MINNIESDALE BAPTIST CHAPEL, WHAREHINE

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 222, 19 September 1925, Page 27

MINNIESDALE BAPTIST CHAPEL, WHAREHINE

The oldest surviving: church in AlbertUnd, in the graveyard of which lie many of the original Albert-landers. This chapel was founded by the late Rev. E. S. Brookes, senior, who brought out the framework from England. The opening services took place on December 29, 1867. The Rev. W. Worker preached morning and evening, and Mr. Cutler gave an address in the afternoon. Next day a tea was held, and afterwards there was a meeting, at which speeches were made by Messrs. Dudding, Cutler, Turner and Legge. A well trained choir under Mr. Armitage sang several sacred selections. On the Tuesday there was a cricket match, followed by another tea. —Photograph by W. H. Marsh. a flagpole. I took my boat and three of the settlers went with mc. We got one over 70 feet long, but found when it was down we could not move it, so we had to take off six feet, and then we could only just get it out of the bush with pulleys. It was about two tons weight, and took us a day to get it out." One could not imagine the modern immigrant considering a flagpole so early in the scheme of settling down, but the 'sixties were more leisurely than our own hurried age. The letter goes on to say: " I have been cutting a road to the township, about twelve miles", and not a soul on it all the way. A man has to rough it here, and no mistake. He must set to and cook his own dinner and wash his own clothes, or else he won't do for the bush. I am now able to make dumplings or damper with anyone. ... The weather is such that you can sleep out nearly all the , year round. I have slept out ever since I have been here."

MAOEIS AND PEACHES. In the same letter we read: " The Maoris are a queer lot, taking them altogether, but I am generally interested in them. I am nist learning their language, and there are many words that I know. My land on the Oruawharo is just opposite the Maori settlement. I went over the other day for some peaches. There was only the chiefs wife and a servant at horne —if you can call it a home, only a raupo house with nothing in it. I went with them to gather some peaches I wanted, and when they had got two kits I asked how much they wanted for them. They said * Three herrin' (shilling), fi o I told them I would not give them above one shilling. They would not let mc have the peaches, and I was just going off in my boat when some of the men came home. They called mc back, and I happened to know one or two of them. They filled the end of my boat with peaches for nothing. The women are very avaricious m prices. . . . There are some very nice looking half-castes—some of the finest I have seen. The worst of the natives is that they never wash themselves. . . . Port Albert is likely to become a fine place. We have begun farming. I have one of the best stockyards on the Oruawharo, and a cow and a calf." TJnder date March 21, 1863, E. S. Brookes, junior, tells his people that it takes more than one would really think to settle on one's land. " A man with £20 is nowhere. Some with £100 haye

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had to leave it, but I am hoping to get through. ... My funds are so short now that I feel obliged to try and get work for one or two days a week. We have now at the township a market day.once a month. The natives bring their things on that day, and Mr. Gittos is there as interpreter. There is a cutter running every month from Onehunga to Port Albert. Last Sunday we went to hear; Mr. Edger preach at Kakaraia. I enjoyed the sermon very much. 'We had to walk five miles, not like English miles on a straight road, but pushing our way through fern and tea-tree. . . . The little boy I have working with mc and I live on 6/ to 7/ a week, which is not lined case full of hay seeds it would be first-rate, as we set the much out here. ... If you can send mc by the next vessel a -.inclined case full of hay seeds it would be capital, as we set the others, and they are coming up first-rate. I want to make a field of about two or three acres The hay seeds are £1 a bushel here. ... The next person that comes out from Nottingham I should like to bring my guitar."

