Posh -3 The new settlers

By Brian Holloway

The third book in the trilogy of Posh
The Northern War is over, the settlers have gone to Auckland the new capital, but times are hard. Work and money is sparse. The family tries fishing, gold mining, and then branch out into shipping. Passion,lust and murder rocks the foundations of the family.
There is laughter,joy and love, but death is never far away. The tale is gripping to the end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Holloway
• Release date: Apr 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476479897

Brian Holloway

Sailor, bike rider,living in Auckland New Zealand (a 5th generation kiwi)Loves to travel, sings badly, can be good company and will party any timeHistoric novel of a runaway migrant boy in 1839Book should be in print and p- e-pub early October. Book is POSH- a New Zealand novelAlso there are twelve stories, in colour, of the Dragons that live in the garden. Will be produced at same time.This is the Scary Dragon Chronicles- it is fun for young minded people 8- 80years

Book preview

Brian K. Holloway

POSH-3: The New Settlers

Copyright 2011 by Brian K. Holloway

Published by Poshbooks at Smashwords

Brian K Holloway has asserted his right to be identified as the author and publisher of this book under the name of Poshbooks through Smashwords.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in any form without permission of author or his representatives.

ISBN registered with National Library of New Zealand

The Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua

Title: Posh-3 The New Settlers | Author: Brian Holloway

ISBN: 978-0-473-19794-0 (pdf)

ISBN: 978-0-473-19793-3 (pbk)

Published by Poshbooks NZ

1 Princes St Northcote Point,

Auckland New Zealand 0627

Phone: [phone]

www.Poshbooks.co.nz

Digital edition by Go Published

www.gopublished.com

Notes on the Author

Brian K Holloway rides motorbikes, delivers yachts around the Pacific, sings badly, and lives in Auckland.

He is irascible, overly friendly to all the local cats and dogs, and lives to sail boats and have fun. Somehow, he is also a pretty hard worker.

He has built a fantasy garden, complete with hobbit house and dragons, and much of the day is spent there, mumbling over his typewriter.

Somehow he has fitted in a life time of adventure, and managed to create children, grandchildren, and a plethora of good friends around him.

I hope some day he will settle down and be normal, but then he wouldn’t be half as interesting.

Actually, I like his writings too.

His long suffering and ever loving wife.

—Jay Holloway

POSH

The favoured side of any ship leaving Europe for the Colonies, in particular Australia and New Zealand, was port (left side) of the vessel, and the starboard (right side) on the return voyage.

The old candle in POSH-3 is significant. In days of yore, wives would place a candle in the window to guide their seafaring loved ones home safely.

As a sailor I have found the small action poignant and utterly rewarding. Life is hard at sea, even in our modern generation, and the sight of a flickering candle still holds intense meaning and reward.

As a yellow ribbon around a tree has emotional reason, so does a simple candle.

—Briankh

Table of Contents

Notes on the Author

Glossary of Maori terms

What Has Gone Before

Homecoming to Auckland

Chapter One – The Arrival of Kiri

Chapter Two – The Lure of Gold

Chapter Three – Schooling and Fishing

Chapter Four – The Tide Turns and Brings New Life

Chapter Five – The Move Beyond Fishing

Chapter Six – The Dreamer

Chapter Seven – Return to the North

Chapter Eight – The ‘J’ Shipping Line

Chapter Nine – Murder Most Foul

Chapter Ten – Matthew’s Wars 1846

Chapter Eleven – Matthew Comes Home

Chapter Twelve – Life – and Little Jenny

Chapter Thirteen – Challenges

Chapter Fourteen – The Regatta of 1850

Chapter Fifteen – Death Most Cruel

Chapter Sixteen – The Aftermath

Chapter Seventeen – The School

Chapter Eighteen – The fire

Chapter Nineteen – Auld Lang Syne

Conflicting Historic Facts from Various Sources

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Glossary of Maori terms

Ai (ae): yes

Haere mai: welcome

Haere ra: farewell

Haere ki te kai: come and eat!

Hangi: food steamed in the ground

Hapu: tribe

Hongi: to respectfully greet by touching noses together

Ka pai: good

Kia kaha: go well, be strong

Kia ora: greeting

Kuia: mature woman

Kumara: sweet potato

Maori: indigenious New Zealanders

Mere (Patu): deadly close fighting weapon

Moana: seafood

Moko: tattoo worn on chin and lips of Maori women

Muru: confiscation of goods after an insult

Pakeha: white New Zealanders

Powhiri: traditional greeting ritual

Raupo: bullrushes

Taiaha: fighting stick

Tapu: sacred

Tena kotou: greeting to three or more persons.

