FIRST SCHOOLMASTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 35, 20 November 1937, Page 10

FIRST SCHOOLMASTER

THE IMMIGRATION BARRACKS. MORE ABOUT THE TURTONS. DR. TREVOR’S LONG TRIP. IV. (Specially written for the “Guardian” by John Brown). I have been again to see Mr John Turton, the only son now living of Miami Mrs William Turton, the first settlers in Ashburton. "■ Mr John Riley had taken me over from Valetta to see him the first time, and we found him then in the home of his daughter, Mrs Pringle. This time I found him at Carew in the home of. his other daughter, Mrs Allan Pithie. And, by the way, the ramifications of the family history in the last article led to an extra “grand” and “great”, being inadvertently introduced in the relationship of Mona. Dellow when" I; was talking of the fondness, of the' Turton family for the name. “Mona.” Mona Dellow was, before her marriage, Mona Riley, a daughter of Miami Mrs John Riley, and therefore a great-grand-daughter of Mr and .Mrs William Turton. John Turton was ggain . .in good fettle and he. talked interestingly of his boyhood days , and those of his older brother, Edwin Richard Turton, familiarly called Ted. Their father and mother were on the Ashburton in 1858, and Ted was born on June 24, ,1860, jit Mrs Farmer’s Maternity Home in Christchurch. Johu was born on January 24, 1862, and he was the first white child born in what became the Borough of Ashburtonborn in the old Accommodation House of his father and mother. John Turton insists that the first schoolmaster in Ashburton was not Mayo, as most people think, but Mail, and the school was held in a lean-to close to the Accommodation House. He says it was Mr James Jamieson (who had a farm not so very far. away) and his father who engaged .Mr Mail to teach the children. Actually this man had been engaged by Mr Jamieson as a ploughman, but soon found he did not know the first tiling about .ploughing, let alone harnessing a horse. He had, however, a good education, and as a schoolmaster was wanted the position was offered to him, and the parents; agreed to pay him so'much a Week for each child. John Turton remembers him quite well because''he was taught by him, and because Mr Mail wore a rjed shirt and a belt,' and boarded at “The New Inn.” '• \ ‘ i Mr Mayo, who is oftten credited with being the first- schoolmaster,' kept the first boarding school: The Tin-tons went to it when Mr Mail left. Thomas Scott Johnstone, son of James Johnstone, of Client Hills,■‘hoarded with the Mayos. The similarity' in the names; has probably led to the confusion. Mr Ward was the first- schoolmaster in charge of the Ashburton Public;

School when it was established later. Speaking of his boyhood days, Jack Turton said that he and Ted once went out into the river-bed, and there gath-, ered some tu-t,u berries. Each put some in a muslin b'ag, and started to suck the juice, through the bag. It evidently went to Ted’s head, for he staggered about with blue lips and fell down on the steps of the New Inn and split his head open. ’ ' i John and William Hood, sons of Mrs. Hood, a widow, who had come from Christchurch to help Mrs Turton in the Accommodation House, were play--mates of the Turtons. Mrs Hood later married Mr Horace Taylor, and they started the accommodation house at Mt. Somers. The boys used to sit enthralled while j Neil Campbell, an employee of the Mc-j Leans, of Laghmor, told them tales of his soldiering and sailoring. days—“of the Napoleonic Wars and Waterloo,’’j “of being up the Ganges in 44, lads. Neil was particularly good to the boys. He lived to the great age of 103 years, and died in the Immigration Barracks, which had been built on the banks of the river a bit above the Ferry Reserve. John Turton says the Barracks was in charge of Mr Barrett in 18/4, and that the first immigrants who came, into it were from- the ship “Atrotta” (spelt phonetically). The Barracks was later turned into an “Old Men s Home.” In this home, besides Neil Campbell, died “Teddy” Wakefield, whose relative had so much to do with colonising New Zealand. In the “Old Cemetery” Edward Wakefield’s grave is marked by a horizontal stone slab, with bis name si ill conspicuous in large letters. John Turton speaks, too, of John Bond, a line old Devonshire man who used to take tlm boys out with him when “bobbing” eels. And of big Martin Stobie who, as I mentioned in another article, was a regular Father Christmas to them. Of Jack Mickle, the last coach driver, who on one of his trips going

