Stewart Island

“ North Island: Mountainous districts from the Thames goldfields and Te Aroha southwards; not common. South Island: Western portion of Nelson Province and Westland to the West Coast sounds. Stewart Island: Abundant. Usually from 1500ft. to 3500ft., but descends to sea-level on Stewart Island. November–January.
A well-marked species, easily recognised by the terminal solitary flowers on decurved peduncles. ”

“ A great part of Stewart Island belongs to the Government of New Zealand, and the bush is carefully protected, and heavy fines are imposed on anyone who wilfully damages it by fire or in any other way. ”

“ The South Island, which contains the highest mountains and some of the best agricultural areas, forms the leg, and Stewart Island, the little patch of land at the bottom, makes the loop at the end of the boot strap. ”

“ In the centre of the island are extensive table lands. There are no active volcanoes in South island. Stewart island is mountainous, but the highest summits barely exceed 3,000 ft. North island abounds in rivers and inlets of the sea, which give easy access to the most inland districts. The largest river, the Waikato, rises in the Taupo lake, near the centre, and running N. 200 m. reaches the sea on the W. coast. Several rivers of considerable size flow from the central mountains of South island across the great eastern plain to the sea. ”

“ On the morning of the 2d inst., the island, overtopped by the loftier mountains of the main, was in view at a distance of thirty miles; and coasting along it we entered the straits and came to anchor by nightfall. The land is broken and lofty, and beautifully verdant: the eastern shores next the sea presenting, as we sailed along them, alternate stretches of white sand beach and projecting promontories of rocks crowned with woods. There is not a sufficient depth of water for a frigate to pass through the channel, and the entrance for large ships is by the north end of the island. ”

“ It is now midnight; we are getting into smooth water; at 4⋅30 p.m. we made the land, East Cape of Stewart Island bearing W.H.W. about 25 miles distant. We are now beating up for it under double reefs, and intend going into Port Adventure again, where Captain Cross thinks he can procure another compass. The one I had in the boat has been destroyed by salt water. The weather looks very threatening. ”

“ Cutting in and trying out at sea could be entirely dispensed with. The magnificent land-locked harbour of Preservation Inlet, to say nothing of others easily available, affords complete facilities for a shore station. The water is in many cases forty or fifty fathoms deep alongside the rocks, while sheltered nooks abound, “where never wind blows loudly.”
Working by the share, no finer or more skilful whalemen exist than the half-breed Maoris who people Stewart Island, and they would joyfully welcome such a grand opportunity of making their pile. ”

“ Both these ships had run into Stewart’s Island for vegetables, and whilst there they had lost several men by desertion. From their description, there is little or no settlement on the island, the country being covered with the ordinary brush, and therefore presenting scarcely any invitation to a sojourner. The men who left the ships were put to a hard shift to sustain themselves. Several of them managed to reach Otago, a town in the vicinity, where they obtained employment; several left in small crafts for other ports on the coast ”

“ Never has a coast been so well laid down by a first explorer, and it must have required unceasing vigilance and continual observation, in fair weather and foul, to arrive at such a satisfactory conclusion; and with such a dull sailer as the Endeavour was, the six and a half months occupied in the work must be counted as a short interval in which to do it. ↑ There are a good many seals round the southern part of New Zealand, and a regular fishery is now established on Stewart Island. Cook saw nothing of the few natives that occupied the southern parts of the Island. ”

“ Captain Stewart was afterwards successively appointed to the Dart ship-sloop, and the Snap and Epervier brigs, stationed at the Leeward islands: his commission as a commander, bears date Feb. 15, 1808. We next find him commanding the Sheldrake of 10 guns, and proceeding, in company with the Tartar frigate, to the relief of Anholt, an island in the Cattegat, forming a very important point of communication between Great Britain and the continent,and then threatened with an attack by a formidable Danish force under the orders of Major Melsteat. ”

“ Mr. Stewart made a mental note that whatever they decided to do without in their new simplicity at Norfolk Island when they got there, a piano or an American organ certainly would not be one of the things, since it was a source of such great delight and innocent pleasure.
This pleasant time came to an end with great suddenness. A sail was sighted coming towards them and the captain shaped his course to meet her closely. As she drew nearer it was seen that she was a fine full-rigged ship, and the flags soon revealed that she was the Ben Ledi from Calcutta to Sydney, thirty-one days out. ”

“ At 2 P.M. the shore bell sounded, a little boat made its appearance on the port side, pitching heavily in the swell, and a long thin figure stepped on deck. This proved to be Captain Stewart of the Louisa, whose acquaintance I had formed at the island of Tahiti, and who now, half breathless, handed me a small packet with the following endorsement,—"These are the extracts you requested from my journal, and which I promised to prepare for you on my first voyage from Norfolk Island to Pitcairn." ”

“ While there is little objective guidance on this question to be found in international law, the question whether a particular island is to be treated as part of the mainland would depend on such factors as its size, its distance from the mainland, the depth and utility of the intervening waters, the shape of the island, and its relationship to the configuration or curvature of the coast. ”

“ But by May, spring was so far advanced that travel on the creeks became perilous, and on the last of the thawing ice the miners travelled down to the bunch of islands below the mouth of the Stewart, where they went into temporary quarters or crowded the hospitality of those who possessed cabins. Corliss and Bishop located on Split-up Island (so called through the habit parties from the Outside had of dividing there and going several ways) , where Tommy McPherson was comfortably situated. ”