Tena koura: greeting to two persons

Tena kuia: greeting to one person

Tohunga: priest, spiritual leader,

Utu: revenge

Wahine: women

Whanau: family

Whare: house

Whare-wanaga: school of higher learning

Whare-mata: school for lower class technical school

By Brian K Holloway

What Has Gone Before

A young boy escapes the ravages of London, in 1839. Matthew is lonely and terribly alone, and he stows away on a migrant sailing ship. With luck he is saved from the licentious demands of the captain and is sheltered by Jessica, an exceptional young widow.

She falls in love with the First mate, and they are wed before the voyage is over. Matthew is taken into the family fold.

In Kororareka they are involved at the Treaty of Waitangi. This document is the closest New Zealand has to a constitution. Matthew forms a strong bond with a young Maori boy and in love with his sister.

Squabbles between the native people and the settlers, with their thirst for land, simmers and reaches a breaking point, when the township of Kororareka is sacked and burned to the ground. Jessica escapes to Auckland, while Matthew and Mate are enlisted in the British forces. A number of dramatic and hard fought, yet inconclusive battles are fought before peace is agreed

After a year with the British Forces, Mate and Matthew are desperate to return to their loved ones, now in Auckland.

Join them as they leave the North, to find a way down to the new capital

Homecoming to Auckland

NOTE-this is the closing chapter of

Posh–2 Waitangi and War

It was now early summer in the year of 1846 and a full tumultuous year had passed since the first cutting down of the flagpole. There had been major battles, in appalling conditions, at an atrocious cost and loss of life on both sides. Families on both sides lost men, houses and whares were razed, crops and stock lost, stolen and slaughtered. White skin and brown had spilt blood and both wanted peace and the hope of moving forward together.

And throughout it all, Mate’s soul burned with the desire of just being with his beloved Jessica once more. The treacherous mud, the maddening flies, the constant brutal living in filth and privation, the horrors of war, were all taking their toll. With peace came a relaxing of duties and Mate applied to the Colonel for permission to visit Auckland. Unknown to him, Matthew had made the same request.

On receiving the grant, his next task was to find transport, but there was none to be had.

The armed forces had requisitioned everything that moved and, despite pleas that he would work his passage and even sleep on the deck, Mate could find no captain willing to take them.

This is absurd, he muttered crossly to himself, after being told for the fifth time that there was no room on any ship. Before he knew it, his feet were moving south. His mind totally on his mission, he forgot about Matthew, who just happened to see him as he left the barracks.

What were you thinking of? Matthew admonished the older man.

I don’t know, he responded. I just must get to Auckland.

Matthew raised his eyebrows, but just said, Are we… walking?

I am, said Mate. I think the exercise might do me some good, he added drily.

Matthew pleaded a few minutes, enough to purloin a musket and powder, a flint, a bag of bread and two fleece jackets. Mate, in his obsession, was walking off too lightly dressed. For the last year they seemed to have walked from one end of the world to the other, usually by wading through thick mud.

But wait! Let us take the little dory. We can get there in two or three days, it will take us a lot longer by foot.

You are right, young man. I wasn’t thinking clearly.

The little boat had been pulled up high on the shore at the mission at Paihia. It took a day to find the sails and mast and from the mission they were given fruit, vegetables and some canvas for protection against the salt water spray.

The boat was small but heavy, its stout timbers shaped by men who knew and loved their craft. Mate and Matthew rolled it over on to its keel and, using trimmed branches, slid it down the shell beach and into the water – where it promptly sank! Matthew stood, hands on his hips, aghast.

W-what has happened to our boat?

Mmm… It is lapstrake, or clinker built, meaning timber that’s steam bent and screwed in place. When you leave it out of the water for any length of time the timber dries and shrinks – and lets the water in.

Matthew said. You seem very relaxed about this! Is the boat a total loss?

Indeed, no! We will leave it here and bail the water out tomorrow – all will be well, I promise. Let us go and visit chief Rewa.

Matthew was astonished. Chief Rewa? Are you sure?

Certainly. You know that he has been pardoned, along with Hone Heke and Kawhiti. The village has been partially rebuilt. It will never be as it was, but he is still there with his wives and a number of followers.

And… and… Kiri?

You have not heard? Kiri will be in Auckland. She went south overland, walking all the way, to be with Jessica. It was after the burning of the great Pa at Kawakawa. I wonder that no one has told you.

I, it doesn’t matter. Matthew stammered but Mate missed it.

They begged a boat ride back over the harbour to Kororareka and walked through the charred ruins. Nothing was left of their house, just a few vegetables growing wild and the fruit trees that Jenny had so carefully nurtured. The walk to the Pa was invigorating and full of memories for them both. At the entrance, the outer and inner palisades were mostly still standing and many of the whares had been rebuilt after the sacking. There was no powhiri at the gate, but many recognised the visitors, and rushed forward to rub noses in a hongi.

