Thought I'd let you know that there is an entry in a book titled "101 Ingenious Kiwis" by Tony Williams referring to William Butler, civil engineer. "William Butler was one of New Zealand's first settlers, arriving in the country in 1830 as the captain of the whaling ship Nimrod. Whaling was NZ's first real industry of consequence. Butler decided he would make money supplying the whalers with fresh fruit, vegetables and other provisions. In 1938 he built a store at Mangonui in Doubtless Bay, a horseshoe shaped bay at the top of the North Island. Mangonui has its own harbour, whicih is deep and circular. The location of Butler's store became known as Butler's Point. He also built a house further down the harbour. But in 1847 Butler decided to move his house closer to his work. He commissioned a number of men to roll it down to the beach on totara logs (totara is a large native tree, used by the Maori to build their huge canoes). Then it was carefully rolled onto a barge and shipped across the harbour where it was literally "beached" and from there dragged to its new site near the store using bullocks and a windlass. There Butler adn his wife raised 13 children. As the family grew, so did the house and he added on a tall, gabled structure that had a kitchen and an impressively large drawing room where Butler would meet guests, for he was by now a very wealthy man. He died in 1975 and, the following year, his family moved to Auckland. The house still stands and is open to the public by appointment."
I don't know if this is 'your' William Butler, but thought you may find some information within this entry.
