A GOLDEN JUBILEE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 36, 12 February 1924, Page 10

A GOLDEN JUBILEE.

ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD. CAME OUT IN 1842. NEW ZEALAND EIGHTY YEARS AGO. (By EILEEN DUGGAN.) In Wellington at the end of this month there will be celebrated the . Golden Jubilee of the Episcopate of Archbishop IRedwood, who arrived in this cojjntry as one of the New Zealand Company's emigrants in the year 1842. The settlement of Port Nicholson was [ founded I only in 1840, so that the Redwood family arrived when the colony was S-.1l crude and inchoate. The Archbishop was then lonly three and a half years of-age. About' two years a_o he published his reminiscences, little intimate memoirs, simply and limpidly written, that somehow paint a clearer picture 'of early New Zealand than most documented histories. The Redwood family hailed from Lower Hanyard, in Staffordshire, and came to Xew Zealand in the good .'hip George Fife, Mr. Redwood had bought, before leaving London, fifty acres of excellent land in the Nelson district. To Waimea then they went. They lived in a tent at first, but later Mr. Redwood built for his' fanrily a two-storey house, for many years the finest in. the district. The lime for the surface came from Stoke, where a lime kiln was built for the purpose. This house stood valiantly against the dire earthquake shocks of IS4S and 1855. A Wilderness of Scrub. The countryside, when they arrived, wtis a wilderness of manuka and scrub. Dr. Redwood's mother cried out on seeing the little native daisy: 'See what a beggarly country you have brought mc to —it cannot even grow a decent daky!" The Archbishop comments thus on tliat reproach of his mother's. . "She made a great,mistake: for in'three or four years she lived to see fine grapes ripening on the thriving vine .hear -her parlour window—a thing not to be seen in the colder land she came from. I may remark in passing that the Waimea plains were then very hot in summer compared with their present temperature at its maximum. The , ; clearing away of the scrub and the letting- in of cold winds, combined with the plantations of so many trees, and the covering of the ground with grass and general verdure, have lowered the temperature by several degrees, so that grape-i will not now ripen except under glass." Those were the days when the driver of a bullock plough could slay with a single crack of his whip a dozen young New Zealand larks. The lark and the white-breasted robin were the first victims of civilisation among the birds.. The First Houses. The Nelson of those days was a sunbleached tract, infested with grasshoppers and locusts. The Nelson of today is a land of apple blossom and green grass. What wrought the change? The settlers, the hardy settlers who wrested from the miser soil its. hidden ! riches. The settlement grew slowly In the way of all settlements. The importation of horses caused a great stir among the Maoris. "At first they were amazed at the sight of the horse. They did not know what to call it—a big dog, or what? They learned the name "horse" from the Europeans, but unable to pronounce the s' their best attempt was 'hohio,' which remains to this day the Maori name for horse. It was great fun (not for the unfortunate animals) to see the Maoris handling and riding their new steeds, which they eagerly bought. How we used to see them scampering?, and racing up the valley on the way to Motueka. They would, on arrival, turn, put the good, exhausted animals all white with foaming sweat; and, of course, in many instances, they caught a chill and died from neglect." Even when he was at school, under the saintly Frenchman, H. Gavin, in Nelson, the young pioneer had to- -return to Waimea for the harvesting. Reaping was done with a sickle, and the boy did his half-acre a day. In that virgin soil the wheat stood taller than a man. and the reapers stood upright also while they cut the swathes.' It was the time of the Australian gold rush, and wheat was selling for ten shillings a bushel. A Shepherd of Souls. But Francis Redwood did not choose to be a tiller of the soil, golden though its yield was. He felt within him the call to become a shepherd of souls. So leaving home and kindred, he, while still a lad, boarded the Mountain Maid, and set forth to obtain his training in Europe. His brilliant scholastic career and his pre-eminent holiness so impressed his superiors, that at the age of 35 lie was appointed to succeed Dr. Viard in 'the See of Wellington. He returned to this country in 1871. A great welcome awaited him. Catholics and non-Catholics, with the splendid unanimity that prevailed in those days, united to do him honour. Episcopal visitations were dangerous undertakings at that period. "The .crossing of the many and often rapid and swollen rivers and creeks was a perilous undertaking, and only God knows how many hapless people perished unknown in the treacherous waters, particularly on the West Coast of the South. Island, where the only road, in many cases, was the ocean beach or strand, and where, to cross, the numerous rivers, one lia'dcarefully to watch the tide and beware of quicksands—many a man's death. How many unrecorded and tragic deaths on those journeys! Add to these dnnp-rs the pitiless drenching one got in the rain and rivers, and the length and weariness of such slow travelling." Yet the bravery and blitlieness of the pioneers made light of such perils, and a community that has endured hardship and suffering is a community that • w-s li'iw io help and to love. The o-enerosity, the unselfishness of the first settlers is a thing to be proud of all our days. The personal career of Dr. Redwood is, in its growth, closely linked with the growth of the country. In 18S7 he was made Archbishop and Metropolitan. Previous to that, in ISB4, he bad laid the foundation stone of St. Patrick's College, one of the oldest* secondary institutions, in the Dominion. His labours have been many, and hjs travels have been many.. Some of the most interesting people of the world have been seen by him. Ke was in Paris as a lad when the life of Napoleon, the head of the Second Empire, was attempted by the Italian. Orsini. He lias lived under the pontificates of six j Popes, Gregory XVI.. Pius IX., Leo. XITL, Pius X., Benedict XV.. Pius XI. In spite of his great age,he may be I seen any fine day wnlktntc. erect and I thoughtful along ■Lamlitvci Quay. What I a storehouse of memories ins mind must be! Why, the very streets on which he walks are laid on land which, when he, came here first, was lying tbep under the blue waters of Whangauui-a-Taru.