South—about Maronan—allowed a Governor of the Colony to drive the coach team when he assured Jack that he had many times driven such teams. The team, however, bolted with the Governor and imperilled all in the coach till Mickle snatched the reins from his hands and gradually brought the team under control. Then the Governor was treated to “a piece of Mickle’s mind,” expressed in good old plain and unvarnished “bullocky’s” language. Mickle died in the North Island, his body was cremated, and bis ashes brought to Timaru, the Rev. Mr Stinson reading the service over them. Edwin Turton’s first job was as “boy” on the Longbeaeh Estate, and lie was there the whole of one winter helping at the Big House. He used to speak , of Mr Grigg’s kipdness to him and of his insistence that the boy attend Church services on the Sunday. From Longbeacli he went to the 1 Anama Station as a fleece-picker during the shearing season. Then Mr Peters got him a job with the Campbells at Mesopotamia, looking after the cows. As be learned this job, his brother John came on, and he was given ; the cows, while Edwin was put on as a ; musterer, under the overseer, George r Mcßae. During the time that- the Campbells ’jwere at Mesopotamia, Butler’s old hut, - which was close to the one in the picture published in this issue, was used * by the Campbells as their place for j cooking. - The mountain towering behind the Campbell homestedd is Mount ' Sinclair, named after Dt. Sinclair, the noted botanist, who was drowned 1 in the Rangitata and is buried close by ’ —a large flat stone slab still covering ; the grave near the Mesopotamia homel stead. > It was while Ted Turton was at ' Mesopotamia that Mrs Campbell be- ■ came A'ery ill. Ted was a noted rider—there were few buck jumpers that could i put him off—and he had a fine horse. > He volunteered to go to Ashburton, for > Dr. Trevor. After tea he set out on i his over-60-mile journey and, riding all ! night and through swollen rivers, lie ; reached Ashburton at 5 o’clock in the - morning.. • ! Dr. Trevor immediately set out on horseback for Mesopotamia, changed horses at Mt. Somers, and at Haka- ;■ tere was supplied with another horse , used to river work by Donald Potts. At ) the Rangitata River the Meso boys i were on the look-out for him, and they ) piloted him across. I Ted Turton,-after a rest in Aslibur- > ton of a day or two, set off hack to i Mesopotamia, and completed the jour- > ney again in a day, but not under such I awful conditions. Mrs Campbell re- • covered. ! The next four years Edwin Turton ; spent on the Pareora Estate, owned by i; Mr Elwortliy, where his brother already s; was under Mr Harry Ford. Coming ’ back he worked for some time at > Stronschrubie for Mr George Mcßae. - From Stronschrubie he went mustering on Mt. Peel, and then on the Orari Gorge Estate, where Mr Maling (now of Pyne, Gould, Guinness, Christchurch) and Mr Bernard Tripp were learning their jobs, and with whom he got on extremely well. Coining back to the Ashburton Gorge again, he married a daughter of Mr W. T. Smith, of Staveley, and went ; to manage Hakatere Station. For many years Mr Turton was employ - 1 ed by the Loan and Mercantile Agency Company to manage their stations—

passing from one to another as they were sold. He was generally admitted to be one of the finest managers of high country stations in New Zealand, and Mr Duncan Rutherford—himself an expert in that stamp of country—mentioned this at a public meeting in Handier when the residents of the district assembled to bid “good-bye” to Mr and Mrs Turton and their family in leaving St. Helens Station after 11 years of successful management of it. At this function Mr Turton was presented with a gold watch and chain, and Mrs Turton and each member of the family, with a present from a countryside that appreciated the good deeds of the whole family. (To be continued.)