Bones of old stone house still stand

It is well-known that Southland is filled with old buildings, but which are the eldest? In this five-part series, Georgia Weaver discovers the stories behind some of Southland’s oldest structures.

Near the shore of the Aparima Estuary and Pourakino River, with envious views of both the river and settlement of Riverton, sits a run down stone house known as Kintail.

Built about 1860 in an area now known as The Narrows, the stone house has now fallen into disrepair, keeping a watchful eye over what was once known as Jacob’s River, and it is one of the oldest remaining structures in Southland.

The mouth of the Aparima was the site of a permanent settlement, with associated urupā (burial ground) nearby, which holds the memories, traditions and histories of Ngā i Tahu whā nui.

The river is a statutory acknowledgement area under the Ngā i Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998. It was an important food source for the likes of shellfish, mussels, paua, tuna and whitebait able to be taken from there.

Rivers were an integral part of a network of trails that were used in order to ensure the safest journey and incorporated locations along the way that were identified for activities such as overnight camping and gathering kai.

Knowledge of these trails continue to be held by whā nau and hapū , and is regarded as a taonga.

For more than 150 years, the house was occupied by the extended Watson-White family and, according to Heritage New Zealand, acts as a reminder of the early agricultural settlers in the region and the establishment of permanent settlement.

London-born Stephen Watson followed his elder brothers out to sea at an early age – working aboard whaling and merchant trading vessels in Sydney, around New Zealand and in the Pacific.

After arriving in Aparima from Sydney, he began working for Johnny Jones at his newly established whaling station on the banks of the river.

He whaled a single season at the Aparima station, manning one of the three open cockpit whale boats run by Captain John Howell (whose former house is also one of Southland’s oldest remaining structures).

These craft worked the Foveaux Strait pursuing the Southern Right Whale during the April to October whaling season.

In 1839, Watson briefly returned to Sydney but before long came back to Riverton with his 24-yearold bride Bridget (nee Mullins). According to Heritage New Zealand assessment notes, she was reportedly the first European woman to settle permanently in southern Murihiku.

She joined about 20 English settlers and the Mā ori families living at the nearby kaik.

The couple then settled at Tall’s Point in southern Riverton, living in a fern tree hut, plastered with clay and with a single roof.

During the 1840s, Watson built a store near his house, buying seal skins from seals. He also developed an extensive garden, growing produce and selling any excess to whalers and passing ships. He became one the of the settlement’s first merchants, buying alcohol in bulk and selling it in smaller amounts to whalers.

It is thought that New Zealand Company surveyor Frederick Tuckett, who visited the Waston’s house in 1844 and noted that the couple ‘‘keep a good fire and a clean, comfortable house’’, may have suggested to Watson the merits of settling The Narrows, opposite Riverton across the Aparima River. At the time, the area was known as Wild Bush, and as a pig hunting ground. As such, Watson also began turning his hand to salting pork to sell to whalers and sailors.

The downturn in whaling and sealing meant that settlers needed a new means of support and farming became increasingly important.

In 1845, Watson purchased some cattle and moved his household up river to The Narrows, where he built a bush whare on the north bank of the Pourakino River, on land he called Cornpore, after his salted pig venture. Here he continued to run both pigs and cattle to supply whalers and the increasing number of settlers.

Government census agent Walter Mantell visited the Watsons in January 1852.

Mantell was responsible for negotiating the sale of 2.8 million hectares of Southland land to the Crown from Ngā i Tahu and Ngā ti Mā moe for £2600 (NZ$4930) in 1853, known as the Murihiku purchase.

He was given the power to set side reserves to Ngā i Tahu to provide for their present and future needs, but Mantell ignored this and only set aside 1972 hectares.

As a consequence of the sale, Watson, along with several other European men in the area, applied for and were granted the first depasturing licences in Southland.

They took up five runs along the Pourakino and Oretu rivers with Watson taking up Run 85, which covered 8000 hectares.

The run was cancelled in May 1857 as it was within the boundary of the Jacob’s River Hundreds, set aside to encourage the settlement of farmers, and named after the ‘‘hundreds’’ – an old English unit of land area.

It extended from Centre Bush, just north of Winton, to Scotts Gap in the east, between Ohai and Otautau.

Watson bought the freehold around his former station and ran cattle on his farm, which ran from the banks of the Aparima estuary north to Wild Bush.

As whaling declined and settlers turned to agriculture as a form of income they traded punga huts and pitsawn timber houses for more permanent residence, such as Watson’s Kintail.

After Bridget died in 1858, Watson remarried Catherine Murchison, a newly arrived settler from Kintail, Scotland. On her journey to New Zealand, she gave birth to a daughter also named Catherine, who was seven weeks old on arrival to Dunedin.

Catherine’s brother and his nephew built the new couple a house, with stone carted from Isla Bank.

The four-bedroom house was built close to the banks of the Aparima River on property renamed Kintail.

The couple later had a son together, Stephen Watson.

The house remained in the family until the 1980s, when it was sold outside the family.

There are several recorded Mā ori archaeological sites in close proximity to Kintail and distributed around the edge of the Jacobs River estuary, including midden, ovens, working areas/ flaking floors, find spots and a house floor site.

Kintail is listed as a Category 2 Historic place on the Heritage New Zealand historic places register.