SPARS FROM HOKIANGA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 801, 26 November 1954, Page 5

SPARS FROM HOKIANGA

Sir.-In view of the small amount of research that has been done into Hokianga history, it seems a little premature of Mr. A. H. Reed to assert so categorically that spars were not shipped from Hokianga as early as the Napoleonic wars. The story that they were is based upon local Maori tradition, and there is no ground that I can see for contradicting it on available evidence. They were not, in fact, shipped from the dockyard at Horeke, but according to three’ sources which I have so far tapped, the spars came from the ranges behind Whirinaki, were skidded down the slippery trunks of the black tree fern, and loaded into a ship in the Whirinaki River. It seems feasible to me that in view of the shortage of spars during the Continental blockade, some effort might have been made by the Admiralty to get spars from the trees Cook had mentioned, There is, I believe, a story that a shipment of kauri went from Maraetai, near Auckland, as early as 1790. And surely some ships coming from Sydney would have made a landfall

here and have seen the tall kauris which then grew right at the entrance to the harbour? Maori tradition also states that the first pakehas to live here were sawyers left behind by their ships to get ready a load of spars while their ships went to Sydney and back. One of these who ‘stayed on was our first permanent settler, Jacky Marmon, whom the Auckland Centennial Early Settlers’ Roll lists as being here in 1809. I do not know the source of their information, From my reading of Marsden’s Journal I am inclined to think that the section’ dealing with Hokianga may have been written up afterwards, as it has very few proper names and not a great deal of detail in it. In that case the fact that Marsden does not mention any settler here does not necessarily mean there were none. One must remember, too, that some of them, gs deserters, were not anxious to meet anyone with official connections, We must, I think, in dealing with the very early years of our history, keep an open mind, and not deny the possibility of happenings for which there are no written records. How many ships’ logs of the period still survive?

JEAN

IRVINE

(Rawene).