He then erected his pre-fabricated house there which he had brought with him on the Tyne. A hospital which treated Maori was erected nearby. A Maori man, Mohi Horowhenua te Puatau, was a patient there.
In 1880 Mohi lived in a whare (a Maori house)  east of Swainson's house. Swaison described Mohi in his will as his "old friend". When Mohi was on his deathbed in 1890 Isa Outhwaite, the daughter of Thomas Outhwaite, Swainson's old friend and Court Registrar, was at the bedside.