THE ALBERTLANDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 27

THE ALBERTLANDERS.

PORT ALBERT, IN ITS INFANCY.

A SEVERE STRUGGLE.

' MRS. JUDSON TELLS OF; THE EARLY DAYS,

''" '(Edited by HENRY BEETT.y Mm 0 ba l k «» Hd to see what happened to Mrs. Judsons father, the Rev. Samuel Edger, who, it will be remembered, had left his family camped there while he pushed on ahead to see if some means of transport could not be found. It seems wisest for some of us to go on and see the land," he wrote m his interesting diary, "and five of us start to walk-our nrst lesson in bush life—over steep hills and gullies of mud, and t™u A, dl I scover y that I cpuld manage a hard day's work. An Irish settler cheered us with tea and bread, and gave us some idea 01 colonial life; a blanket our covering, fern our bed. We were compelled to stay three days waiting for a boat, as guests with Andrew Bonar, rich in hospitality. ~ " °. n Monday, September 22, we started in a small boat across the Kaipara Harbour—delays, dangers. For an hour we rode over the boiling sea, our eyes fixed on the distant shore some three or four miles away, and our thoughts very various. "I have no fear of death, but I could not forget in what a disordered condition all would be left if this little boat should be unable to ride out the gale. Away goes the jib, and nothing but our oars remain. There is only one thing to do, to drive the boat into the nearest point of land and there leave her. After wading three-quarters of a mile, up to our knees in mud, we rejoiced not a little to feel the solid earth. We were met by natives, who showed us every kindness that a native hut could afford; ludicrous perhaps to a stranger, but a relief after peril. "The story of the next two days is easily told, but it was hard to live. We walked, tugged, the sun went down; advanced one mile, and camped under the open sky, round a blazing fire. Toiling again at sunrise, again camped in the bush, and not until ten on Friday had we reached the end of our two miles through bush and forest. We had, however, been seeing a good deal, and had killed a wild pig, which we found ■ excellent eating. Pork here, I may mention, can be bought for 4d a pound. On Saturday I went with some of our party to begin cultivating a small plot; worked until ten o'clock, when a New Zealand rain came on. Through it we had an hour's weary walk, and reached our camp in the township wet through. _ " I suppose I might be the worst off, having left all my family behind, and having nothing but what I carried on my back. The rest were better off, for in consequence of the delay we met with several of our party had reached the town before us, and got our tents up, and things in order a little. This is the time to try a man. The week had been fine and cheerful; the excitement alleviated the labour, and carried one through difficulties. It had been a pleasure to be doing downright hard work. But now ihe excitement seemed over. Blistered, and sore in foot; wet, cold, and hungry, without a dry garment to put on, a home to shelter one, or even a dry place to sit down without intruding into another's tent! All one's friends were far off; rain and wind were beating in all directions—well, if a man gets through this he need not mind! I tried a little work in cutting down some wood to keep myself warm, and sat down at last in Partridge's tent, had a cup THE REV. SAMUEL EDGER.

of tea, and felt all the better. Jones and Bell had thrown up a hut of green wood, flax .and grass, tolerably weather-proof, and there with a blazing fire before us we rested for the night. LOST IN THE BUSH. " One calamity remained," says Mr. Edger's diary. " A young man of our party, who had gone out early in the morning to look at his land had not returned; doubtless was lost in the bush, No help for it that night! And a night it was —terrific rain and wind, without ceasing.- Sunday morning was calm, and the serenity of the morning here is most exquisite. It seemed to clear away all the gloom of the night and to dissipate all care., But still we mourned the loss of the wanderer. Six of our party set out in search, to light signal fires on all the hills, and to raise the usual bush cry of " Coo-ec!" In their absence nine of us held our first 6er vice—short, serious and mournful.

" About an hour later we sat down on the grass for a little 'dinner, when we spied a boat, well filled, making for our landing. This turned out to be Mr. Gittos and family, with a number of natives, come over to welcome us, and to join in our first Sabbath's worship. Half an hour afterwards we were gladdened by the return of our wanderer, who had fared better than we expected, though he was considerably worn with fatigue and anxiety; It is a fearful thing to be lost in the bush. You may wander about for days not knowing in the least where y6u are, yet never getting half'a mile from the same spot. We all had an early tea this day, and then a short service, which Mr. Gittos conducted The Sabbath ended most pleasantly, and I returned with Mr. Gittos, most glad of a day's repose." TENT LIFE. • Then Mrs. Judson continues the story of those hard early days at Port Albert. "There is little to record of the life for the next few months,"■she writes. "Several of our_ party remained encamped near to the landing place at the river, in the hope that migration would prove less difficult as the season advanced. Those whf went at once to their new homes were widely scattered; communication was difficult over the hills, and life became more or less dull and monotonous The advancing summer cerSy rendered communication with each other somewhat easier, but it also brought its own discomfort m the shape of swarms of mosquitoes, which literally blackened the walls of our tent by r£v and deafened us with their monotonous hum by night,. to say nothing of their-venomous attacks on our persons. « The increasing heat of the sun, against which our tents were an altoo-ether insufficient.protcction-the summer being daily trial to those accustomed to the much gentler Z\ of X Old Country-and as'time went on a drought set in, ■ndscarcer oSw added to our troubles Tents, tidwever, B pSlj• replaced by bush whares, and a few were fortunate

