1843 earning 7pds per month at Waiopuka whaling station FYHO
PPA
New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume IV, Issue 305, 9 December 1843
Fatat. Accident at Wyderop. ? Information was received yesterday from Palliser Bay, to the effect that a boat belonging to Mr. Wade's whaling station was upset while Œentering the Wyderop River, by which seven white men and two Native Chiefs were unfortunately drowned. Only one of the party, a sailor, lives to give an account of the sad event. He states the accident to have been occasioned by the carelessness of a man called Tom, the copper of the station. Subjoined is the list of the names of the persons furnished to us as drowned : ? Mr. Pratt, Mr Harvey and son, Mr. R. Wilson, Mr. Sawyer, and Tom the cooper, the name of the seventh we have not obtained ; the name of the Chiefs are Epi and Ekai. Messrs. Pratt and Harvey were sent down by Mr. Wade, in the Industry, to erect a Flax Machine, the production of their joint ingenuity, and were seeking a proper place with that purpose, when they unfortunately lost their lives.
PPA New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume IV, Issue 311, 30 December 1843, Page 2
Farther particulars concerning the the late melancholy loss of life at the mouth of the Wairarapa.
On Wednesday the 20th inst., the Maorisbrought information to Mr. Wade's fishery, that the bodies of the two Maori Chiefs, had been picked up and conveyed to the pah, and the remains of the white people had also been washed ashore, and were lying strewed over the beach ; but the natives demurred interfering with the latter, until they were assured of payment for their trouble. Mr. Bell, the manager of the fishery on receiving this intelligence, immediately arranged with the Natives for having the bodies brought up and interred in the native burying ground, pledging himself to see that they were compensated for their trouble on this occasion, as well as for rescuing the person from the boat. Mr. Bell was hurried into this arrangement to prevent the bodies falling a prey to the native dogs, and from his inability to interfere in the matter himself, owing to the absence of his party. Accordingly the following morning, five or six Maories proceeded to the place where the bodies lay, a distance of eight miles from the fishery, and returned to the pah in the afternoon with the bodies, when Mr. Bell, accompanied by Mr. Russell, repaired to the pah and committed them to , the grave. The bodies, (with the exception of Thomas Howel, a native of New York, and the two Maories,) were so mutulated and defaced as to leave no trace to distinguish one from another. It is but due to Mr. Bell, that the public should be made aware of the great personal trouble he has put himself to in this sad affair. Immediately on receiving the account of the accident, he left his employment in Port Nicholson, and proceeded in a whaleboat to Wairarapa ? a passage at all times attended with considerable danger , and returned the next day with the saved man ; where, after the utmost difficulty, but not before guranteeing payment, he got his charge comfortably lodged. The public surely cannot suffer such praiseworthy con duct to pass unrewarded, and will readily undertake the performance of Mr. Bell's promise to the Maories, and that too without delay, as they have already expressed great dissatisfaction with Mr. Bell, for returning again without the UTU. Thomas Howell was a cooper, Kaikoura Whaling station in 1842.
1,3 He was a cooper WADE's station in 1843.
2