Naturalresourcesshaped province

OTAGO in theyears before whitemen first sailed to its shorespresented averydifferent landscape from theprovincial sceneoftoday

Back then both sides of the harbourwerecovered withdense bush down to thewaterline,the TaieriPlain wasalonelyswamp, andthe inland districtswere clothedinatangledjungleof tussock, matagouri, speargrass andmanuka.

Here andthere atrack penetrated into thebush, in oddspots smoke from asolitary firebetrayedhumanpresence, butoverall thescenewas undisturbed

With thepassingofthe centuries, however, this countrybecame thehomeof people whosedeedshavesince been encircled in an aura of legendary glamour.

Whoprecisely were thefirst inhabitants of Otago?

Nobody cansay with accuracy, butitisknown that they congregatedinvillages along thecoast —atŌtākou, at Waikouaiti,atthe mouthof theMolyneux Riverand other scatteredlocalities

Sincethe seaoffereda food supply andanavenueof transport, fewwereattractedto theinteriorasapermanent place of residence

It is obviousfrom archaeological recordsthattheyknewabout thewealth of inland resources

Almost everyyearthe coastal dwellersjourneyed inland,often as farasthe LakesDistrictand theWestCoast,onexpeditions of huntingand trading.

Most prized wasthe greenstone foundinthe vicinity of Lake Wakatipu andonthe West Coast. On their return,theyspent many months at placeslikeMurdering Beach(Whareakeake), chipping andgrindingintoornaments, implements andweapons

Apartfrom greenstone resources, theinteriorheld anotherimportant attraction for theoriginalpopulation.About four or fivehundred yearsago, largeflocks of moaroamed aboutOtago

Despitetheir sizeand heavy build, themoa were no matchfor their Māorihunters.Among the Māori, their fleshwas considered agreat delicacyand it wasused as amediumofexchangefor NorthIslandgoods.

Thiswealth of richesbrought disaster to theOtago Māorias news of their abundantfood andgreenstone resources was beginningtofocus attentionon them from theNorth Island.

Thisinterest, especiallyamong theweaker northern tribes, ledto organisedefforts to sweepdown andoustthose whohad settled in themorepeacefulsouth Foryears Otago became abattlegroundofbloody encounters as wavesofconquest followed oneafterthe other.

Fortunately for theScottish migrantsatthe beginningof the19thcentury,the struggle had almost burntitselfout.By that time,the Māoripopulation hadattaineda certainstability and, to alarge extent, victor and vanquishedhad coalesced into onepeople.

After so much bloodshed, it wouldnot have been surprising if their numbershad been seriously depleted.Therehad never been many Māoriinthe South Seriousdepletion might have occurredhad it not been for the introduction of the potato early in the1800s. The new food crop alteredthe fabric of society as become an almost negligible factorinOtago affairs.The deathin1844 of their most famous chief,JohnTūhawaiki, symbolised for them theend of their dominion.

During this eventful decade in Māori history the whaling industry passed through a similar cycle of maximum prosperity and rapid decline Early in the 1830s whaling stations were set up on the Otago coastline Some of the best known were at Reservation Inlet (1829), Ōtākou, Moturata Island at the mouth of the Taieri River, Waikouaiti, Moeraki and Waikawa

Foratime, thewhaling industry wasveryprofitable and menfrom allnations,including ‘‘theveryscumofPortJackson,’’ hurriedtoOtago to gain ashare in thespoils

They may have been unscrupulous and hard drinking, but theirs was a dangerous and difficult job in which their conditions and pay encouraged excesses

Of the Otago stations, the Ōtākou establishment owned by George and Edward Weller was for a short time the most successful.For anumberof years, when it employed 70 to 80 men, it wasasceneofgreat activity andwildadventure

As theWellers’ namesare associated with theOtagoand Taieri ventures, so the name of John Jones is part and parcel of the Waikouaiti establishment. Shrewd, determined, and of very strong character, Jones had bought the Waikouaiti fishery in 1838

Unlike so many of his contemporaries, however, he did not confine his attention soley to the whaling industry farasfood gathering went You don’thavetohunt or travel far to harvestpotatoes, you don’t even have to live in an especially warm climate to grow them Society changed to such an extent that by themid-1830s, when European visitors beganto frequent theseshoresinany numbers, theOtago Māori reached a maximum population of 2000

From theMāori point of view, thewhalerswere the most significantEuropean visitors There canbelittle doubt that the rapiddeterioration of the Otago Māorifrom 1855 onwards was largelybroughtabout by these seafaringmen.

