SOUTHERN WHALERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1939, Page 6

SOUTHERN WHALERS

» — ACTIVITIES OF EDWARD SHORTLAND. In 1843 when Edward Shortland visited Waikouaiti on official business, he found that whaling settlement in flourishing condition. It had been bought in 1838 by that celebrated selfmade man, Johnny Jones, who had begun life as a hand in the South Island sealing trade and had worked himself up to a position of such importance that he could enjoy the luxury of going bankrupt. He failed in his considerable Sydney ventures, and thereafter concentrated on his New Zealand whaling station. But he was still able to live in some style—“on my arrival at this, the then ‘ultima thule’ of the colony, my ears were astonished at the sounds of a piano, and my eyes at the black ‘cutaway’ and riding-whip of a young gentleman, lately of Emanuel College, Cantaz, but now acting tutor to Mr J —’s son and heir.” Shortland did not think many of the employees at Waikouaiti would rise in the world. They were mostly content to receive the payment for their dangerous work in rum and over-valued goods. But one man, Stephen Smith, had saving habits. He had a fenced garden of two or three acres, and possessed seven cattle, as well as a Maori wife. He was an example of the new spirit of colonisation. In contrast to Smith's habits of industry was the hand-to-mouth but contented life of a solitary whaler, living at Purakanui, whom Shortland called upon. “This man welcomed me with the hospitality of his class, although he possessed little but the mud and sticks of his hut, an old musket, and the clothes which covered him. He set himself to work to shoot some pigeons for my dinner; but as he used small stones for shot, I was obliged to be very careful in eating, to avoid breaking my teeth. My bed was made from the slender branches of ‘manuka,’ which are both soft and fragrant. I never had a better.” Next morning Shortland was awakened by a deafening chorus of bell-birds.