MASTERTON'S FIRST SETTLER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 740, 12 February 1910, Page 12

MASTERTON'S FIRST SETTLER.

" ■ ■ . • . ■ II ME. W. H. DONAXJ). t • The wliiio man, who is ' under- g stood to have settled ia Master ton was r Mr. W. 1L Donald, father of Mr. Donald f Donald, a well-known resident, and ono 'J who in the past ,ten years has achieved J an' Australian reputation as an inventor j of fanning machineryand' requisites. Mi. I W. IL Donald resided ot Mauaia on the \ present Solway site, and 'hist houso'/waa i the first which struck the eyes of the sot- c tiers who oarne along in the early fifties. - Sir. Duncan came up to the Wairarapa i yia , the PaJJieer aM /the' Cape. . : Xnl a < diary. left' by him, he mentions thatihe, arrived in .Wellington: in .1812,, and . tlat 1 amongst his fellow, passengers were W«l(l, • subsequently Governor of Western Aus- > tralia; Tasmania,--and Ceylon; and. Henry . I Kedwood, father of Archbishop RedwopUj of (Wellington. .-Mr. ■ Donald refers. a, placo'j called Oke'wai, at , Day's Bay; 1 whence he started on his Wairarapa jour-, * : ney. ■ There wero no Europetins: residing : ■ at ■ the time in Masterton, nor -poesjbly; m the M 7 flirarapa, : and the Don-aid. family , 'may■ fairly claimthattheir father :was ■ ■the first; white man, to make. his. settled home in the district. .V. A Big Leaseholder. , ; .In';his. time, Mr; -Donald was 'ono" ; of : .the higke-rt ,4an<l leasehqlder^..in ■ Jfewi Zealand. Tie leased from the Maoris; .nil the-'ftiid between Rangftumau andlthe Three Mile Bush (Carterton) and ext^rid- .. ing right across the valley from .the;.Tira- , runs to the Ma-ungarakis, a distance of. between twelve and fifteen miles. His greatest worry- wa6 , the number of i his alleged Maori .landlords,' and frequently there wos trouble because lie happened to have paid the rent to the wrong parties, j- Mr. Donald was. a, big roan, about Gft. i" '2in. in height,' and, well built, and ho usually settled . his- arguments, with ,the Maoris in the.good old British'style.[He is alleged to liavo stated that he .wduld fight twenty: Maoris ■ than .brio white man. He .is understood to liavo brought'- some of! the first sheep - to,. Wellington. They-.were landed at- Donad's • Bay. ■ For about three years lie was in partnership s with . .Mr. "Barnoy" EhpJes. His recreation in those-early days, was a jaunt to the Hutt to ,t»ko part ,in the.' war against the' Maoris.. He was wounjed < on ono occasion in the chest; On'kn- | other ho .was in company with Libntonlnt Black, 42nd Regiment, whea the English officer wa« shot dead from a . tree,, lut ' i Mr. Donald avenged'his death, with; a shot-gun, whioh is still in the'possessm ( of hll son, Mi, Donald Donald. Cuiiouily

enough, not lowt'ogo, when llr. Donald DontUd was ill Wellington, near the Sydney Street Cemetery, he saw a neglected grave, covered with rough scrub. Ho pushed aside the brambles, and thert saw on the wooden - memorial the name or Lion tenant-Black. - The Last of the Maori Troubles. Mr. Donald Donald, the son -of the hardy old pioueer, was,boni i m- Masterton 56 years ago. Ho • has a lively recollection of the last Maori troubles between tho years 1860 and 1867. His .family, ho said, always Blept armed. NgairoandWe Wholta were the.Wairarapa Natives who attempted to persuade their to rise'against tho .Europeans.;. We Wbalca was not a rangitira, but a man who had come into prominence because he talked a lot. /JChera were about 200 Natives on the march to Papawai, .to discup the auestion as to whether they ; should take part in the rebellion.- Captain Donald, the pioneer, was in charge of tho cavalry, and it was greatly owing to his e:-<ergy that tho Maoris raade no attack on the Europeans. The captain was nothing if not thorough. Ho kept thousands of rounds of ammunition, and had three rendezvous-one the . stockade . -in. the park; anotbsr sti. Kibblewhites barn on

