Babstow. — Our Earliest Settlers. 429 



many logs, — kabikatea, I should think, from the place at which they were 

 cut ; and as her speedy return was anticipated, several natives took passage 

 hy her. She conveyed back to Sydney also five runaway convicts (four men 

 and one woman), who had, escaping the search of the Sydney police, 

 managed to find their way to New Zealand as stowaways. Two of these 

 men had been some months among the Maoris in a state of semi-starvation, 

 and voluntarily gave themselves up ; the other three arrived whilst the 

 "Active" was at the bay, and were handed over by the master of the 

 vessel in which they had come. One stowaway had been found on board 

 the " Active " herself, but he made his escape into the bush, and was after- 

 wards the cause of much annoyance to our settlers by endeavouring to pre- 

 judice the people against them. 



Two notable events occurred prior to the "Active's" sailing, which I 

 must not forget to mention : the birth of the first white child, Mrs. King's 

 second boy — he died in infancy ; the other the purchase on behalf of the 

 Church Mission from a native named Kuna of 200 acres of land situate 

 between Eaugihoua and Tepuna. This was intended to be a model farm, 

 from which, whilst the Mission establishment would provide themselves 

 with needful food and pasture for their animals, the Maoris might learn 

 more ready and profitable modes of culture than then in use amongst them, 

 the ko, or wooden spade, being a very inefficient implement. They already 

 had tried to grow wheat and maize, but in very small quantities, having no 

 means of grinding or dressing the grain, and, therefore, being unable to 

 utilize the produce for food ; steeping it was a later idea. 



The native chief Tuatara, at whose settlement the Mission had been 

 located, was seized with a violent fever and died a few days after Mr. 

 Marsden sailed. This was a serious matter for our new folk, as then- other 

 two friends, Hongi and Korakora, then lived respectively at Waimate, and 

 at Paroa on the south side of the bay. Tuatara's brother became nominal 

 chief of Kangihoua, pending the majority of a daughter of Te Pahi, 

 but he wanted both the power and inclination to protect the new comers 

 efficiently. 



The " Active" came back in May; the captain's son, Thomas Hansen, 

 who was Mrs. King's brother, had married at Sydney, and brought his 

 bride with him to settle down, but not as a member of the Mission. I 

 knew both these people well. A daughter, born to them in the following 

 year, married the master of a ship, (Capt. Lethbridge), and when left a 

 widow returned to the bay, where she yet resides, the first-born white of 

 this colony as well as its earliest surviving resident. She has been for 

 years a grandmother, and ere this may have seen a further generation of 

 descendants. 



