Settlement under Land Regulations, April, 1, 1856.

By J. Eider Brown.

IN making a start in the country districts the settlers had to encounter many difficulties. There was no road fit for drays between Sciogg's Creek (now Allanton) and the Taieri Ferry. Boats weie used to convey settlers and their goods to that point, and, if necessary, to a jetty on the Waihola Lake. Heavy goods, implements, &c , were carried by sea in small vessels which sailed up the Taieri River and landed them at Waihola jetty, from which they were carried to Tokomairirp by some of the early settlers in their bullock drays. A dwelling house was required by the settler. Timber was fairly plentiful on the hills on the east side of the plain, and towards the sea, but there was little sawn timber, and it cost about 20s per 100 ft. Many made their start by building clay houses. An improved method of this was early introduced, which consisted of a framework of timber posts put substantially into the ground the size of the house, with the proper openings for doors and windows. The insides were made straight and uniform, and against them temporary boards were fastened. On the outside small poles ■were nailed longitudinally at proper intervals, and clay was prepared with as much of the tussocky prass as could be mixed with it This was put in regular layers from the bottom, hung on the poles, pressed against the inside boards, and turned down on the outside, so as to form a uniform wall. When sufficiently dry the inside boards were removed and the walls plastered. The chimneys were built in the same way, being carefully plastered inside and outside. The roof was thatched with rushes and grass (roofing iron was not then in the market). A good clay wash or two on the outside walls completed the process, with the addition of doors and windows. These formed comfortable houses, in which the settlers lived till they could afford to build better ones. On the plain the plough took the place of the bush-land grub-hoe. Iron ploughs soon got scarce, and were supplemented by wooden ploughs. The first of these that I know of was made by the late Mr John Black, of North-East Valley. I made one at Anderson's Bay and another at Tokomairiio, and know of several others that were in use in the district. Agricultural implements of other kinds had to be similarly got up. There were few horses in the country other than those used for stock riding. Bullock teams were useful for carrying supplies to stations, but for plough purposes v\ ere almost superseded by bullocks in harness. These were used very successfully for a number of years, till an outburst of pleuro-pneumonia carried off many valuable ones, and horses came to be generally used. Agriculture was then in its simplest form. The grain was cut by the reaping hook or the scythe, and the threshing was done either by hand or by a foim of threshing machine, with a jack-in-the-box kind of iron capstan driven by horses or bullocks ; the thresher being also an iron machine placed on a large sheet, and simply knocking the grain out, but all separating had to be done by hand labour. Good crops of wheat were grown as first crops on land that had been sufficiently long fallowed, and, as the country was taken up in sheep and cattle runs, theie was a good demand for it in the shape of flour. M'GilPs mill was at work in October, 1857, and an oatmeal mill was soon added. The whole Tokomairiro district was purchased by the early part of 1860, and a large amount of settlement was in full progress. The country was iv a progressive state at the time the goJd diggings were opened up in 1861, and it is a great mistake to say that all the advancement was made under the influence of the gold. It is nearer the mark to say that to a large extent the good progress was very much destroyed, and that chaos was for a time the result.