Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/141

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Stories of Banks Peninsula.

vegetables but some wretched Maori potatoes and Maori cabbage.

Mr. Peter Brown was a baker, and soon after this he went to Petoni, where he was baking for a Mr. Duncan, a fellow-passenger. Shortly after this the settlement was shifted some seven miles round the beach, from Petoni to Thorndon, and the old huts were abandoned, and more substantial buildings erected. The road from Petoni to Thorndon was very wild, there being a few Maori settlements scattered along it. At one of these, named Wharepouri, Mrs. Brown had another Maori adventure. She was coming from town to Petoni rather late, and, when she came to Wharepouri, found the tide was in, and asked the Maoris to carry her across the creek. For some reason they would not do so, though she offered them all the cash she had. They kept asking her for more, and pointed out the night was fast approaching. She told them her child was at Petoni, and she must go on, but they only mocked her. At last, finding all her entreaties useless, she leaped in herself, and, though the water was up to her waist, scrambled through. This dreadfully disgusted the Maoris, who by this action lost their “utu” altogether, and the whole pa came out and shrieked and yelled at her, telling her the “typo would seize her by the legs.” It can be imagined what an uncomfortable walk home Mrs. Brown had in her wet clothes.

After three years, Mr. Brown got an offer from Mr. Connell to take charge of a bakery at Akaroa, where there were then a good many residents. He accepted the offer, and he and Mrs. Brown left Wellington in 1843, and sailed for Akaroa in the schooner Scotia. On board the vessel were Mrs. Knight and child. Mrs. Knight was afterwards named Mrs. Webb, and settled in Laverick’s Bay, and the child is the present Mr Knight, now residing