Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/214

timber down a shoot into the Bay, and still does. A man named Nielson was at the bottom of the shoot when timber was being let down, and kept in check by a chain. The chain broke and came down on Nielson, killing him.

With the exception of a few occurrences of this sort, the Bay has had a very quiet history. It is the old story of men building up a settlement isolated from the rest of the world. The Bay prospers from year to year, and grass seed and cheese have become its chief exports. The low price produce commands at present causes depression, but those who have property in Le Bon’s are confident that it has a prosperous future before it.

Most of the Bays have got their names from some trifling incident. Okain’s is no exception. Captain Hamilton, well known in the early times, and who used to trade between the Bays and Lyttelton, was passing this Bay in his vessel one day, and happened to be reading a book on deck. The book chanced to be by Okain, the Irish naturalist. Capt. Hamilton therefore called the Bay after the author, and it has been Okain’s ever since. Okain’s is perhaps the largest of the Bays round the Peninsula, being much wider than any of the others. The creek which flows down the valley and empties itself into the Bay, can be dignified with the title of river without misapplication. The flat rises so gradually from the beach that the tide is felt for more than a mile from the mouth of the creek, and fairly sized vessels can navigate it. The beach is a great stretch of sand, and the constant work of reclamation is doing on.