Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/125

 “Jimmy” Walker, 1830-40, landed at the Bay of Islands in 1839, was whaling at Riverton in the “thirties.” This man and his mate always maintained that they had seen a living moa. They were, at the time, passing overland from Riverton to another whaling station in one of the Sounds, when they came across the bird drinking at a stream. They returned to Riverton to get a company together to go in pursuit, but their story was ridiculed, and they failed to convince their friends. Walker’s description of the bird was, however, so minute and accurate, that many scientific men believed his story.

“Sam” Williams, 1840-50, was a sailor who was employed whaling under Captain Hemplemann in 1841. Afterwards he worked for Messrs. Rhodes Brothers. Eventually he went to Timaru, where, in the “fifties,” he conducted the first public-house on the beach. It was he who advised Rhodes Brothers to take up land in the Timaru district.

George Ashton, 1840-50, came to New Zealand in a whaling ship, and settled in Little Akaloa, where he married Mrs. Bennett, and conducted a dairy farm till his death.