IDYLLS OF KING COUNTRY

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 141, 16 June 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

IDYLLS OF KING COUNTRY

BACK-BLOCK PIONEERS.

THE ISOLATED LIFE. ITS PERILS AND ITS JOYS. (By X. A. WINTER.) The passion to own lard and to found :i home has urged men to deed? as heroic, and perseverance as remarkable, as any other influencing mankind. It has led men and women to plunsre into * lie bush! burying themselves in isolation and living a life of toil until they had brought the land into productive•less and ma'!'" l themselves habitable Iwellings. In many cases success crowned their e:Torxs: in others, alas, their life's •tniggle was in vain, and they abandoned r heir holdings, as bare of worldly goods as when they entered them. Many tine valleys open to the Wanganui River on its cour.-e southwards from Taumarunui. and the.-e. at the time of which I write, were iu-l beginning to be ettled. They were approachable only by bridle-tracks, and no bridge then -canned either the Waneanui or its •ifriuent. the Oncarue. anywhere n« j ar the •■'wnsliip. Settlers like McLei d. Cib-

* oris. Barker. Frai.k'.and. Runciman. loscoe. Smith. and David Seott. all bachelors except the la-t mentioned, vere already i:i occupation. I have often watched one of them returning to his section after a day in the township, his 'orse splashing: in the twilight through •'ne Wanganui River ford, and then dis|>;«earing with its rider into the un'illlUVll. The work of bushfellimr. grassincr and "•i( ing was goincr steadily on. Provi:ons and material were sent down by iver-boat to the pioneers. The bachelors :i a short t ; n:e brought wives to their ■ me*, and -ry is due to those ! tie women who for years braved the •o'ation inseparable from their new life, have known -.imp of them w"ho did not th-.' fae- of another woman for ten ontl.s at a > fetch. No telephones had t b.-i a Pi-ut'ied in the King Country, servi'-e of carrier pigeons was arranged v Mr -In-. Karris. manager a: Tati arunri fir Ha trick and Co. He would >nd birds down on the ordinary !>oat ips. and in care of emergency such as ■rious illness or accident one would be leased bearing a message for a doctor. Touching Incidents. A very impressive and rather liarowing sight was the arrival of a party rem tln» bush, perhaps twenty miles way. bearing the crushed form of a usLman on whom a tree had fallen .'he men had done the tramp with hardly break, over ronuh and hilly ground, elieviug each other at frequent internals. but all on arrival looking thooughly exhausted. They had gone hrough this gruelling struggle because here was a chance of the hospital surrerv saving their comrade's life, and the hanec should n<>t lie missed.

A family called Erni. from Switzerancl, wore settled in Kokakoriki. a valley nr down the Wanganui, communicating >y the head of it with the Kaitieke road, vhich in turn led to Raurimu. a vell■;nown station near the famous spiral, md about twenty miles south of Taumarunui. I had met the Ernis during :ny trip with the Wellington Land Board, lescribed in "King Country- Sketches." Tliey were a hardworking and contented amily and much liked by their neighbours. One of the children fell seriously ill and father and mother brought it up by the river boat (a slow trip up stream > to Taumarunui. It was found to be suffering from the dreaded diphtheria. All means were tried at the hospital to save i:, but without avail. In a few days it was laid in the cemetery, the silent population of which was already growing. The sorrowing parents returned to their home a::d in a few days were -tsrtlcd to find that two others of their children shared symptoms of the same dread malady. It was towards evening <>n an autumn day. no up-river boat would he available for 4S hours: there a '-nance of catching the Wellington at Raurimu and stopping it by flagging (this was frequently done 'ii eas*?s of emergency). Father an I mother mounted their horses each carrying a child and rode away into the n>ght. It was a grim race with death. I know well the track they took. It led fir-, to the crest of the ridge near a trig sT.!t;nn from which Mount Egmont as" well as Tongariro. Ruapehu and Xgnuruhoe are \isible: then' it wound down by curves and hairpin bends to the Retariilke Stream, and thence to the Kaitieke Valley. I can imagine that poor harried couple hendiiig over their horses and urging them to still greater speed so as to bo in time for the express. They caught ;t and reached the Taumarunui ho-jiit:i! before morning. One child they took back to Kokakoriki. The other was

: -ft i;i the .-enietery beside its little biother on vho.-e grave the flowers had -ca roe 1 y withered. The Brighter Side. These are gloomy pictures of pioneer hack block life. The conditions soon improved. It was at a dinner, tendered bv the l'aumanniui Chamber of Comm»i-<" to the delegates of a bi;r Kins Count v conference, tnat the idea of establish:.,', telephones was first mooted. It was brought up by a delegate from Kawina ldea "a- keenly taken up in "aumarunui and m a very brief time we had lines all over the country. It was a perfect God-send. ILe women's ton<r U »<; were loosed. Gossip and :k-ws spread from home to home. All tho,e on one party line could listen-in to mu-ic j,lavH at one of the homes. During the war theates news was distributed each evening irom the post office.

A Dance and a Wedding. A very delightful annual function was the Kokakonui Valley hall. It wa< held in the wool shed, the floor of . b oh was! in fine condition from tiio jrcasv wool of the Scores which for weeks had been falling on it. but which were now ail! baled up. Guests sat on the wool packs all round—many of :lu-e being ladiesi from the town, The dancing was merry and the supper was a feast. There «a-|; a moderate supplv of stimulants for t.-e. men. but nothing in excess. The lad)e-j, did not touch the liquor (it u e„ remembered that this was in tu>_ <• I. unfashionable days). Those from a d«- : tance stayed the night, beds being .m-i provided in all sorts of corners, and de-1. parted to their homes next day carrying , away the memory of real happ:ncss nn, ji; social enjoyment of the verj best ' |I This is "the last of the Idylls ol t.iv-,; King Country. I am well aware h- w U inadequate they are, but I hone „,v, theless thev may awaken -<>n:e . \ ~ recollections in the "breasts 01 those who „ [shared with me the pioneering life ofu 20 years ago. J]