A FEW REFLECTIONS. ON DOMINION DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 312, 26 September 1908, Page 6

A FEW REFLECTIONS. ON DOMINION DAY.

, (By James Brown, ''" " Old Identity.")' What changes hare taken place sinoe I landed from the good ship "Blenheim" at Kaiwarra in '40 At that time there was a very large Nativa

-• ri ./• '^"^.v^PUTi'i- 111 •' ''• 1 tive trtftibloi Tho Hutt was' a military camp for • yeatsl There were three Battlers murdered at"B6lmont by the Natives. The whole of the Hutt Valley. waa subject' to heavy floods regularly for many years. • ■Tho Walrarapa. Tlio'.Wairarapa was unknown to tho setJors iii tho early days. Tho first who ventured there wero obliged to ford the Hutt i River at the bar and travel round tho ooast at low water to Palliser Bay. Then those who sottled.on tho East. Coast > crossed the lake,, and continued their journoy on tho beacH.v,Those ;who. settled .up the valley iravelled up. tho .lake towards whore Feathorstonjtow is., All tho light . goods wero . packed/'on mules and donkeys imported from South America..for.tho purposo of .packing. Later -.; on, when there were a number of sot tiers., in. tho .valley,' small schooners of ' 4 and 5 tons took tho goods from Wellington *nd • landed them on the beach at Palliser Bay,v and tho : settlors would pack from there ;to their different' homesteads:' .When ,they 'got a few ? bales" of 'wool .to ■send''to' ' Wellington, they cut . tracks-" through the bushvanj scrub-ahd 'sledged it, two bales at a time, from ,thd'different stations-doTiTi to Palliser Bay arid; shipped them into' the small; pchoohei's.. Thoso who lived ',at' the.head of tho lake frould load their wool into .whaleboats'and tako.it' down 'the'lake, to, bo ' trarishipped into tho small. 'Wellingtoil'schooners;A few years later,' when a'-bridlo,'track was':! made from,- tho ■ Hutt -.'to Feathc'rston, 1 . through the. bush and over. .the v hills, ' the settlers ; would pack their'goods front Wei-, Jinjjton over the Rimutakas to all parts of thoWairarapa Valley. . . . . Travolllnfi Methods. ■■■.■>. v ,'- . That was .' the modo of travelling up; till. . '55,. when the. road'was ;-.opened .'('for.;- jdr'ay traffic: over thei-Rimutakas. ■-For ; many-years tho goods werei -brought by, drays' arid carts as far as tho Tipper. Hutt, and the father of the Brown f&milyjxwho'. built. the. first house at tho Hutt arid ran; the" Criterion Hotel for Many-years, stored- ail.--.these.goods,; and. they, wore packed from there to. the • Wairarapa. Petono, as/far; as. Alicetowny was. covered with flax and raupb..' Erom-there to FeatherBton;.was a. dent o .forest 1 which .-it' was.;imposBible -for anyorieHo penetrate'.' ;, Tho '. only l

>nearis:of getting- up the valley was to follow the bank of the Hutt River, and there was not a-break in the bank nor a sandbank from the>h"afbour,to the spurce in tho Rimutakas. Small boats could get as far as Belmont. A Croat Earthqiiako. ' ■ The second great shako we-had was in-the end'of '55; it was even more severe than tho one-in .'47. The whole rof tho district of Wellington : was heaved up from five'to seven feet. :Affr&rWthat time there was no difficulty in travelling along the cb'ast to Palh'ser Bay, as the high water did noticomo"near -'the base of; the hill. The present Hutt Park was under , water until that- time, and two years afterwards it was so, dry that it was • turned into the {racecourse, and, the Wellington Rac- . ing Qub'flccupied : it up, till.\two years ago'., Startling; Experiences. The" Brown, fatfiily was the first to-settle in tho > TJpper Hutt, the Barton family, came later on. Tho father of- the Brown family had 1 - softie .startling experiences in' the old during tho Maori disturbances, ; '.when every man was enrolled in the militia:;and had to bo called out frequently to,scour the country when tbe Natives made theirappearance.' : Ho . was . present along with (the pthor-militia men when tho natives attaekisd the;Boulcott stockade. There was a company <of military troops. stationed there, and: the .Maoris came'down and tomahawked ithe .picket who .were in .tents.some distance from, the. stockado. _ That .was where the bugler boy had his right hand cut off while sounding the alarm ; he picked up the bugle with- his left and; again sounded the alarm. Many'soldiers, were killed .and wounded in arid . around tho. stockade. My father and two : others' took 1 refuge under, a big stump, arid when the, engagement -was over they found .several bullets' lodged in tho stump; which' -proved the . narrow escape thejr\had. . A-great deal more might ,be said-on this important subject, but time will not per- . Mit; though wllat'l havo'written is sufficient to show 'how great a change lias come over the seine: warranting the added grandeur of -the title - 'New Zealand—the new Dominion."