WHEN BUSH GREW ON LAMBTON QUAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 884, 2 August 1910, Page 6

WHEN BUSH GREW ON LAMBTON QUAY.

SEVENTY YEARS AGO. MEETING OF TWO VETERANS. The other day the long arm of coincidence brought together in the Hotel Cecil at Wellington hvo ancient comrades who landed from the same ship at Kaiwarra just seventy years ago. Their names arc Donald Eraser and Duncan Cameron, Highlanders'both; they hail 1 from the neighbourhood of Fort AVilliam in Argyllshire. Mr. Eraser was bom on tlio shores of Loch Linney, and Mr. Cameron near Loch Eild. ' The ship in which they eamo to New Zealand was the Blenheim, commanded by Captain Ueorgo Gray, a vessel of three or four hundred tons, that carried a total complement in crew and passengers of about two hundred and fifty soles. The trip out lasted four and a half months, and although during the period there were too deaths, the ship landed two more passengers than she took aboard. This is by the way. When the Blenheim .landed her emigrants at Kaiwarra in 1810, Mr. Fraser was a child five years old, and ilr. Cameron three years his senior. Both in later years became farmers. Mr. Cameron went to Pahau, on the East Coast, and is now living at Greytown, in tho Wairarapa. 111'. Fraser iu 1852 took up land in the Kangitikci, whieh he still holds. A Dominion representative who sought to effect an interview found that Mr. Cameron had that day left lor his home, but Air. i'raser, a pioneer on whom tUe years sit lightly, kindly consented to talk a little about iiis "olu-tinie experiences. The passengers of the Blenheim, he iv lates. when tney arrived at. iuiiwarra, were carried asliore by the Maoris, of whom two or three • hundred lived close by. Tho Wellington hills at that date were clad in busli, and then: was only a narrow track of clear ground on the line now followed by Lanibton Quay, in 1841 the white population numbered about a couple of tnousand, lor three or four emigrant ships had preceded the Lilenkeim, and two or three more came during the twelve months following her arrival. In the region round about thero were two or three Maoris for every white in Wellington. The first big lira in tho town occurred iu 1842. It broke out in a house on the site now occupied by the Gear Company'* shop, and destroyed about twenty.of tho clay and thatch structuic.i that housed the Wellington pioneers. The last building destroyed was tho Crown snd Anchor Motel. The Old-time Bushranger Garratt. Both Mr. Fraser and his friend were attacked at times by the travelling fever. Tho latter spent 'several years in the Victorian diggings, and a little later Mr. Eraser in his turn spent a year on the Ararat field. Both accumulated a fair share of tho golden earth, although neither made it fortune. In lSlil Mr. Eraser joined in tho rush to Gabriel's Gully. It was just at this time that a man named Garrett engaged in "sticking up" peoplo at Maungatua. The party with which Mr. Eraser traveltal nrvivw) at thi> hill of this namo a few days, after Garrett had been in evidence, and found the settlers'of the neighbourhood extremely suspicious and ungracious. One even refused to boil their . billies. They settled 'the difficulty in happy-go-lucky style by chopping down a fence post for firewood and leaving a few shillings in itu neighbourhood by way of payment. ■ Ancient Wreck Near Terawliiti, Among the early New Zealand events that find a place in Mr. Eraser's memory, the wreck of the barque Maria stands prominently. This was a tragic affair that occurred in 1850 or 1851. Tno vessel was on her way, flying light, from Lyttelton to Wellington.' On u foggy morning, just before daylight, she struck on the Seal Rock near. Terawhiti. She split into two pieces which wero driven ashore a quarter of a mile apart. Of thirly-oiie people aboard, twenty-nine were drowned. Mr. Eraser, who was employed on a run in the neighbourhood as a cowboy, awl a man named Ashdown, wero tbe first whites to visit the scene after the wreck. They brought ashore seventeen bodies within the space of a few hours. Next cloy they found on tlia hills a young sailor named Stewart, and a Malay.' These were the only survivors. Shipwreck Near Island Bay. In 1844 or 1845 occurred tho wreck of the Tyne which came, to grief on the Black Rocks near Island Bay. Sho carried four cases of gold,'each containing J] 000. Three of these were recovered, but the fourth never came to light. Mr. Eraser, then a small boy, and his friend Cameron visited the locality of the wreck and he relates that a number of people were seen to leave much "fatter" than when they arrived, having donned several suits of' clothes as the most convenient .way of carrying then) off. Jy detachment of the 99th regiment was sent out' to guard the goods landed, but they seem to have had their own peculiar views of guardianship. i r oung Eraser and his companion found a soldier standing iii a puncheon of wine and ladling out its contents, in a boot,. to all-comers: Mr. Cameron has nevoi; returned to Scotland since he left it seventy years ago. Mr. Fraser, however, visited his birthplace in 1897. Apparently he was little impressed by the scenes in which his early youth had been spent. Tho broken and hilly country, of Argyllshire, he considered, compared poorly with the land with which lie had become acquainted in Maoriland. * The people too, he roundly states, are losing their an-, cient character for Highland hospitality.' The advent of the tourist has transformed them, and they survey tho stranger within their gates with, a keen eye to tho . main chance. Although they have occasionally foreg;«ihercrl during the long years of their : residence in Maoriland, it was pure Chance that brought these ancient comrades together in Wellington, the other day. Of • the fellow-passengers who accompanied them' in the Blenheim only three, so far as Mr. Fraser is aware, remain alive. But no doubt tho number of their New Zealand descendants is legion. They were nearly all Highland people of a class that, given fair conditions, sticks, well and closely to the land aud most of them took up farms in the country of their adoption.