Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/124

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Oashore, but only held it for a short time, disposing of it to “Paddy” Woods in 1841 or 1842. He accumulated quite a ransom making dairy appliances (tubs, churns, chessels, etc.) for the early settlers, to whom he was indispensable. He married a Maori woman, by whom he left two sons. He died at Little River, aged ninety-eight.

John Bowman, 1840-50, was a boat builder, and came here in the ’forties. For some time he followed whaling as an occupation, but whales, becoming scarce, he abandoned it, and, marrying a Maori girl, he lived with the Natives. He built a good many whaleboats for the settlers. He died at a very advanced age at the Maori pa, Kaiapoi.

Robert Fife, 1830-40, came to New Zealand in the “thirties,” and in the early part of the next decade had a whaling station at Kaikoura. He used to visit the Peninsula (Banks) at times. Eventually he acquired a good deal of property at Kaikoura, where there is a “Mount Fife” called after him. He met death by drowning, and his property went to his sister in America, who, at the time, had just lost her husband, and was left very badly off with a family to support.