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also carried the Okain’s mail, which he conveyed by the track, and rough times he had now and then. The main road to Duvauchelle’s was made about 1868, and was a great boon to the inhabitants.

Of course there were some heavy bush fires in Little Akaloa, but no harm is known to have been done, as the settlers were always on the alert expecting them. The historical fire which spread from Pigeon Bay about twenty-five years ago will not be soon forgotten by those who were in the Bay at the time. It was difficult for days to breathe in the smoky atmosphere. Like the rest of the Peninsula in the early times, provisions in the shape of wild pigs, birds, and fresh and salt water fish were plentiful, and we are assured they were needed, as it was difficult to get anything in the Bay at the time of its settlement. Whalers sometimes came into Little Akaloa, but they did not stay long, their principal places of stoppage being Port Levy and Akaroa.

Mr T. Duncan who lately died in Christchurch, was the first who settled in Decanter Bay, afterwards owned by Mr W. Ashton, but since sold by him. There was a Maori pah on Decanter beach, and it was these Maoris who acted as guides to the pioneers of the other bays, having an intuitive knowledge of the way to reach them through the trackless forest.

The tidal wave was felt here, as elsewhere on that side of the Peninsula, pretty severely. A vessel by name the Struggler had been wrecked just before this, and endeavours were being made to float her again. The wave took her away up the flat, then out to sea and back again, not doing the least damage to her. Mr McIntosh’s house was battered about, and one end of it was lifted up bodily by the water, the piles being washed from underneath it. It is considered that if the water had risen half an inch more it would have wrecked the house completely, as the wave would have come through the