CHAPTER XXII - DISCOVERY OF THE INSULARITY OF THE SOUTH ISLAND

Summary

This island was discovered to be such by one Stewart, a sealer and whaler, a Scotchman, who found that what had been thought a bay, was in reality a strait, when in pursuit of his business as a sealer. The island is, therefore, now called Stewart Island, though the straits are called Foveaux Straits. Stewart died at Poverty Bay, and, unfortunately, in actual poverty, in 1851, at the age of eighty-five.

SETTLEMENT OF THE MIDDLE ISLAND

The river Owerrie, in the Middle Island, was explored in 1840 by a party from the Pelorus, who gave it the name of that vessel; its waters are deep enough to serve as a port of refuge in Cook's Strait, though its entrance is not easily perceived. In November, 1847, the first ship of emigrants sailed from Greenock for Otago. This place, chosen for the settlement in place of Canterbury Plain, is near the southern extremity of the Middle Island, and on the east coast of it. The harbour is safe, but difficult of entrance; the land about Otago is hilly, but to the south of it there are large grassy plains, better adapted for pasturage than the land in any other part of New Zealand. There were few natives in this district, and all lived on a piece of ground which had been reserved for them. The leader of the colonists was Captain William Cargill, of the 74th regiment, an old soldier of the Peninsula, and a descendant of the celebrated Donald Cargill. Otago, in his hands, became Port Chalmers, the capital, Dunedin, and the settlers Pilgrim Fathers.