Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/144

and Mr. Lucas got Mrs. Brown to ask Governor Grey whether they might be allowed to squat on the hills, and he replied in the affirmative, saying they had better go there “and breed children and cattle as fast as they could.” This permission was taken abundant advantage of. At that time there was no settler on the south side of the harbor, though Mr. George Rhodes had stations at Long and Flea Bay. Mr. McKinnon went to Island Bay, and Mr. Lucas to Land’s End, and, as they did well, many others were encouraged to follow them. Mr. Wright went to Wakamoa next, and Hempleman was living at Peraki on a whaling station, Job Price at Ikeraki, and Mr. Wood, better known as “Paddy Wood,” at Oauhau. These latter were all whaling, and kept little stock for their own use. There were great droves of wild pigs on the hills, and in the whaling season these used to come down in hundreds to feed on the blubber.

Mr. Connell went to Nelson, and left Mr. and Mrs. Brown out of employment. Mr. Wood persuaded Mr. Brown to go as cook and baker to Oauhau, but they had no idea of how rough it was. They went round in a whale-boat. There was a great swell on outside, though the weather was fine in Akaroa. Not a word was spoken the whole way, and when they got in Mr. Wood said that he was never in a worse sea. The place was terribly rough, and, as there was no firewood, the food had to be cooked with whales’ blubber. They ran short of provisions, and the men got discontented, and the station was left a month before the usual time, much to the gratification of Mr. and Mrs. Brown, who spent a very wretched three months there.

Of course at this time there were no surveys and no Crown grants, and Hempleman asserted that nearly the whole of the Peninsula was his, so that any one lived rent free. There were no very large