THE EARLY DAYS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22078, 28 April 1937, Page 13

THE EARLY DAYS

A PIONEER’S RECOLLECTIONS

There are now very few of the old colonists left with us. The last four or five years have taken a heavy toll of those who arrived, even as infants, in the very early days. One of the last of the small band was Mr William Pickering, of Addington, who died recently. He had more than the usual share of roughing it, and some of his recollections, given a year ago, convey an idea of the conditions in the 60’s and 70’s of last century. Born in 1849, in Warwickshire. Mr Pickering arrived at Nelson with his parents in the clipper ship China in 1854. The China carried about 300 passengers and the trip took 245 days. Emigrants in those days had to pay their own way—it was too early for Government assistance. Alter discharging her passengers and cargo the China left for Australia, but was never heard of again. Had the loss of the ship occurred during the trip to New Zealand the event would have been the greatest marine disaster of those days, with probably a serious effect on the flow of immigration and on the early settlement of the country. Two of Mr Pickering’s uncles had settled at Richmond some years previously and had done well in farming. The new arrivals settled at Nelson where the father and an elder brother carried on farming. Before he had entered his teens young Pickering walked with a mate from Nelson to Hanmer, the trip occupying five days. The going, as can be imagined, was pretty rough, as there was no track and the travellers had to go through much rough, steep country. The journey was made in the very early 6,O’S and there could not have been many travellers before then to blaze a trail. 1 A Huge Run

Arrived at Hanmer, the youth got an appointment as cook’s boy with Count de la Pasteur, Who in the 60S was an extensive ruhholder, his holdings comprising St. Helens, St, James, and Glen Wye stations. On this huge scope of country a big number of sheep was carried, and in addition cattle, but horses were very scarce, and most of the haulage was done by bullocks. The youth stayed in the Count’s service for 15 years, doing all classes of station work. In the GO’s the Count went to England and married a lady whose father, it was understood at the time, made a, marriage settlement of £BO,OOO on her. At all events the Count le.t New Zealand some years later to reside in England and offered to take Pickering With him and establish him in some suitable calling. The lad’s parents, however, were averse to the proposal, and voung fellows those days had a habit of doing what their parents told them. During the time Pickering was in the employ of the Count he used to take the mail on horseback to the Lower Waiau by the Leslie Pass, a distance of 18 miles, and return by the Lyndon Pass, which was seven, miles shorter. Carting by bullock waggon was a slow and tedious business in those days. The Amuri wool was carted to Saltwater Creek, where it was shipped by small craft to Lyttelton. On one occasion eight bales of wool were hauled by a team of eight bullocks from Hanmer to the Creek, the journey there and back taking three weeks. Before the construction of the railway there was an hotel in the Weka Pass, which was a popular house with drovers and oth r rs who only made rare visits from the back country. It was at this hotel that a well-known district man, Mr Keane, met his death. He had stayed the night and had breakfast and when mounting his horse he was thrown, breaking his neck. An Historic Bridge

The bridge still in use at Leslie Hills has an Interesting history. Mr John Rutherford, who nad taken up the Leslie Hills property, used to drive to Christchurch in a buggy and pair. The Waiau. of course, was then bridgeless. Starting out one morning with one of his men the horses v, ere sweet off their feet, and they and the travellers were carried some distance down stream. The man hung on to his boss and got him ashore, and strange to relate, the horses and buggy were undamaged. However, Mr Ruth* erford vowed to alter things, and he sent to Australia for timber to build the bridge, which has rendered good service until this day. The Lighter Bide

Mr Jno. Tinline., who had a station in the northern end of the province, or Southern Marlborough as It was then, was fond of a thoroughbred. He acquired a young, high spirited horse, and engaged a man named Anderson, of Kalapol, a noted horse-breaker, to break him in. After putting the saddle and bridle on. the animal played up too much for Anderson, and he persuaded young Pickering, who had by this time had a fairly ripe experience in breaking in station hacks, to mount him, Anderson holding oh to a rope attached to the bridle. Once aboard, the horse bolted trying all manner of pig Jumos to dislodge the rider. He finished up with a hard five-mile gallop, being assisted, naturally, over the last mile or more by the rider, and was brought back thoroughly cowed. Mr Tinline thought his horse was ruined, and refused to pay Anderson. The animal suffered no Injury, however, and was later sold for £6OO, winning several valuable races for his new owner.

DISTEMPER IN DOGS TO TBB EDITOR Of TH£ PRESS.

Sir.—Thanks are due to the Department of Agriculture’s Wallaceville officers for arranging the importation in cold storage of distemper serum and virus. This must be used within one month of its arrival, and provided it is administered by a qualified veterinarian or doctor, may be purchased by ahy responsible group of dog owners, provided it is ordered in bulk quantity of not less than 30 doses—the cost being about 14s a dose. In this way the Hawke’s Bay farmers collected 50 dogs, which were given distemper at Napier by a veterinary surgeon last March, Two bulk importations of this distemper serum and virus have been arranged by 'people in the Amuri district of North Canterbury. It rests with farmers’ federations and station owners to arrange their own importation and thus try to arrest the very serious mortality from distemper in present-day dogs.—Yours, etc., A. C. SHAND. Island Hills, April 26,

The Victorian wheat average this season was 17.9 bushels an acre, the highest for 67 years. The total crop is .5,250,000 bushels more than that of last year.