Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/110

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French Settlement of Akaroa.
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left Mr. Rhodes he built a commodious hotel at Green’s Point, and procured a license. The building was a very substantial one, 40ft. by 30ft., and the timber for it was cut by Mr. Waeckerlie. It was only one storey high, but most conveniently arranged, and was very well patronised, more especially when a whaler came in, when there were “high jinks” indeed. The building was afterwards bought by Mr. George Tribe, and taken by him to Lyttelton, and placed on Norwich Quay, where it was burnt down in 1854 or 1855. After selling this building, Mr. Green bought a piece of land from M. Belligny. agent for the French Association, and put up another and larger hotel in the more central position now occupied by Armstrong’s Buildings, just opposite the present Government Wharf. As soon, however, as circumstances warranted it, there was a French hotel, M. de Belligny’s servant being the proprieter. The building he put up for that purpose is the house where Mr C. M. Henning at present lives, and, like Mr. Green’s, his enterprise was a most successful one.

There was of course no grain of any kind grown the first year or two, and the colonists were dependent on their supplies from outside sources. They were supplied in this manner. Once a year the French man-of-war on the station visited either Valparaiso or Sydney, and came back with what was required. On the first of these trips, in 1841, the vessel was delayed by contrary winds, and the colonists were in consequence reduced to sore straits for flour, rice, and other farinaceous food. Tea, too, was at a premium, but the latter was certainly a luxury, and many supplied its place with the outawhai or manakau. Their potatoes, too, were not yet fit for digging, so that they really were inconvenienced, though of course there was no danger of starvation, with the bush teeming with birds and the