WHAKATANE PROGRESS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 158, 22 September 1941, Page 2

WHAKATANE PROGRESS

STATION LIFE 50 YEARS AGO THE COMING OF THE SMALL, SETTLER

One of the Bay's pioneers, Mr A. B. Martin, now of Tauranga, gives in the following article a pen picture of the early days of Wliakatane—the station life of fifty years ago; the coming of the small settler six years later; the beginning of better times; the great past; the dairy industry; the draining of the

swamp and the consequent prosper ity.

Fifty years ago Whakatane was a sanall scattered village. It had one hotel, stores, a blacksmith shop, and a Police Station which served as a Post and Telephone office a 1 so. A small steamer served the port which was full of rocks at the entrance, and the town could be approached from the West by swimming a horse behind a boat and from the East by swimming a horse behind a boat across! Ohiwa Harbour. There were three sheep stations, Pekatahi Leasehold, Waimana and Opouriao. The first two. were under the Assets Realisation Board being taken over in slump time by the Bank of New Zealand.

The third, Opouriao, belonging to the Whakatane Cattle Co was being handled by the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile and afterwards bought by Gould from the South Island. There were a number of small farms near the township belonging to the early settlers, who lived by growing crops of maize and sending them to Auckland by the small steamer. The land was exceedingly rich and wanted no manure; GO to 80 bushels to the acre being the usual crop. Easy Going Settlers A few cattle were kept and fattened. The settlers were an easy going lot, and could got plenty of

cheap labour and their wants were few. There was a European School, where it now stands and a Native School on the other side of the river, The rich river flat valley stretched fourteen miles back from the port, sheep farming being the principal industry with a few bullocks. Maize was grown in fairly large quantities on the stations, and the little steamer was hard put to it at times to get it all away without getting the port congested.

The road to Rotorua had been j washed out by blocked rivers aftev the Tarawera eruption and was available for horses only driving mobs of cattle. With the coming of the Ballanee-Seddon Government came a change in the land, policy; a policy of small settlers, by breaking up the large estates. Reynolds and Co in the Waikato were the leading men in bringing this about as they began the great dairying industry which svas to revolutionise the pastoral industry' all through New Zealand. Opouriao was the second chosen, the first being Cheviot in the South Island.

Land Cut Up

The Estate from about six miles from the port to the Ruatoki Maori village, Avas cut up and surveyed Into farms from 150 acres doAvn to as low as 25, Avith sections of ten acres here and there for AA-orkmen's homes. Seven hundred and fifty applications Avere received for between forty and fifty farms.

The old settlers of Whakatane shook their heads and said "N'o market, no roads, no rent paid, the doom of the valley." The majority of applicants Aver© working people, used to agricultural work in other parts. The land was exceedingly rich, and large fields of maize were grown the first year without much prospect of [a good market. Luckily the, Sydney market opened as there was a drought in New South Wales. This crop brought from 2/~ to 2/6 a bushel the Loan and Mercantile handling most of it. I Taneatua'is Birth The township of Taneatua began to be; settled by small businesses. Mir George Wilson's store and bakery being the first, and afterwards being shifted to Ruatoki. Then came a great catastrophe. A heavy frost struck the maize paddocks in the month of February and three-quar-ters of the- crop were destroyed.

A meeting of settlers was called and. it was decided to begin an agitati'pn to start a cheese factory. A Government official visited the district and explained the steps to be taken, and so began the well known Opouriao Dairy Co. The settlers hard hit by the frost were assisted by the Loan and Mercantile Co on the promise to give them, their next

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years crop to handle. The easy going maize growing and stock fattening life was buried for ever, and the hard work of milking - herds of cows Avas begun. Government Leases The land was let on the best terms ever given by any Government, 999 years lease and the value of the grass farm averaged seven pounds an acre value, rent 7/- an acre. Prosperity was assured. Fairly large herds were milked by hand. Men, women and childen piled into the cowsheds at sunrise, hard times gradually disappeared but not hard work. Several sold out to get away from the drudgery of the cow sheds; others began to look round for milking machines which came eventually.

The roads opened, a new county was formed stretching from Ohhva to beyond Matata. The people began to look round for some form of amusement. A working bee got together and made tennis laAvns 1 and a bowling green in the township. Other settlers provided money and lime, horses and buggies to bring trout from Rotorua to put in the rivers. These trout went straight to the head waters and were seen nothing of for years. Then some boys bathing at the township school at dinner hour brought the news of strange fish in the river. They were working down in large numbers. The Waimana and Whakatane rivers are now well known to anglers.

Doctor Engaged

After three years with no doctor > in the village, O'potiki being the nearest, a public meeting was called, a committee formed of settlers who advertised in the leading newspapers for a resident doctor. Hie settlers guaranteeing £250, the Government £100 and the Bay of Plenty Hospital Board £10 per annum. After a grea deal of secretarial work spread over a year, the organising secretary corresponding with over eleven doctors, one was secured who stayed a year, when the performance started all over again to get another, Dr Wadmore, who died recently being the last subsidised doctor. Whakatane has a number now and a good hospital. After the dairy industry became properly established, a start was made with the draining of the Rangitaiki swamp with dredges. A number of members of Parliament visiting the district, being satisfied with the report given by the engineers, got the Government to undertake the cut at Thornton, taking away the river mouths that flowed west to Matata and East to Whakatane, and turning the large plain into one of the richest producing districts in New Zealand. The rest is modern history and can be dealt with better by someone who was not an early settler. The settlement of the swamp and bringing of highly bred cattle to the district has had a stimulating cfTect on the growth of the town which is now an important centre. The railway from Auckland reached Taneatua in 1927.