THE PIONEERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1922, Page 13

THE PIONEERS.

I « AP IP'DEVELOPMENT OE NEW ZEALAND. a WONDEKFUL RECORD. (By THE SCRIBE.! The recent Methodist Centeuary Conference in Auckland brings to mind the LtWulness and progress of New Zealand among the nations of the earth, and especially of that group which comLj.e the British Empire: for the Ar.thod.ists came a* missionaries to the jj_.or.s- Avho were then a warlike o p_ € . constantly lighting amongst themselves, raiding each other's lands, capturing their enemies as slaA'es, and indulging in cannibal orgies. yexy feAV of our own youth, Avho e.ioy all the advantages ot" modern eduction to a degree unsurpassed in the world, ever pause to think of Avhat NeAv Zealand Avas like a hundred or even fiftY years ago. There are noAV constantly arriving at our ports in large ututfbers immigrants from Groat Britain. Tiev come from a country Avhere, before the daAvn of Christianity, Julius Caesar had "built Roman camps, made and Avhere during tAventy centuries civilisation has been Built up ly science, industry and capital. Yet on arrival here they see cities, universities, schools, hospitals, parks, domains, railways, electric tramways, factories— eA'.rrthing that the older civilisation of tic Mother Country provides for carrying on commerce and trade, for health, for education. Beautiful cities, great farming areas closely settled, over -5 millions of sheep, three or four millions of cattle, great refrigerating Avorks on every hand, hundreds of dairy factories, j GoA-ernor-General, a Parliament, a Government, and all the multiplicity of local goA'erning bodies Avhose functions are to watch the daily life, as regards protection and comfort, of the inhabitants. Not many years ago it was a great adventure for people to strike camp in London, Yorkshire, Devon, or Cornwall, and go to what was tl>en called "The Antipodes." To-day there is no more difference, except the time in making the journey, than there is in leaA'ing London to settle in LiA'evpool, or going from Edinburgh to live ii; the capital. The reason is, that once here, the immigrant finds in NeAv Zealand every appointment and enjoyment of advanced ciA-ilisation. He has, in fact, stepped from <sne room into another— from one home-place into a neAv one where everything is '"just the same." Tet all this change has been made in this Dominion—from wide open -wastes

tq cities, towns and fanning' districts — ' from barbarism to a state of civilisation Avhich ranks equal in every Avay to | that of the 20-century-old Mother Coun- 1 try—in less 'than one hundred years. It was in 1840 xrjat the Treaty of Waitangi I was signed by Governor Hoi-son and the Maori chiefs at Russell, in the Bay of Islands. That is exactly eighty-two rears ago. By that treaty the Maori tribes agreed to come under the Government of Queen Victoria (called in the Maori "Kuini Wfkitoria"), and were in return assured of the full and complete ownership of their lands, as a result of which (Avith the exception of a large block An the King Country confiscated, over one of the Maori Avars) every acre of Maori land Avhich has come into possession of the Crown has tbeen purchased from the Maoris. The Treaty of Waitangi and the Proclamation toy Governor HoT.son as Governor in 1840, was the beginning of government in New .Zealand, and everything Aye have and are ! is a nation has 'been accomplished in the intervening eighty-two years. _\evv South Wales had acquired a European population long before NeAV Zealand settlement began. The northern parts of NeAv Zealand soon attracted the attention of shipping people. The fame of our whale fisheries at the Bay of Islands and of our great kauri pines at the Thames and other places attracted enterprising seamen and Sydneycommercial men. Vessels came. Some of the men stayed and took Maori ivives, and there Avas a settlement of a rough and lawless order at Kororareka (as Russell, named after Sir John Russell, the English Premier was called), when Hobson assumed control. A good many years before this, however, the missionaries had started work among the Maoris —the Anglican, Wesleyans (as they Avere then called), and the Roman Catholics. They were a fine body of men and Avomen —faithful and devoted to their work. The Protestant missionaries were greatly helped toy their Aviyes, and the work done toy these good men and Avoinen is one of the finest pages in the . early history of the Dominion.

Later on, beginning in the fifties, came the settlers and pioneers. Auckland. WellingiSm, Sfelson and Canter•bury' -were settled Iby the English; Otago iby the Scotch. In those days there Avere no 10,000-ton steamers, cutting out a pace of 12 to 14 knots an hour from start to finish of the voyage. There \ was no ''short cut" through the Panama Canal. The A-essels Avere little craft — trigs or (barques—of from 200 to 300 tons. The passengers AA'ere housed and quartered as Ibest could tbe arranged. The food was largely salted meat and biscuits, for science and industry had not reached the perfection of canning now attained: hut they got through the journeys of three, four and sometimes five or more months —sometimes becalmed for ■Aveeks, at others buffeted oy fierce storms. Then at length came the happy day when a cry "Land ahoy!*' «"as heard from the look-out, and all rushed to the H-uhvarks to strain their eyes for a first view.if their new home! What rapture Avhen at last the anchor wag. dropped! What pleasure in tho handshakes of the pioneers Avith their white kinsmen aalio came on Tioard! WTiat amazement, perhaps in some cases not unmixed with fear, as they beheld hig Ctlaori canoes, filled Avith naked AvaTriors, with feathers in their hair, standing up and chanting their welcomes. And finally the joy of possession when they came ashore and for the first moment trod the solid ground of New Zealand, each uttering a fervent "Thank God! Here we are at last!" And this was only sixty or seventy years ago! Then 'began the real Avork of colonisation. There were no great immigration barracks to house them —no paid staff to cater for their lood: no sixpenny or shilling restaurants to provide for their meals. They were able to 'buy fish from the Maoris, and perhaps fowls and pigs, kumaras, maize, and in some "eases Arholemeal flour, the result of the missionaries' Avork. LiA-ing first in tents, then setting to work they 'built huts and Avhares, all the time gradually improving the architecture, if such it could be called. As the settlements grew, the bootmakers, the blacksmiths, the hand and pit saAA-yers, all got to work. Painting of houses came later. The furniture was roujrli, nearly all made by the set-

tiers themselve.g. They were a hardy, ' =elt-reliant body of men, who bravely stuck it" amidst trials and vicissitudes necessarily incidem, to a new life in a new country. Then they got to worksome farming, others fencing, others pit-saAAing. Each job found it. man, and each man found his job. there was no organised Government scheme of eo-pperative labourers, no road Avorks or railways to employ surplus labour. They were dumped doAva. and had to do the best they could. They did their (best, and this great country to-day i* the groAVth, the evolution, the development. of the work of the pioneers. AYe take off our hats to their memory: Some of their sons and daughters are still with us. Perhaps Auckland may at some not distant date see unveiled at the foot of Queen Street a striking monument dedicated "TO THE PIONEERS!"