INQUISITIVE NATIVES. Mrs. S. White (who was a Miss Brookes), writing on May 29, 1863, tells of a terrible storm she was in while making the passage from Port Albert to Onehunga in a trading schooner, which was almost wrecked. "We provided for three days/ she wrote, "expecting to be there in two, and were, a fortnight on the sea. We were limited to potatoes and salt daily, and last of all we had no fresh water, no firewood, no matches, and the pump broke. Water was being baled out of the cabin all day and all night by bucketsful,

as fast as all could work. . . . Tbe salt water spoiled everything. All my beautiful dresses were just as if they had been taken out of a bucket of water. ... I could tell you some strange things about the Maoris. One day we were boating down to Peach Grove, on the Oruawharo River, and when we got back to Eddie's (Mr. E. S. Brookes), there was a beautiful canoe with two sails. We thought it was Mr. Gittos, but judge of our surprise when we reached the top of the steps, there were a dozen Maoris, men and women, as busy as possible. Our cases were under the whare, with the things out drying. The men were trying on my long nightdresses, and the women the coats. They had made such a mess of them. When they saw us coming they put the things down quickly, and all came up and shook hands. ... I have several times had to go in and take off my scarlet Garibaldi jacket; the natives were after mc wanting to know ' how much ?' One of the chiefs fried my fish for mc one day. I had a long chat with the powerful chief Paikea, and he quite took to mc, but I told him I was 'a whitey man's wahine,' or the white man's wife. I used to have the whare full of them, sometimes nearly the whole day. I used to get tired of talking to them, and wished they had not taken such a fancy to mc. They are so thoroughly filthy, or I could do with them very well. " One Sunday we had scarcely anything to eat, and were on tlie Otamatea River, about three miles from a Maori settlement. We started with a mat basket on our arm to see if they would either give or sell us some food. . . . When we had gone about half a mile on the beach we met four or five natives, and they went back with us. First they called at one of their cultivations and gave us plenty of delicious water melons. We then went on to the settlement, but they would not sell us anything on Sunday. They said if ' whitey man' and I stayed all night we should have the best bed in the chief's hut, and plenty of good kumaras and kai-kai—that is, a kind of sweet potato baked, and food. They were almost offended because we would not stay. One old woman in particular thought I was pining, so she cut mc a slice of bread and looked at mc so pitifully. She then gave mc another slice and said, 'Here, eat/ but it was rather too much of the dirt for mc to touch, hungry as I was. One reason why I did not stay all night was because I well knew I should not be free from fleas for a week after." QUEER HERBS AND SWEET BRIAR. Under date June 6, 1863, E. S. Brookes, junior, writes about planting, and goes on to say: " I should like to have some sweet briar 6eed very much; if possible, send some in your next letter." Had he been able to see the curse it would become he would probably have curbed his desire for this pretty, sweet-smelling reminder of the Old Land. The seed duly arrived, and on January 7, 1864, G. H. Brookes wrote: "We were pleased with the sweet briar seed, and hope it will turn out to perfection. You must not be displeased if we do not follow your directions to plant it all in one hole. We could not agree Dn whose land the hole should be, so we each set our own." People of those days evidently used queer things in the vegetable world. "In your next letter will you send us out some rhubarb seed, also some herbs, balsam, camomile, rosemary, and I expect soon to have sage and thyme ? Let them be your own gathering, if you can." At a later stage he asked for " horehound, hyssop, lavender, rue, and bergamot," and says: " I have already mint, wormwood, rosemary." In June, 1863, G. Hovey Brookes tells about some Maoris that happened to be staying with him. He goes on to say: " Yesterday (Sunday) I went out to tea. After tea we came home by torch light. We should think that queer in England. The torches were of kauri gum. When we got home one of the Maoris was reading the Bible, and he afterwards read a chapter in English to us. He said that when he was a child he could read the English Bible well. He is a great chief." In' May, 1863, Charles • Brookes, the youngest brother, wrote from Auckland, telling that he had got a place with a Frenchman, a chemist named Delatour, in Auckland, at 10/ a week—"not heavy work, washing bottles, the floor (once a week), cleaning the windows (while he comforts mc by telling mc that if I break one it will cost mc £3), dusting, and cutting out labels." The lad went on to say that Auckland life made him feel cooped up like a bear in a cage, and he longed for the bush again. Later he got a place at the " Southern Cross" office at 10/ a week. He had to get up at 4 a.m. and distribute papers, but it was too early for him—he could not wake—and so he got another job, this time at a sash and door manufactory as stoker, at 12/6 a week. His board at that time was 10/ a week. (Next Week: The Brookes correspondence continued.)