A shipwreck that was, at least, handy to land
Our About the South columnist on a pioneer but not-so-cruisy cruise; the early Southland runs, and a rabbiter’s misfortune. About the South
Southland’s first cruise ship was the SS Otago,which brought tourists from Melbourne to Milford Sound in February 1874.
This pioneered a new type of tourism and summer cruises through the fiords were popular from then on.
The steamer Otago met her fate on December 4, 1876 when she snagged Chasland’s Mistake in the Catlins.
Crew and passengers were all saved because they were able to climb the bowsprit, into a rata tree and onto dry land.
There are not many shipwrecks where it is possible to get ashore with dry feet.
Her figurehead is in the Owaka Museum.
Early Southland runs
The earliest form of land subdivision in the pioneer days was the ‘‘run’’, a large tract of land 20,000 acres or more.
The establishment of runs was an important pioneering process, beginning in 1854 after the Murihiku Purchase.
Runholders were usually educated, single and active men with money and ambition.
They roamed the newly acquired land and picked out suitable blocks for sheep and cattle.
The Eastern Runs were the first to be selected. They were on the east side of the Mataura River and relatively easy to access from Dunedin or from Fortrose.
On selection of a potential run, the future runholder registered his interest with the Waste Lands Board in Dunedin and was issued with a licence to occupy on receipt of a deposit. The land was leasehold, generally for a few pounds per year, and had to be stocked within a specified time.
The description of the run was often vague because of the littleknown and unsurveyed country; it might be bounded by a mountain range, river or the coast.
The runholder then set about building himself a hut and necessary tracks and bridges, fencing, felling or burning the vegetation, planting a garden and a crop and moving in stock.
There were many failures amongst the successes.
Hanging over his head were the winter snows, later the rabbit invasion, flooding and the insecurity of tenure.
The lease was typically fourteen years but at any time the government could take back the land for closer settlement.
A runholder with a mountainous, inaccessible or heavily bushed run was likely to retain his tenure while one with easy country was not.
On cancellation of his licence the runholder had the right to buy his home block from out of the original massive acreage.
The settlement of runs in the west of Southland began in 1854 as ex-whalers from Riverton moved upcountry.
That was no rabbit
Southland’s unluckiest rabbiter was a man named George, whose pack of dogs flushed a wild cat instead of a rabbit.
The cat made for the highest point in the landscape – George’s head – and could not be dislodged.
George edged up to the packhorse and the cat leapt onto its head with predictable results.
The horse, cat and dogs disappeared over the horizon leaving a trail of scattered stores and traps.