Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/215

There are two Okain’s, Big Okain’s and Little Okain’s. Little Okain’s lies towards the East Head. It is a small narrow Bay of a rugged nature, and is remarkable for the many giant karakas that thrive there still. It was here that Moki, the renowned chief of the Ngai Tahu, landed first on the Peninsula during his expedition against Tu-te-Kawa, the great Ngatimamoe of Waihora (Lake Ellesmere).

It is not exactly known whether the Maoris had a pah in Okain’s itself. It is certain, however, that they visited it a great deal in their hunts for provisions. Their headquarters were Pah Island, a small islet lying round East Head. It contains about three acres, and ifs formation rendered it a splendid natural fortification for the natives. The Maoris inhabited it to the time when the first settlers came to Okain’s, and traces of them are visible to the present day.

The population of the Bay at the commencement of its settlement consisted chiefly of runaway sailors, and people who had reason for leaving the busy world for a time. There, safe from discovery, they employed themselves in sawing timber, which was plentiful, dense bush covering the whole Bay, a large proportion of it consisting of immense trees. As many as twenty or thirty pairs of pit sawyers worked at a time. Their mode of living was a very reckless one. They would saw a quantity of timber, send it away, and with a portion of the money it fetched, buy a quantity of provisions to last them until they could get another lot of timber. The rest would be spent in grog. When they got over the spree, back they went to work again, and repeated the same process. These men, had they liked, could have become wealthy, as timber sawing was a very profitable employment in those days, but they preferred the wild mode of existence, and there is no single sample of a man who departed from the rule.