William Gilbert Puckey - Adventures

Adventures

As a boy of 14, Puckey set fire to the fern surrounding the mission station, causing great alarm. Missionary J.G Butler recorded in his diary on 6 January 1821 that the fire, “which had like to have burned our standing wheat, the day being windy and the fern high. The fire raged with great fury, so that, with the assistance of a great many natives, we had great difficulty in saving the corn, and putting it out. Mr. F. Hall had some barley burned, but not much".

Later that year, Māori plundered the Puckey family’s house as utu in response for William’s 11-year-old sister Elizabeth playfully telling the daughter of the great chief Hongi that she would “cut your father's head off, and cook it in the iron pot,” according to Butler’s diary. “When the natives broke in, one of them caught hold of him by the hair of his head, and said he would cut off his head if he spoke a word. As soon as he was loosed, in he ran to his father, trembling in every limb.”

Puckey is reported to have later saved the life of a young Māori boy who was to be thrown into a river. The missionary suggested he buy the boy from them, and rushed back to the mission station to get some money. When he returned, he saw the boy was already in the river. He dived in fully clothed and rescued the boy who joined the Puckey household.

A man of ingenuity, Puckey built what may have been New Zealand's first land yacht. He rigged a sail on his dray, which he then 'sailed' back down Ninety Mile Beach after visits and explorations up that beach, letting the horse have an easy run home.