KING COUNTRY PIONEER

Press, 25 February 1978, Page 17

KING COUNTRY PIONEER

The Afterßreakfast Cigar. Selected Memoirs of a King Country Settler. By Spencer Westmacott. Edited by H. F. Westmacott. A. H. and A. W. Reed. 206 pp. $12.50 (Reviewed by Robert Lamb) In spite of what its title might suggest, this book is not concerned with a life of luxurious ease. It is a first-hand account of the work involved in breaking in a block of bush country at Rangitoto, some seven miles east of Te Kuiti, in the years 1910-14. The author, was one of a number of sons of the Canterbury gentry, such as John Rolleston, Stanley Brittan and Rowley Hill, who decided to go north and establish farms for themselves in country that was covered in dense bush.

Like the pioneers of an earlier time, they had to begin from scratch and, with the aid of slasher and axe. cut tracks into their respective properties. They could not do this single-handed, and ea:h had to employ a gang of bushmeu to fell the forest that was to give way to farm clearings. "The falling timber,” writes Westmacott, “let in the light and from the front face of it one could see out, in the clear air. far over the Waikato bevond the bush.” After the felling of the trees came the burn-off: and then “the sowing of the burn.” For the packing of the g'ass-seed — so many pounds to be carried by each horse — and for the

sowing of it, Westmacott employed several Maoris. “It was a pleasure,” hq writes, “to see the Maoris work.” Their one idea, he adds, “was to do an honest job and do it well.' To bring sheep on to the property, 12 miles from Otorohanga. was no easy task. There were rivers and creeks to ford, swamps to negotiate, and high fern to pass through; but "men. horses, dogs, and sheep” did "all that was expected of them,” and so the stocking of Rangitoto was successfully begun. The book contains some good descriptions of the towns, Te Kuiti and Otorohanga, from which the author obtained his provisions. Take, for instance, the following glimpse of Otorohanga as it appeared to him in January of 1913: “The township is slow to move, however it is progressing a little. Several loads of gravel have been put into the mudholes in the main street, and most of the store-keeper object to the pigs sleeping under their verandahs, while one or two are even so inconsiderate as to water thei. doorsteps to prevent the Maoris sitting on them. But the thing which really stirs the place is the weekly picture show which is given in the Town Hall.” The tenacity and team-work involved in pioneering in the King Country are well portrayed in these memoirs. One might add as an afterthought that their author could little have guessed what intense pleasure they would afford readers of today.