Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/234

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Duvauchelle’s Bay.
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clair’s to Hay’s, was stuck up on top of an old saw pit for several hours.

After leaving Hay’s, Mr. Piper went sawing with Mr. Hillier in Pigeon Bay, and after that went boating with old “Skippy,” and afterwards sawed with Mr. Turner in Pigeon Bay. Mr. James Pawson, of Little Akaloa, came over to Robinson’s Bay to flitch for the Pavitt’s at the saw mill, and Mr. Piper went mates with him, and then went to Hendersons, at the Commercial Hotel, Akaroa, where an immense business was then doing. LeBon’s was the next place visited, where he joined Messrs Cuddon and Wilson in a small sawmill, the first erected there, but previously worked by the Cuffs. He afterwards sawed for some months with Eugene, the Frenchman, in Radcliffe’s Gully, German Bay. Mr. Piper afterwards sawed in Pawson’s Valley. In 1859, whilst residing in this place, Mr. Piper was induced by Messrs Hodgson, Cooper, Wilson and Henderson to join them in erecting a saw mill in Duvauchelle’s, near his 30-acre section. At first the speculation was a total failure, owing in a great measure to defective engineering. Mr. Henderson then failed, and his fifth was sold to the other four proprietors, to whom the late Mr. Robert Heaton Rhodes proved on that occasion a good friend. The first two cargoes of timber were lost, owing to demurrage charges caused by Mr. Henderson’s failure. Some three years after that, Messrs. Piper and Hodgson bought out Messrs. Cooper and Wilson, and became sole proprietors. From this time the mill progressed favorably, and in a few years was improved and altered, the firm going to the expense of over a thousand pounds. The partners had sown down the logging roads and where the fire had run through the tops, with English grass, and the first cocksfoot Mr. Piper bought was from Mr. George Armstrong, who had