Old Identity Days.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 1, 31 March 1893, Page 2

Old Identity Days.

. By the kind permission of the author (Mr 80. Garrick, a well-known Hew Zealand journalist), we make the following extracts from Bote 27 in “ Legend of the Lakes” : Invercargill . did not contribute largely to the credit of the parentage from which it derived its name. It started life, the capital of Southland Province, in ; a kind of prodigal campaign, raising the wind on every side, until things got so breezy that nothing - remained but to reap the whirlwind. It was a case of— mirth and laughter ; Sermons and soda-water the day alter. In itself it was not what would be called desperately wicked, but, somehow no sooner did it become knpwn that it had entered into doubtful dealing's than there congregated within its borders iniquity enough to have sent even a cathedral city headlong to the devil. One man brought with him the wooden-railway system named in the narrative. “My railway,’ sand he, “ is a triumph of science, the perfection of aid. Just give me the man, with a cratch in one hand and a. wooden leg’ in the other, and I’ll back him to make better time on my rails than the best Pairlie engine you can put upon your metals.” Advantages like these were not to be despised, and accordingly the wooden-railway scheme was bought, and the youthful province sold. Another gentleman came armed with a. method for making macadamised roads out of flax and fascines. Tins was the pink of; perfection in domestic economy —a good passable road, with flax and 10:11 ad libitum all along the line. Tbe flax enterprise proved less innocent as a joke than the wooden railway. The latter could be lifted up and thrust out of tbe way : tbe flax got imbedded in the slush and mud, and remained a danger to life and limb for years afterwards. (letting' very poor, the district became very penitent, ami, like tbe prodigal child it had been, after ten 'years sin and misery, it took heart of grace and returned to the provincial parent. Since then Invercargill has enjoyed domestic pea.ee and commercial prosperity, and, having sown its wild oats, lias settled down and become a reputable member of colonial society. Even its saintly primogenitor, Donald Cargill, had lie been in the flesh, would not now be ashamed of it.

Bo record has been kept of the date when Invercargill made its first start. There is a tradition it was founded by a refugee from Van Dieman’s Land ; and it is a fact that such a personage did occupy a picturesque situation in what is now Dee street, Invercargill, for a considerable period after the settlement fairly got into existence. He was popularly known as the “ black doctor,” and a striking character in real life he most undoubtedly was. He was a tall, gaunt, black-grained figure, standing six feet some inches high. He went about armed with “ the woodman’s” axe, carrying himself, as well as the axe, with the martial, dignity' of a hero in romance. The reason why he got to Van Dieman's Land in the first instance is not known. He was one of the notorious Macquarie Harbour gang, Macquarie Harbour being then one of the most rigorous of the South Sea, penal settlements. He was drafted into what was known as the “lookout.” They were a party of prisoners camped on an island at the mouth of the harbour, and, amongst other duties, they were employed lookingout for vessels, and to assist in working’ them over the bar. A sealer craft en route to Bcw Zealand put in, and, after discharging stores from Sydney Cove settlement, set out in prosecution of her voyage. He was one of: the boat’s crew who took the sealer over the bar, and on leaving, instead of getting into the boat, managed to secrete himself in the chains. I’iio night being-dark and boisterous, his absence was not noticed until the sealer got well away and pursuit became useless. Arriving at Awarua (Bluff), the black doctor joined the shore whaling party. Hawing reason to suspect a purpose afoot to seize him and send him back to the penal settlement, the doctor took to the hush, and when the early settlers invaded the place they found him in the full enjoyment of a Robinson Crusoe life on the banks of tbe Waihopai. Compared with the ordinary bush habitation, tbe doctor [ had erected for himself a palatial j residence; it was a, residence fearfully : and wonderfully made, contrived in ; accordance with the interstices or the honeycomb. Indeed, no one that saw | it could have doubted it was the | handicraft of a man with a bee in his I bonnet, and so the honeycomb con- ; straction became all the more obvious ■ in respect of the eternal fitness in I things. The Doctor kept undisputed ; possession of his holding, and con-

tinned to strut about as proud as a peacock, until Crown grants and parchment rights came into operation. It seemed a heartless thing to oust the poor creature, but that was not the worst feature in the proceeding. Tire prosecuting attorney in the • ejectment process got it into his head the doctor meant him grievous bodily harm, and bad him indicted as a dangerous lunatic. A scrap of paper was produced on which some wretched scrawls had been traced. This the alarmed lawyer construed into a skull and cross-bones, meaning'thereby that the legal cranium -was in danger of being dissected, and other of his bodily members disarranged. The whole thing was too flimsy, and justice satisfied itself by simply ordering the doctor off the land. It was after all a hard case, but. as it happened, when the rights of landlordism were never called into question, little notice was taken of it. Driven from his home, the. poor fellow became a wanderer, and shortly afterwards wandered forth to be no more. Whatever bis early transgressions amounted to is not known. His life latterly was perfectly harmless. If ho was proud and perhaps demonstrativc, he had about him a good deal of the pride of independence, and a certain rectitude of conduct according’ to his own interpretations thereof. The first official record we have of Invercargill is a Town Board ordinance passed in 1859. Its population at that date numbered 445, over twotln’rds of whom -wore females. Now the tonm is subdivided into five municipalities, the affairs of each being administered by separate councils. Its values arc set down at £;):>4.838. of which £408,174 represents the value of buildings and improvements. That is a remarkably good record for thirty years, springing no. as, it does, from the inappreciable value of a bush shanty to the rateable value of a trifle under one million sterling. Then, again, if wo take the comity wc 'find another million, represented by agriculture and pastoral inn no cm nerds ; auu, by adding the unimproved value thereto, wo get the gjamd total of three and a quarter millions of money. The area, of Southland County is set down at 6.966,592 acres, of which 1,89b.5(18 acres have been disposed of, so that tv good extent of landed estate stdl remains for settlement. Its population is estimated at 18,412. in cattle it numbers 61,815; sheep, 7/6,dG4; and

horses, 12,829. Its area and produce in staple crops is estimated as follows : Wheat, 5,811 acres, producing 149,910 bushels ; oats, 80,583 acres, producing* 2,753,072 bushels; bailey, 1,213 acres, producing 35,197 bushels ; hay, 746 acres, producing 1,067 tons ; potatoes, 1,177 acres, producing 5,965 tons.