Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 254

Transcript

The only mode of communication with the Purau side was by whale boat, and old Deans, of Purau, for years carried passengers to and fro, those for Akaroa making their way over Port Levy to Pigeon Bay on foot, where horses, or some sort of trap, took them to the head of the Bay, later on Shadbolt’s, from where, you had, like the boy with the peep show, your choice, you could go round the road to Akaroa, or by boat. In those days of real old sou-westers, it took some stiff pulling. In the township, besides the old Frenchys, you found old Bruce, the forerunner of Scarborough, doing the honours [sic]. Henderson was also another boniface. Mr Watson dispensed justice, and some stories might be told of his mode of doing so. Capt. Graves, was the Harbour Master, or Customs representative, or official of some sort. Dr Lowe, I think dispensed physic. Yes! There was some tall drinking in Akaroa in those days. The bush, then down to the water’s edge, fine timber, abounded with sawyers, top men and pit men of the old sort, old Vandies, runaway whalers, sailors and out of luck swells. Grog by the case. High jinks for weeks. Don’t I remember one of the debauches, where a man like Tichborne, one who had allowed himself to fall even below the level of his coarse mates, a scion of a good English family, ran as naked as he was born in broad day through the township for a drunken wager. Every now and then a whaler would pop in, sometimes a French one, and some of the crew would be sure to make for the bushes. The Nanto Bordelaise Frenchmen had brought with them fruit trees, and peaches and grapes were abundant. On their way, they made a pilgrimage to Napoleon’s tomb at St Helena, and it is said, that all the willows for which Christchurch and the Avon are now so celebrated, are offshoots of those growing over his grave.

The foot passengers for the plains from Lyttelton made their way over the bridle path, Wheeler and Nurse or Bruce and Coe, working the track with a pack horse, and at the foot of the hill on the other side, one of their spring carts waited for people, somewhere near the tunnel mouth. An old identity called Bill Moore drove one for years and Stewart. The cart took the only route by the Ferry, for years kept by Dale, and there sometimes you had patiently to wait for people would not be hurried in those times, until you got to the other side and the four miles straight to the White Hart.