The Bishop is here, said one woman, in an awed whisper.

Pompallier, the Catholic bishop? asked Mate, surprised.

Ai, replied the woman. As the two men walked up the well trodden hill, they were passed by the Bishop coming down, accompanied by a young Maori man. The man of cloth was red-faced and barely acknowledged them as he stormed past, he was obviously in the foulest of tempers. Soon enough, they breasted the hill. Outside a new whare sat their old friend and part-time foe.

Rewa, what did you say to upset the Bishop? He looked as if you might have turned into a heathen – or worse – a Protestant!

All three laughed heartily at that and it was no effort to hongi, by rubbing noses, as in the old days. Rewa was once again a benign, placid old man.

Ai, began Rewa. The priest said to me, ‘There is but one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.’

So they say, was Mate’s reply.

Then the priest, holding his crucifix in his hand, said, ‘We do not worship this crucifix, but it is to make us remember Christ.’

So I said to him, that stuffy Bishop, I said – that is what you say, but what says the Book? ...thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image. Your image is the work of man and to make an image like that is breaking God's commandment.

Rewa had then gone inside and produced a copy of the New Testament, from which he asked the Bishop to read Revelations xiv. 9, 10, and 11, and tell them the meaning of the passage. The priest replied that he did not know enough of the native language to understand him and started walking away.

"Stop, I say to the Bishop, you sought this conversation with me, and if you cannot understand what I say, your disciple Haki Tara, he can. I will tell him what these verses mean and he can explain it to you.

Haki, now Haki, tell me what this expression means, If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch? ‘I do not know,’ replied Haki to me.

Then, I said to Haki, I will tell you. That man, and I pointed at the priest, is the leader of the blind and those who listen to his preaching and receive his doctrines and bow down to his images are blind also; and the ditch means hell, into which both parties, unless they repent, will at last fall. The Bishop he then turned angrily away. How can it be that he had no answer to such a simple question?"

Mate had a wry smile, but thought it best to get off the subject.

And neither do I have any answers to the mysteries of religion, said Mate.

I wish today just to say farewell, as we are travelling to Auckland and Matthew would like to pay his respects, about Kina.

An immense cloud passed over the dark face and the light that still sparkled in the watery old eyes now dimmed. Rewa’s head dropped and his low voice was heavy with emotion.

My two sons Matua and Merienga have gone. Then Kiri left on the day the soldiers burned the village and I have just heard what happened to Kina. Can you tell me how he died? Matthew bit his lip.

"Chief Rewa, he died in my arms. The attack at Ohaeawai Pa was fierce and when the British broke down the outer palisade, he was one of the first Maoris I saw.

He had taken down three soldiers when a bullet claimed him. I… it… it was as if I had seen my own brother shot. I got to him as quickly as I could and was going to carry him to the surgeon’s tent but it was too late. I am so very, very sorry. I have from him his greenstone tiki, which I was going to give to Kiri. Perhaps you would wish it?

Please give me the tiki of Kina.

The old chief took the tiki reverently, held it between two gnarled hands, and closed his eyes. For many minutes his lips moved in prayer, and he rocked gently with his eyes closed, yet silent tears flowed. The pain was visible and the two white men were deeply moved. Eventually he passed the tiki back to Matthew, to give to Kiri. For two minutes more the three men stood, heads bowed in silent grief. It was Mate who spoke first.

I believe Kiri may have gone to Auckland to be with my wife. For you it will be very lonely now and the winters get longer and colder without children in the whare. Because I too have family, I must travel to them in Auckland and when I see Kiri, she will write to you, I promise.

A look of genuine pleasure crossed the face of Rewa.

One moment, please. Rewa went inside the whare, the low door making him wince from back pain, but presently he came back out into the morning sun.

"Mate, you are a true friend to the Maori. I give you this greenstone tiki to show I mean the Pakeha to have peace with us forever.

And to Matthew, you showed that you have great courage in fighting, so I give you my mere, as I will fight the Pakeha no more. Guard it well and may it protect you from the cooking pots of your enemies. Haere ra, kia kaha and God-speed. You will return.

The two men were speechless. Only Arikis and the highest born could even touch these priceless treasures, and it was hard to find the right words of appreciation.

With humble thanks they turned their backs to walk down the hill. Mate, one moment. They both turned to the old warrior.

Beware the utu of Merienga. He has blood on his soul. With that, Rewa turned his back and went to his whare.

Matthew and Mate knew immediately the meaning of the warning. Merienga was known to have fought