“ It was finally decided that the north and east coast of Kaien Island fulfilled the requirements more nearly than any other point and the present site of Prince Rupert was selected. There is no question that few ports in the world offer greater attraction to the mariner; the area is large enough to accommodate the navies of the world, the approach is easy, and with few currents to trouble the navigator. The shelter is secure; the water deep and the wharves convenient. The approach by the railway too in the vicinity of the port is for miles along the sea almost on a level. ”

“ The Population of the Northern Island is certainly very great; the Southern is much more thinly populated; quite a different Race of Men; they are much blacker; they are a very inferior Race of Men altogether. I had an Idea of colonizing Cloudy Bay myself.
Where is that?
That is on the Southern Island. What deterred you from that?
The Circumstance of Captain Stewart having gone down to assist those Natives deterred me; I was afraid to go among them after that. I expected that they would take every Ship connected with New South Wales and Great Britain. ”

“ In the midst of that deathly scene, the flag seemed instinct with a sinister liveliness. Whoever had set it there had accurately chosen the highest available point on that side of the island, the spot of all others where it would make good its signal to the eye of any chance farer upon those shipless seas. For the staff a ten-foot sapling, finely polished, served. A mound of rock-slabs supported it firmly. Upon the cloth itself was no design. It was of a dull black, the hue of soot. Captain Parkinson, standing a few yards off, viewed it with disfavour. ”

“ Stewart alluded, I must consider his speech as the most flattering compliment that I ever received. If my presence in the island has made the bench of a whole country think it necessary to exact from the jury a more severe vigilance than usual in all causes relating to the protection of negroes, I cannot but own myself most richly rewarded for all my pains and expense in coming hither, for every risk of the voyage, and for every possible sacrifice of my pleasures. There is nothing earthly that is too much to give for the power of producing an effect so beneficial ”

“ Even if the high land was connected by a narrow neck with the tule marsh to the northwestward, that high land might still be called an island either because the narrow neck of low marsh land to its westward was sometimes flooded or because the name 'island' was colloquially applied to a piece of land which a geographer would mere accurately call a peninsula. ”

“ Captain Stewart had been in communication with the inhabitants of Pitcairn in November, 1858. Landing at Norfolk Island, in the course of a voyage in the South Sea, the community chartered his schooner to convey certain of their number back to Pitcairn Island. They declared they had only quitted Pitcairn in consequence of the glowing description given them of Norfolk Island. Instead of the promised superabundance, they could only by dint of severe labour provide themselves with the ordinary necessaries of life. ”

“ It went like a shot to my heart, although I had begun to anticipate such a result, and had made up my mind for immediate action accordingly; but when I saw positively that I must, as a last card, put my project into practice, I felt I was tempting Providence; for my tacit project and unalterable resolution is to attempt a passage to Stewart's Island in the boat. When I communicated my intention to the men, with the exception of the cook they unhesitatingly desired to go with me, which request I did not object to on this occasion ”

“ They were dark, and one of them was concealed by a silken mask.
Three men entered the dungeon. In the hands of the foremost of the three glowed a red-hot iron, which was to be the manner of his doom.
THE ISLAND
“Perhaps we had better not land after all,” said Lewis as he was stepping into the boat; “we can explore this island on our way home.”
“We had much better land now,” said Stewart; “we shall get to Teneriffe to-morrow in any case. Besides, an island that’s not on the chart is too exciting a thing to wait for.” ”

“ The surge that had lifted our boat some minutes before thus reached its journey's end.
The chamber was very lofty. As we rowed cautiously in, it lost nothing of its height, but something in width. It was marvellously coloured, like all the volcanic rocks of this island. In addition some chemical drip had thrown across its vividness long gauzy streamers of white. We rowed in as far as the faintest daylight lasted us. The occasional reverberating boom of the surges seemed as distant as ever. ”

“ His plantation at Anaho was highly productive; island cotton fetched a high price, and the natives used to debate which was the stronger power, Ima Hati or the French: deciding in favour of the captain, because, though the French had the most ships, he had the more money.
He marked Taahauku for a suitable site, acquired it, and offered the superintendence to Mr. Robert Stewart, a Fifeshire man, already some time in the islands, who had just been ruined by a war on Tauata. Mr. Stewart was somewhat averse to the adventure, having some acquaintance with Atuona and its notorious chieftain, Moipu. ”

“ On Bute, a fine and well-improved island, we open the Marquis of Bute's house of Mount Stewart, neither apparently (p. 235) large nor elegant in architecture, but beautifully situated among well-grown trees, with an open and straight avenue to the seashore. The whole isle is prettily varied by the rotation of crops: and the rocky ridges of Goat-Fell and other mountains in Arran are now seen behind Bute as a background. ”

“ The climate is salubrious and not excessively hot, yet the complexions of the mass are like those with us who are under the influence of the ague, or just recovering from a bilious fever. This is true of the pure-blooded natives, if any such there be, as well as of those who clearly are a mixed race.
The special object of our ride was to gain a point of view, on the top of a mountain, said to be the finest on the island; and, after a ride of two miles in the valley, we turned into a side road for the ascent. ”

“ That's how the chart makers make a living, getting out new editions every few months."
"But it's a fact that these seas are constantly changing," said Barnett. "They're so little travelled that no one happens to be around to see an island born. I don't suppose there's a part on the earth's surface more liable to seismic disturbances than this region."
"Seismic!" cried Billy Edwards, "I should say it was seismic! Why, when a native of one of these island groups sets his heart on a particular loaf of bread up his bread-fruit tree, he doesn't bother to climb after it. ”