EARLY REMINISCENCES.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 179, 30 July 1889, Page 5

EARLY REMINISCENCES.

{BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL REPORTER.)

Wellington, this day. Aucklanders will be interested in the following reminiscences of the late Judge Gillies, supplied to the " Evening Post" by a correspondent, " E. T. G." He says :— " I knew Mr Gillies—' Tom Gillies,' as he was always called in those days—from my boyhood. He arrived in Otago very soon_ after we did, and while his father settled at the half-way bush he took up a farm on the Tokomairio. district, purchasing it from Mr Robison, who, "with his partner, the late Mr W. Stuart (afterwards the well-known Premier of New South Wales), had taken up land at the foot of Mount Nursery. After a brief residence there Mr T. B. Gillies moved further south to tbe Warepa; his brother, Mr John Lillie Gillies, now Secretary to the Otaeo Harbour Board, who had in the meantime arrived with his family from Australia, succeeding him at Riversdale. Mr T. B. Gillies and his wife, a charming and mosb amiable lady, went through all the rough hard work of pioneer settlement on the Warepa farm for a year or two, until he determined to complete his legal studies and to exchange a country for a town life. It was not a difficult thing at that time to secure admission as a legal practitioner, I think ib was in 1854 thab Mr Gillies lefb bhe Warepa farm. We were then living at Waihold, 26 miles from Dunedin, on the shores of the Lake. Ab that time everybody in Otago knew everybody else, and travellers expected and always received hospitality, rough probably, bub genuine. Wherever they went there was no ceremony ; no one waited to be asked. The traveller on reaching a homestead turned his horse or bullocks into the paddock, fed them if there was anything to feed them with, and walked into the home, sure of a cheerful welcome, a hearty meal and a comfortable shakedown G*™t/Jrk fare did nofc go beyond salfcbeof, wild, pork, or mutton ; with bread and tea. Most of the early settlers afc any distance from Dunedin had to make the bread from the Sheat grown and by themselves. What other flour was «^w",^ n aJ c ' but it was terribly dear and t\e difficulties r,f f.arrias.e were enormous. Wo used to °f et Co a ur B found by sea and the Taien River in a little schooner named the Spec, but her trips were few and far between and occasionally our supply ran short. One day I bad been out on foot trom an early hour in tbe morning on the run looking for a cow fchat had calved. It was after dark when I gofc her driven home and pub up fche slip-panels. ' Then I saw a strange bullock in the small paddock behind the barn. A single working bullock was a novelty. They always went in pairs, and I think that south of the Taieri there were only two thab worked in harness. One was well known to me— •Duke,' who belonged to Mr Dewe, of Tokomairiro. I knew Mr T. B. Gillies had another, and as tho stronger was not 1 Duk&'- I concluded Mr Gallics had at'

rived. Before I could reach the house, I was met by our old servant, whom we had brought from home with us, and she told,me ltfas correct, bufc added thafc Mr Gillies was accompanied by his wife and two children. In the morning I saw how Mrs Gillies and the children were travelling. Mr Gillies had himself made a large sledge. There was not a wheeled vehicle south of the Taieri, and they would have been no use had they been there, as there were neither roads nor bridges. On the sledge a low chair had been securely fastened, and in this Mrs Gillies sat with the children afc her feet; while Mr Gillies walked beside, and drove tho bullocks by reins attached fco the branks. The harness of that equipage was, likethevehicle itself, of home manufacture, counting more of raw hide and rope than of leather. Mr Gillies prided himself greatly on this smart turnout, and he had not lost pride in his workmanship when we were laughing over the recollection a few weeks ago. I remember he helped Janet and myself in the stockyard work before breakfast, and after the meal wasjover the bullock was duly harnesped. ' Good-bye ' said, and his family and he started on the journey, which was to lead him to professional and political distinction, ending on the Bench of the Supreme Court. As showing the difficulties of travel, I may mention that Mr Gillies did not reach Dunedin till close on the fourth day after his start from Wairepa, although the distance, some 75 miles, can now be done in a few hours."