The diseases white men brought spread thorough the Māori population like wildfire After 1840 they were so reduced in numbersand prestige as to

He purchased aconsiderable acreage of land in thevicinity of Waikouaiti.In 1840hesent10 families in the Magnet to start farmingthere.

Although hisschemedid notworkout exactlyashe had planned, it wasthe first systematicattempt at permanent whitesettlementinthe South.

From beinga labourer on the Sydney wharves, Jonesfor atime became theuncrowned king of theprovince.

By 1839 he ownedseven whalingstations, each employing 30 to 40 men. During the previous season he hadtaken 1000 tons of oil.

Towardsthe endofthe decade returnsbegantofalloff. In theearly 1840s thenumber of whales caught in Otago dwindled rapidly. The wholesale indiscriminate slaughter over yearshad caused the disappearanceofwhales from the Otago coastline.

Almostassuddenly as they had come,the whalersdeparted. By 1843 allthatremained of Wellers’ once thriving stationwas an abandonedfisheryand afew deserted, crumblingbuildings.

The brief hegemony of the whalerswas significantinOtago’s history. Their cominghad been responsiblefor anew and unexpecteddevelopment —the arrivalofthe missionary

ShortlyafterJones hadbought it,the Waikouaiti station became notoriousasahotbedof drunkenness, vice andimmorality. Although for fivemonthsofthe year thewhalerstoiledlikeslaves, most of theremainingseven they spentindebauchery.

To remedy this stateofaffairs andits consequenteffect upon theMāori,Jones sponsored theappointment in 1840 of a Wesleyan missionary,James Watkin.

Otago’s first representative of theChristian Church wasthus broughtherebyawhaler

On arriving at Waikouaiti, Watkinfound hisworst fears more than fulfilled.Hewas forced to takea determined standnot only againstthe vices of thepakeha, butalsoagainst thesavagecustoms of theMāori Throughoutthe provinceheset up anumberofMāori schools to whichhesentpartlytrained Māori teachers.His parish wasextensive,stretchingfrom Kaikoura to FoveauxStrait. Although he wasa poortraveller, he spentmuchtimejourneying over swampyvalleyand bush-clad hills, andtravellingbycanoe or boat,toits most distantcorners.

At Ōtākou,the largest settlementsouth of theWaitaki, threechurcheswerebuilt soon afterhis arrival. Missions sprang up elsewhere too. Allsolid testimonytothe abilityofa man whosetaskfrom theoutsethad neverbeeneasy. Yetinthislonely spot,amid the stenchofoil andblubber and surrounded by adissolutewhite society andadwindlingand debauchedMāori race,Watkin carried outzealously theduties entrustedtohim. Upon hisdeparture in 1844 he wassucceeded by CharlesCreed Like Watkin, Creed wasaman of outstandingability andenergy. Atirelesstraveller,hespent much time journeying from onemissiontoanother.Hewas thefirstwhite preacherofany denomination to hold aservice on thesiteofDunedin.

Creed wasexceptionally popularwithhis Māori congregations, forheunderstood notonlytheir language,but also their customs andetiquette. Such wasthe man, esteemed by whiteand Māoriraces alike, whocontinued thetradition establishedbyWatkin. When thefirst settlers arrived in 1848, therefore,muchofthe preliminary work essentialtoany newsettlementhad been carried out. If theOtago sceneappeared strangeto them,how much more hostilemustithaveappearedto Creed,and to Watkin, andata stillearlier date to thewhalers?

Withoutthese menofthe presettlementdays—missionaries andseafaring menalike —who did so much to prepare theway, thepioneerswould have found thetaskofestablishingthe new settlementevenmoredifficult.