Tales of Banks Peninsula/Part 2/Chapter 2

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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. ​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. ​It was chiefly in Okain’s that the whalers in the early days got their spars, and shiploads of them were continually cut and sent away, the Bay being famed for its fine timber.

Very dense was the bush. It was in fact difficult to travel far through it in any direction. When a track wanted cutting, all hands in the Bay set to work for the common good. About two years after the first real settlers came—that was about 1850—a track was cut over to Robinson’s Bay for the purpose of communication with Akaroa. It was a very rough one, and those that are now in the Bay that travelled it think it would have far from satisfied the present inhabitants. It was better, however, than the untracked bush, and the hardy pioneers were too accustomed to difficulty to think much of the hardships a journey to Akaroa cost them. Before this track was cut it was nearly impossible to get to the harbour, and, as in the other bays, men continually lost themselves while attempting it.

The first people who really settled in Okain’s were Messrs. Fleuty, Harley, Mason, and Webb. They were there before 1853. They bought up fifty acres among them. Mr. Thos. Ware, who soon afterwards arrived, bought one-fourth of it from them, and still owns it. Mr. Webb afterwards went to Laverick’s, and died in that Bay. Mr. Mason remained in Okain’s until his death, which has only recently occurred.

The tidal wave of 1863 is well remembered by the old settlers. It spread a long distance up the Bay, flooding the houses on the flat. It left behind a thick sandy deposit, covering all the herbage, and it was some time before the latter grew again. A vessel that was being built down close to the river was carried off the stocks and floated round the Bay. No harm, however, was done to her. As may be supposed, the event caused great consternation.

​There have been few casualties in the Bay. In the very early days a boat belonging to Mr John Roberts was capsized, and two men drowned. A boat, also, coming from Le Bon’s was lost, and two men met their fate. Those who have passed through Little Okain’s in late years may have noticed the wreck of a small vessel lying half buried in the sand. She has now been completely broken up. Her name was the Sea-devil, and she once belonged to Mr. Thacker. Soon after he sold her she was driven ashore during a gale, and became a total wreck.

Messrs. Moore, Sefton, Gilbert, and others were also very early settlers in Okain’s. They took up land on the same principle as Messrs. Webb, Mason, Fleuty, and Harley, three or four of them buying up a fifty-acre section and going into partnership.

As the bush was cut down fires became frequent, and a great deal of damage was done at times. The great fire which started in Pigeon Bay about five and twenty years ago, spread to Okain’s. The fire lasted for a long time, and for weeks the sky was scarcely seen through the thick volumes of smoke. There have been several bush fires started in Okain’s, but none as bad as this one. The summer had been a dry one, and the wind was favorable to its spreading. The whole Peninsula was ablaze, and after it had died out many wild pigs were found burnt to death. The native birds, besides, were never so plentiful afterwards as they were before the fire.

As in Le Bon’s, the creek swarmed with eels of a great size, and in the bush, pigeons and kakas were plentiful. It was no difficult thing for a man with a gun to live in the bush in those days.

About three years after they came, Messrs. Mason and Fleuty commenced dairying, their old partners, Messrs. Webb and Harley, having left them and sold out their interest in the property. Messrs. Ware and Thacker soon started other dairies, and year ​after year as the bush was cleared others went in for dairy farming. Mr Ware brought the first sheep into Okain’s about seven and twenty years ago.

Mr. J. E. Thacker came to Okain’s about thirty-eight years ago from Christchurch, and gradually bought up land, the six thousand acres purchased in all, now forming a magnificent estate. He erected a sawmill about fifteen or seventeen years ago, and soon cut all the suitable timber in the Bay. It was the largest sawmill ever at work on the Peninsula, and could cut 70,000ft in a week, so that it did not take long to clear the land, a large number of hands being employed. The building in which the engine and machinery were once located is still in good preservation, and is now used as a wool-shed. The tramway to fetch down the logs to the mill went away to the top of the valley, and parts of it are still to be seen. The Alert, Jeanette, and Elizabeth were the vessels employed to carry the timber to Lyttelton, and they had all they could do to clear it away as it was cut.

The Okain’s Road Board was formed in 1864, and the present road to Akaroa was made in 1878.

Okain’s has settled down to a quiet peaceful existence, the inhabitants being chiefly dependant on the production of cheese, grass seed, and wool, and as long as these commodities command any price this fertile Bay is bound to give generous support to its healthy and happy sons and daughters.