the Tipper Plain, and another at his own J house on -the Manaia. On ono occasion f ■the: captain, and his men rodo up to Wo 1 Whajfca's pa and madea demonstration, 1 just to lot tho- Native know , that he 1 could not srpcct to have things his i own way, '. :■ ■- ■ ■ . "I The Early Days. . Referring: to tho - early > - penods, . Mr. . Donald says that bullocks-. first brought ! stores up the Wairarapa, packed on: their. >, backs On ono occasion Mr. T. Kempton, I of Groytown, had a bullock: and its load lost in the Threo-Milo Bush. 'The first crop of .'wheat grown-at Manaia by Mr. - Donald,' sen'., was cleabed .and. threshed with a flail, then it ; was : unfortunately burnt, and'wheat ..and: flourt-.had to-,-be - procured ■ from : Wellington. -\Refernng: to: . the earlier i Wairarapa i . pioheors,' Mr.Donald Donald- mstincse tho; names of Clifford and Weld, Charles Bidwilt (who brooght-tho first stock to tho> Wairarapa , from Wellington). Guthrie, iAlfred "Matthews, Hume, Gillies, Smith and:Revans, 'Becthams,' and';Maunselli and statcs\these. people, and' t others' likethem in 'different'.! parts' of -New Zealand, conferred;,an'..in-.' calculable; blessing-upon .the later, genera-;, titras,. owing. to the manner in, whicn>.they worked to'ope'ri- the country for .settlement- "Theso and men like them," said Mr. Donald,."are the men who made:tho country "

A SKETCH BY MR. R. BROWN. ■ TOWN CLERIC TOR THIRTY-ONE . . /•< ; •- '■ Mr. Richard; Brown, ■of Masterton/ Town. Clerk: from'lß77 t0'4908, a period'of; thirty- , one/yearfi,' reniiiriscehces the ■ otherday .to a Dominion, ropresentative.' Mr. Browiv arrived in; Masterton 'in 1874y'but on the .way up. he had. boon advised to. stay«at Groytowni which was. then said to be the : capital; of the Wairarapa/ Mr. Brown decided- to' come further • on. • Although Mastertoii then had been .settled • sopie timo, it was' very smoll. .'The place was managed' by a Road . Board, which;fin : 1875, gave, way to,.a Town Board..; Queen I Street was a; narrow metalled strip .with | a ditch on either side, and overran , with , stumps and roots. The- town' was laid [ off in a cross, the two streets being Queen and* the Church .Street and- Lincoln Road intersection. Queen Street was..the long, and',the; others* the short "arm.; There were :then, not . more : than seven ; or eight houses : between the. present; .post oihee site and Feist's 'old store. 'There was tho : Prince, of; Wales Hotel,- a: big;- lean-to building kept by -Mr. Ji Hastwcll b stables, Bannister's and Bentley and Son s stores, and the shops of Mr.- -.Perry, butcher, G. Dixon, blacksmith, and fa. Wriglcy, bootmaker. Mr. A. W. .Eenall s .mill, vnfy picturesque.- lying with its great wheel in the shadows of. the-busb, while through it gurgled an ever-running stream of water.; At niglit-tiiiiß thp street was 'always in .darkness,, until . years - later tho local, body invested in a kerosene lamp B.t .the post office corner. Although tlio population was. limited, thfl people rejoiced in tho possession, of a_ baronet, Six William Stuart-Forbes, 5 who later resided -at Carterton, and, who died a few years ago 'in Queen Charlotte. Sound. The place- was: made a, borough.in 1877, when there: were possibly _not more than <800 pooplei in the area*of 4100, acres. Mr.' B. X. Williams was:the first Mayor, while | Mr. Brown was the first Town' Clerk- IJJ was Mr. Brown who called the first meeting of the ratepayers to consider the question of making the town a borough. The cleverest Mayor, to manage a meeting was the late Mr; E. W. Lowes, while the , one who may be said to have given the town' its first push onward to real progress was Mr.. C. A. Pownall. . " T * Pownall carried his loan proposals,almost in. the teeth of; his own council, but from tho inception of drainage (one of Mr. Pownall's schemes); ,the town, went forward. The oldstockade in the park was ' still extant in : the . . .seventies, with its. old moat. The building was taken away. ' and' placed between the two. Waipoua bridges, while-the moat has just recently ,'. been filled up with ..qnrth.-..... , •