild waves murmured their endless murmur, The winds blew, and the clouds drove, The stars were glittering careless and cold, And a fool stood"guessing their meaning.” I was at my wit’s and, My poor little English candle, which I had lighted at both ends, was on the verge of total obscuration, and my way, speaking in more senses tfcan one, was very dark before me; Pensively enough I turned and retraced my Steps to Winohe’s, passed a sleepless night, and in the morning wended my way as usual to the hospitable residence of my ever-kind and considerate friend Dr, , then practising his profession in Auckland. One glance at his face was sufficient to tell me that something of an agreeable nature had turned up at last, nor was I long in suspense. A patient suffering from amaurvois was returning to his home in Hawke’s Bay. Great care wasHiecessary in carrying out the energetio treatment prescribed. Would I accompany Mr. Jones and superintend the treatment. Now, Mr. Jones, who is dead aud gone years ago, and has left neither heirs, administrators, or assigns, “ was a patriot, be it understood,” who had “ left his country for his country’s good,” in the very early premissionary days of New Zealand, and had built himself a comfortable house, and gathered around him a few head of cattle, many goats and fowls, and other belongings characteristic of the place and period. But neither home comforts or judicious treatment availed aught for poor Jones, who became totally blind, and as a sequence mad, and hereafter fades out of my narrative. Thus I was left occupationless at Mahia. Tera Kako, or Mahia, or Mahia Peninsula, forms part of Maui’s stupendous fish-hook, which, commencing of Cape Kidnapper, south of Napier, includes within its gigantic curve that township, Wairoa, Mahia, and many Native villages, until it ends pleasantly, grandly, and abruptly in the resonant beaches of Taiporutu, (Tauporutu, literally, flutelike sounding waves); the towering headland, imposing plateaux, and frowning precipices of Table Cape. Thence the pleasant slopes of Whangawehi trend round to the isthmus (only a few yards across), and Mahia again, which forms, with its conspicuous bluff, the innermost bight and furthermost corner of Hawke’s Bay. Into this cut de aac, formed, as I have described, by the eastern shores of the peninsula and the mainland, have come, from time immemorial, year by year, according to their season, “ schools” of whales of various kinds. In the winter, the black, or train-oil, whale puts in an appearance; during the summer months, the scamperdown (bottle - nosed grampus) always, and the spermaceti and right whales sometimes, relinquish the comparative safety of the outer ocean and visit these land-involved shallows, in search of food among the floating myriads of zoophytio life.

No doubt these regular habits of the burly cataceana had been marked from afar, and thus we learn that, in the very earliest days, many of the numerous bays, inlets, and lofty headlands, which indent at intervals and dominate the Peninsular Coast, were originally occupied by a much-abused community, who mostly hailed from the “ other •ide,” as it was somewhat euphuistically termed; but among these were some of a very different stamp—honest, straightforward—in fact, they respected people. Among these latter I may mention Messrs. Morris, Campbell, Morrel, Smith, and others, who succeeded as master-whalers their reputation, less precedessors, who had mostly died outvictims of their own excesses—or removed to more congenial locations,

At the time of which I wrote, there were four principal fisheries, and also a number of Maori boats, the mates and crews of which had profited by the instruction of the Euro, pean whalers and set up for themselves. At the principal of these fisheries—Morrd's, known as Tiaki Wiwi among the Natives—l therefore found myself appointed one morning to the offices of clerk, lord of the guaging-ing-rod, and master of the pick-up boat, vice Steddy, promoted to Captain Read's office nt Turanganui; and meeting Morrel shortly afterwards, was requested by him in an alia potrida at three languages—Breton French, English, and Maori—to join the fishery as soon as would be convenient. Apropos of honest John’s plyglottal disabilities. I cannot refrain from introducing here an anecdote which will in a measure explain the extreme difficulty he experienced in making himself understood, and the equal difficulty of understanding him. Originally a smart •eaman of the French marine, John, like many other men-of-war’s-men of other nationalities, preferred the free, semi-bar-barous life of New Zealand, and the society of the “ dusky daughters of the land,” to the discipline and responsibilities of a ship of war, and in the early days spoken of exchanged the one for the other willingly enough, I dare say. Commencing his whaling career as a simple “hand,” he soon, by bravery and general ability, achieved the position of “ headsman,” or master of his own boat. In a dispute with the headsman of another opposition boat (for competition was very keen, as will be seen further on) respecting the ownership of a dead whale, which both parties claimed to have killed, the matter ultimately came before the Supreme Court, then in its infancy, at Napier, and Morrell, in the witness-box, claiming to be a scion of “La Belle France,” an« interpreter was sent for, and his examination went on. But in spite of signs, gesticulations, and facial contortions John could not understand the interpreter, and completely nonplussed him. Then the solicitor engaged tried him with English, but a lamentable failure was the result. Finally Maori was suggested, and, if I mistake not, Mr. F. E. Hamilton tried his hand. But John couldn’t speak Maori either intelligibly, and the evidence was ultimately slowly and haltingly eliminated out of the olla podrida before alluded to.

John possessed and possesses (for he is alive yet) all the characteristics of the typical Frenchman — garrulous, good-natured, and excitable, brave to a fault when actually engaged in his hazardous vocation, and softhearted to a ludicrous degree when his very sensitive nature was excited by any meens or his naturally benevolent disposition appealed to. In person, of middle height, lithe and active, “bearded like a parrot,” and countenance embellished by a nasal organ of the most exaggerated Gallic type. Such was Tiaki Wiwi in ’5B, of whom his deeds, belongings, and eccentricities, together with others of our contemporaries, in my next paper. Waerenga-a-hika, 23th January. (To be continued.)