Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/229

Bay is the same as that of the other Peninsula inlets. Runaway sailors here found a refuge, and lived by pit sawing. It was no difficult matter in those days for sawyers to make £5 or £6 a week, and then not exert themselves very much. The life they led, though lonely, was not an unhappy one. Building a whâre in a convenient place by a creek, they stored up a good supply of provisions and necessary tools. They varied their fare, and spun out the quantity by occasional raids on the wild pigs and birds, and they had not far to look for these. When they got a decent cheque they revisited the haunts of civilization, and after knocking it down, went back and repeated the same process.

The Pavitts put up the first saw-mill in the Bay. Mr. S. C. Farr built it on the same site as that on which the mill afterwards worked by Messrs. Saxton and Williams stood. Mr. Hughes also possessed a mill here about the same time. These mills, however, did not cut much timber. In 1865 Messrs. Saxton and Williams bought the land now occupied by Mr Saxton. The old mill was found to be in a rather dilapidated state, and not capable of doing much work. The new owners entirely renovated it, employed a great many men, and in a short time produced 1,000,000ft of timber yearly. The timber was punted out to vessels in the Bay. Messrs. Lardner and Sims carried a great deal of it away in their punt. Capt. Malcolmson, in the well-known Antelope, and Mr. E. Latter’s vessels, among which were the Foam and the E. and U. Cameron, were kept busily employed. The s.s. Beautiful Star once took a cargo to Dunedin, and also the s.s. Wainui. There were a great many vessels employed at different times. Mr Hughes built the Isabella Jackson on the spot where Mr. Johnstone’s house now is. The Pavitts built the Thetis on the beach.