IN THE EARLY DAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1920, Page 6

IN THE EARLY DAYS.

EXCITING EXPERIENCES. LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND 100 YEARS AGOMr. Alfred Henry Brind, of 23, Bay street, Petone, last week received a letter from hi.? grandson, Mr, John McGaw, a well-known Sydney business man, concerning Mr. Briud's father, the late Captain Brind, who made many (many exciting and all interesting) voyages from Great Britain to New Zealand in the days of 1820. The writar stated that on looking up the Sydney Gazette of Saturday, August 12th, 1820, it mentioned that: "On Tuesday arrived from the Sperm Whale fishing the ship Cumberland. Captain Brind. Shii sailed from England October 27th last and has procured nearly COO barrels of oil, Captain Brind went into the Bay of Islands on March 21st and sailed again on the 28th, leaving His Majesty's ship Dromedary there—all well." Mr. Alfred Brind (son of the old sea captain), who was 77 years of age on March Btli last, gave a Times reporter an account of his father's career, as far as he could coliictit. "The Rev. William? mentioned in the historical records," said Mr. Brind, "was the old Archdeacon Henry Williams, who wai my godfather. THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. 'lt has been stated that my father, Captain Brind, .took part in the most famous of Nelson's engagements, the Battle of Trafalgar, but, of course, I have not yet found out from the official records if that was a fact. It is more than possible, as my father was in 1803 an able seaman on tho H.M.S Enterprise, and the Battle of Trafalgar took place in ISOJi." Having secured his master's ifi<. a te, Captain Brind traded ir ar<' of (.he Bay of Islands in 1820 in (1, * hip Cumberland, owned by Messrs Green. Kigram and Green, large ship-owners of Biackwall. London, where the Great Eastern was built. Iho firm at that time owned a large whaling fleet. Tie had a gieat, influence (mana) with t.h H Maoris, verv much t,o eon'itcrnatir.i of the missionaries. Ultimately he married a Maori chieftainess, whose father was the greatest native warrior at that litre A CMIU) MTJKI'PJiFT). '"The offspring, of" the marriage between Cantain Brind and the Maori chieftainess was a little girl. and she was shortly afterwards murdered at the Bay of Islands by another chieftainess as an act of vengeance. In connection with the above I have been itiformed by Mrs. Phillips, mother of Mr Phillips, at one time interpreter at the Leeisktive Council, that beng the only living son and heir, I :im entitled to large 'raets of native land in the vicinity of Rnjssoll. I have also many times been told that according to. the traditions of the Maoris I should claim the land. "My father's wife, as a result of grief caused' by the murder of her child, died just before 1840. Captain Brind was then on ;i trading vovage. and it was not until his return that he was informed of t!i.> happening. He again set off. and arriving back in England married Eliza Ann Snowswell, of Gravesend. Captain. Brind brought his eecond wife out to the Bay of Islands, making that spot his home, erecting it at Matawai Bav. near Russell. HONE HERE'S WAR. "In 1813, while my father was away at sea, Hone Heke's force commenced a war against the whites. The whole of the inhabitants of Koroaka (Russell). including my mother, were burnt out and lost their all They were taken into the stockade and afterwards conveyed by His Majesty's ship Hazard to Auckland. I was the only child to accompany the whites to Auckland. "After the rising had been quelled by the English, the, inhabitants were brought back, and my mother (along with others) was compelled to live in a Maori whnre. When I was two years old, my father returned and found us penniless and homeless. "From then until 1850 another three children were born, a son and two daughters, and in the latter part of 1850 my father died, and ' was buried in the same grave as the child of his first wife, who was buried just alongside of the old Anglican church in Russell. TROUBLE AT SYDNEY. "Eventually we left for Svdnev in 1851, and on arrival there the whole crew signed off there, as it was the end of the voyage for them. It was impossible, on account of the rush to the gold diggings, to obtain a new crew of seamen. The, ship was therefore compelled to anchor in Sydney harbor for months At that time seamen were getting £l2O for the run home. Ultimately the shjp left Sydney with a cosmopolitan crew, there being only two Britons. "In rounding Cape Horn on the Homeward voyage, in consequence of the bad steering of the crew—the members of which were not sailors—we got too far south, and into the floe ice. Being wedged in by the iee for several days, the vessel leaked very badly and all hands, includine my' mother and myself, were fit the pumps dav and night." St. Helena was reitched, and thev remained there four months, effecting repairs, arriving at Gravesend about M 52, shortly after the Duke of Wellington's death. FOR NEW ZEALAND. "In 1853," continued Mr. Brind, '1 went to the ship Essex as a midshipman, and mijde my voyage to" Melbourne, and went on to a sheep station at Mount Emu, in Victoria, until tho owner, Mr. W. Brown, sold out and went to England In 1859 I joined the Ihomas Brown and voyaged to Mauritius, and later returned to New Zealand." Mr. Brind was one of tlie officials of the Railway Department, who was in attendance at the opening of the Nel-i son to Foxhill line about 1850. Resigning from the railway he joined the Anchor Shipping Company, of Wellington, and was for 20 years purser of theif vessels. Mr. Briml recollects the time when there were no 'Union Company vessels sailing to tie coast, with the exception of the small steamer Maori, which carried the mails to the South Island. Since then Mr. Brina has seen thecolony advance and become a DominionHe is now well over the allotted span, being 77 on March Bth. his wife hein» 7fl. They aro at Dissent residing at Fctosie.