HEROIC BREADWINNERS STRUGGLE ALONG.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 216, 12 September 1925, Page 27

HEROIC BREADWINNERS STRUGGLE ALONG.

BUTTER TRADE UP THE WAIROA. " The difficulty of getting a sure supply of flour and other necessities often left us Albertlanders on the verge of famine," writes Mr. George Nicholson, " and there were many cases of hardship and suffering among the settlers in the early days. Owing to the time of year when they took up their land not being the planting season, it was almost twelve months before they could grow their own foodstuffs, and in the meantime there was a lot of real suffering. Many a man performed almost impossible feats of endurance in order to keep his family from starving. There was one brave fellow, for instance, Mr. J. Shepherd, who went into Mangawai, twenty-eight miles, got a fifty-pound bag of flour, and carried it every step of the way home. The journey took him two days, and he was not by any means what you would call a robust man, but he was spurred on by the thought of his suffering wife and children. " After the first desperate times had been weathered everybody grew his own food, the main items being wheat and maize, which were ground into flour and meal in the old-fashioned steel mill. Some of the settlers put up windmills to do the grinding, and to these mills many of the other people used to bring their corn to be ground. Later the settlers began to have a surplus of produce, but the difficulty was to find a market. Then almost by accident a market was found up the Wairoa Eiver, where bushes were being worked, and there were big timber mills. Two of us were talcing a barge up to the Kaihu Fibre Works, and Mr. G. Plummer, who afterwards belonged to the firm of Messrs. Hill and Plummer, oil and colour merchants, Auckland, put a number qf kegs of butter aboard on the off chance of a sale up the Wairoa. When the barge got to the mouth, of the Kaihu River, at a spot that is now known as Dargaville, she tied up to a wharf, and one of the settlers came down and asked if we happened to have any keg butter aboard. We sold the butter at much better prices than we expected, and it is interesting to recall that the purchaser was Mr. Edwin Mitchelson, afterwards Sir Edwin Mitchelson. , "When we boys got back to Port Albert the news of the sale soon got about, and next week a fat beast was killed and the meat taken up the Wairoa in a small sailing boat by Mr. F. Judson and Mr. W. Day. The trade grew rapidly, and very soon there was a large boat running every fortnight. Eventually it took a ten-ton cutter to carry all the produce that the early Port Albert settlers sold to the timber workers on the Wairoa Eiver. Now this trade has ceased altogether, if we except the short-seasoned fruit trade between the two ports. PAKEHA AND MAOEI MAEKET. "Market day at the little settlement of Port Albert was the great event of the month in the very early days. It was always fixed somewhere about the full moon, so that belated settlers could 6ee their way home. There was always a great gathering. The Maoris Tifled to bring in supplies of potatoes, kumaras, pigs and other food, and there was an auctioneer to sell the things, but money was ecaxce and much of the stuff was disposed of by the good oldfashioned system of barter. On these market days the settlers used to enjoy the luxury of seeing old friends again, and there was much exchanging of experiences and charing of advice on problems connected with tilling the soil—an occupation that proved 6o very different from what most of them had imagined when they sailed from the London docks." It was on February 14, 1863, that the first of these monthly markets was held, and it was attended by from 100 to 150 settlers, besides natives from all round. There does not seem to have been a great deal to sell or buy, judging from contemporary accounts, and at first absurdly high prices were charged the newcomers. Later when prices went down the natives could not understand it, and got suspicious and annoyed, for even in those days there were profiteers. [Next Week: Early Letter* of the Brookes Family.]