enough to be able to put up small wooden houses. I well remember the satisfaction with which we took possession of one small corner of our prospective abode, as soon as it was roofed over, the rest of the building being minus roof and floor. These were gradually supplied, but it was months before doors or windows could be obtained, for we had no regular communication with any civilised place, and were dependent both for supplies and for letters upon small boats, which crossed the harbour at uncertain intervals.

" But if we had trials and difficulties in abundance, there were also many compensations. The free, unconstrained life of the bush, and the open air, the pleasure of seeing little plots of land redeemed from the wilderness, and the beginnings of gardens which should presently supply the owners with flowers and vegetables in abundance; the finding of new flowers and ferns; the singing of unfamiliar birds, some with very beautiful notes; the new, and to many of us the unknown, interest in the keeping of poultry, and the care of cows-—that was all a source of enjoyment, and even the inconveniences we had to put up with, as we became acquainted with them, began to assume less gigantic proportions.

MAORI PEACHES. " Xor must I omit to mention the groves of peach trees upon the opposite side of the river, where there was an old Maori settlement. We saw a good deal of the Maoris in those das - s, and were very friendly with them, and we found them very interested in our doings. They would bring us potatoes and kumaras for sale, and beautiful ripe peaches in kits containing perhaps some seventy or eighty, which they sold us for the modest sum of one shilling. Peaches at that time were an almost unknown luxury to us newcomers, and greatly indeed were they appreciated. " Then came Christmas, the first Christmas in a new country, bringing its little bit of cheer even to us away in the wilds, in the shape of the gathering together of young and old for a social evening, including a tea. And for us individually Xcw Year's morn brought a greater joy in the arrival of tho absent members of our family, and we began the year re-united and looking forward to making a home once more.

THE FIEST TRAGEDY. "It was March, 1863, as I remember, that the first tragedy occurred in our settlement, in the death by drowning of a young man, our nearest neighbour. He and a companion had gone one night through the bush along the edge of the creek which bordered our land to fetch a boat which had been left until the tide was high enough to bring it home. Arrived at the spot he waded out towards the boat, while his companion remained on the bank with a light. The companion heard for a time the splash of water, then all was silent. He listened for the returning boat, and hearing nothing, shouted again and again, until at last, unable to hear or see anything, he concluded that his friend had given him the slip, and made his way home through the bush, only to find no trace of him there, nor did a search in the morning give any clue to what had happened. A day or two later the missing man's body was found in the creek, and the first grave was dug on the hillside at the edge of the forest, where he was laid to rest in the presence of a large number of the settlers. By a strange coincidence some three or four years later his companion met with a similar fate under similar circumstances.

FIVE ACRES OF WHEAT. " The first winter passed quietly, without anything very special to note, as far as I can remember. It was a fairly fine winter, though, of course, we had some stormy days, with heavy rain, which proved somewhat troublesome to those of our settlers whose only means of cooking was a fire outside, transferred.to a nail keg and brought inside into the whare when rain set in, with a camp oven for baking—but these' incidents were trifles. Some work was done during the first winter in clearing the land ready'for cultivation, and as the spring approached crops of Various kinds of grain were sown, but the land for the most paTt was found to be very poor, and the crops were less successful than might haye l been hoped for. But there is always a satisfaction in having made a fresh attempt, even if that attempt falls short of the expectation. We . find an entry in one of my father's letters under the date December 18, 1863: " To-day we (that is Edger and Co.) commence reaping our wheat—five acres of it. We aTe very early, a month before many." There was apparently no suspicion then of the discovery that was to be made years afterwards, that it was in fruitgrowing that the true wealth of Port Albert would lie.

A TOWN OX PAPER " At the time of our first arrival at what is now Port Albert," continues Mrs. Judson, " a certain part of the land, near the river, had been set aside for the projected town, and 6ome attempt made at town planning. Streets were laid out, and the land divided into small sections, which could be bought by intending citizens; and in what was intended to be the principal business street several small dwellings were erected, with embryo gardens attached. One or two little shops were opened, and it began to take on the semblance of a village street, though the general store still remained on the spot where it was first opened, close to the landing place, half a mile or so away.

