Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/201

used to aver was capable of great expression, as well as power. He was also an excellent performer on the banjo. Once on a time he had almost resolved to abjure his solitary and wandering existence for domestic felicity, but the mother and friends of the young lady on whom he had placed his affections strongly objected to him, and he had to return to his solitary wharê in Waikerakikari. He appeared to be a man who had read and throught much, and was considered of a genial temperament by those who knew him intimately.

He was the first man who took stock into Waikerakikari. He purchased a number of calves, and got a gentleman to assist him in driving them there, a difficult task indeed in those times, when there was no track and a dense bush all the way. A start was effected at six one morning, and his companion had to go about two miles out of the road to satisfy Head, by seeing a group of Nikau palms. At last, after a lot of trouble, they arrived at their destination, and it being most sultry weather, the dwelling-house was found to be a very suitable one, and fit for the Astronomer Royal, being open to the stars of heaven. The wharê in which his visitors slept was composed of weather-boards, was about eight feet square, and was a regular old curiosity shop, being filled with all sorts of nicknacks and curios he used to pick up on his visits to Christchurch and other places.

One of his strangest notions was, that with properly manufactured appliances human beings would be able to fly. He gave much attention to this hobby, and even ventilated the subject in public in the old country, after leaving the Peninsula. He once paid a visit to the West Coast, and on his return walked back over the ranges at the rate of some fifty miles a day. This, however, seemed to entirely cure him of any desire for future rambles on