EARLY SETTLEMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1939, Page 5

EARLY SETTLEMENT

HOKIANGA BEFORE 1840. The Bay of Islands is so well known as a resort of whaling and other ships in the roaring days before the establishment of British rule in New Zealand in 1840 that the economically important settlement of the banks of the Hokianga River is sometimes overlooked. This settlement was certainly scattered, but every few miles there was a flourishing group of white sawyers, living under the protection of a Maori chief and exporting the magnificent timber to which the deep river gave them access. Unlike the Kororareka settlers, who lived chiefly on European ships, they mantained themselves by hard and regular work. Characters like Lieutenant McDonnell, who exported timber for the British Admiralty from his home at Te Horeke, and F. E. Maning, well known in later years as the author of “Old New Zealand,” stand out among the white settlers. It was on the Hokianga River that Baron de Thierry had hoped to found his little kingdom. The Maori population under those two worthy chiefs, Patuone and Waaka Nene, was far less spoiled than that of the Bay of Islands by European contacts, because the difficult bar at the mouth of the river made it unsuitable as a port of call simply for refreshment. A pilot, Bob Martin, lived near the Heads. He had published a set of warning flags which he would fly to show shipping whether or not the bar was in a fit state to take.