" But as the months went by, one and another left the place, and houses were closed or removed altogether. The difficulties of life were too many, the shortage of cash too acute, and the lack of paid employment too great, and many who had come up fully intending to make a home there were forced to seek a living elsewhere. It soon became evident that the thriving town pictured by the imagination was not to be, at least for some time to come, and for the present it dwindled down to some half dozen houses and a store, which also served as a post office, and later there was a small building that was erected for a chapel. TJNSECTAPJAN IDEAL. " This brings mc to another point," says Mrs. Judson, "without mention of which these memories would be incomplete. One of the aims which this settlement had in view was the establishment of an unsectarian church. This had been the ideal of my father's early life, and this it was that led him to apply for the position of minister .to this young colony. It was said to be an ' unsectarian Nonconformist settlement,' but if it was strictly Nonconformist—a point upon, which I am not quite certain—it was not that members of the Anglican Church were in any way excluded; in fact, there were a few amongst the ' Matilda's' passengers, but rather that they did not desire to join the party of colonists—probably the idea did not altogether appeal to them. " Be that as it may, we find my father saying in one of his letters during the first year of his work at Port Albert, that arrangements had been made, with the approval of the Bishop of the Diocese, for the Church Liturgy to be read on two Sundays of each month, and he also speaks of the perfect freedom of thought and belief that was ever maintained. 'Do not think,' he says, ' that there is unanimity of, religious belief. Quite the opposite. We have all shades of opinion, but our diversities are not dissensions.' And again, ' Our church is gradually feeling its existence, and taking some shape. We have a list of names, but it is a matter of pure convenience. Our bonds of fellowship are purely spiritual; we are truly unsectarian.'

" During the first four years of the life of the settlement," says Mrs. Judson, "the church maintained its existence as a united unsectarian body, though there is mention in my father's letters of certain elements of discord, and the beginnings of sectarian divisions, which seem to have prevented the perfectly successful carrying out of the original idea. Possibly the time was not yet ' fully ripe for such a venture, but although after my father's departure the religious life of the settlement took on a different form, the work of these first four years was by no means' thrown away, and its influence still remains in the more liberal religious tone which has always been more or less marked in the Albertland district. There are still those remaining that retain in their hearts and lives tbe ideals set up so many years ago; while the possibility of the carrying out of the original idea was a few later demonstrated by my father's work in Auckland. But that belongs not to this narrative. {, CHURCH AT TE ARAL "In addition.to the work at Port Albert itself, my father paid monthly visits to two outlying districts, arranging wherever ' possible for the usual services to be taken on those Sundays by a > lay preacher, or on rare occasions by some recognised minister who might happen to be in the neighbourhood. One of these visits was paid to a distant corner of the settlement, some miles lower down the "river, and involving a fairly long trip by water. The other was to Te Arai, a small settlement some twenty miles from .Fort Albert. My father writes in his autobiography, 'The best pros- -

pect of promoting an unsectarian faith offered itself at Te Arai, not amongst our own immigrants at all. TheTe we became acquainted with some of the best friends in life.- So long as they remained that little, church would never have become sectarian/ The church there had been erected, and was mainly supported by friends here referred to, with the express intention of providing a place for worship for any religious body which desired to make use of it, and was not attached to any particular sect. There, as at Port Albert, the Church of England Liturgy was read on two Sundays in the month. So long as its founder remained in the district the character of the little church retained its unsectarian character, but after his departure the same causes that operated at Port Albert worked also there, and consequent disunion crept in.

FRIEND TO ALBERTLAND. " One figure which stands out prominently from the beginning of the settlement's life, that of the Eev. Wm. Gittos, a Wesleyan missionary who had been working amongst the Maoris for some time before'our arrival. My father's account of Mr. Gittos' visit of welcome on the first Sunday spent by my father at Port Albert has already been quoted, and one of my most vivid recollections of our first summer is a visit to his family in their pleasant home on the banks of the river, which visit in due course returned. As I remember, there was not much intercourse afterwards between us, partly attributable no doubt to the long distance, and to the want of a boat to make the journey, but also, as far as I can gather, to a deeper reason, namely, to mutual want of sympathy in religious ideals and belief, due probably to my father's unsectarian tendencies, and his, at that time, somewhat unorthodox views. But all my recollections of Mr. Gittos are those of a kindly, benevolent personality—one who ever remained a true friend and helper of the Albertland settlers, and whose influence was largely instrumental in keeping the natives of that'district perfectly peaceful-and friendly during the disturbances of the Maori war. Mr. Gittos, though no longer residing in the district, was present at the jubilee celebrations in 1912, and everyone there must have felt that hii genial presence added much to"the interest and significance of the occasion.

[Xext Week: Experiences of the Brookes Family.]