Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/175

Amongst the remarkable inhabitants of Akaroa, our worthy friend “Chips” may fairly be enumerated. He is a true Pakeha Maori, a race now fast disappearing from amongst us. He has a great reputation amongst the Natives, for two reasons. One is his great skill in building and mending boats and other vessels, he being a ship’s carpenter by trade; and the other his no less ability, according to them, of patching up human craft. As a doctor he has gained great fame, and no doubt the faith with which his prescriptions are taken tends in no small measure to their success. “Chips” is not an old Peninsula resident, most of his life having been spent in the North Island. His whâre is on Mr Checkley’s ground, near Green’s Point. The road, after leaving the Cemetery gates, is very rough, part of it being a narrow track on the edge of a considerable precipice, and how “Chips” manages to get home safely in the dark nights of winter is a mystery. On one occasion he did slip over, and fell a considerable distance, but was saved by clinging to the long grasses. The boat-shed where “Chips” works is only a few yards from the whâre, but is on Government land, being within a chain of high water mark. It is a very primitive edifice, but is spacious, and well furnished with a great variety of the necessary tools. A visitor will generally find “Chips” at work here, and in no degree disinclined to enter into conversation. He is a very intelligent man, of fair education, and, as will be seen by his narrative, has seen a great deal of the world.

Adolph F. Henrici, known familiarly as “Chips,” was born at Hamburg. His father, a respectable tradesman, wanted him to become a linen draper, but he had taken it into his head he would be a ship’s carpenter, and, with the aid of a schoolfellow, he