THE PASSING OF YEARS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1031, 21 January 1911, Page 15

THE PASSING OF YEARS

: FROM SAWDUST TO WOOL AND . 13 LTTEIWAT. If ill " tho course of a few. years any twentieth century, edition'of Maculay'i New Zeala'nder over romcs up, tin 'Wel-lington-Napier railway line and sits on tho Old Bell Tower at;'Dannevirko, and looks- around,, ho should •: find it somewhat difficult to imagine that the smiling and Smart-looking town around him was once 'termed in-somewhat ignominous terms "Sleepertown," and. later "Sawdusttown." Such was tho case; for years and for years such was tho common and contemptuous designatories applied to the place, that the patriotic emigrants of Denmark,' who had: sailed thousands of miles to found a new. home, almost forgot, that .they had given tho village, the'.name of the beloved fortification ivliich their peoplo had to yield to German. might .in; 1861. It was liko adding, insult,tbiinjury, and the simple-, .minded- foreigners'worked out their bitter. existcnoo with many a bitter thought. They never.dreamed that tho collection of' bush caiups [-would grow anything.' except.hordes of murderous mosquitoes; or. that, the apparently everlasting bush would ever be cleared away. The transformationhas -occurred, however, and. now, such, is :fhe perversity of human - nature, .that, the' second .generation;' is .asking why the .first' so , incon-. tinently 'dest'royed' tho forest, ill. such ~a manner, as to'leave riot ".even a tree behind.- ;■: . . .' .

1 Daunev.irke was;first sottlcd.in 18;2 by . immigrants '.from Norway,: Sweden, and Denmark;,who arrived, at Napier, .in tho ships Hov,ding.and Ballarat." There weretwenty families , in. all, ■ fourteen Danish "and 'eight/Norwegian and.Swedish ; "arid' .they . we'relra'nspjn.ntc-d at ; thc ■ end'.of..tlie : yeai- : 1572 right into tho heart, of .the,' "Severity-Mile" - Bush, .and "dumped': down 'in a't'otara forest, where a benign' Government' 'sot them to work, cutting sleepers a't one shilling a piece net (tlie- royalty being threepence), arid 'shillings a' day .constructing a road froV' Ta'puata.:to Tahoraite, and from l'iripiri to,Matamau.' Tho piles of sleepers.two miles 1 long- and ;frorii 'ten to .twclvo .feet high 1 which, flanked the bush'-roiid,' were o'ne 'of tho sights of the district'to. travellers to arid fro betweeri .Hawke's'-Bay arid Wellington, and with slab wliares'.and huts which were scattered , about, tlie place hero. arid •' there, tho village presented a deplorable'appearance. , Twenty acres only had been marked off by the Government for town purposes, namely the area itow>bounded' by Gertrude, Christian, Claudius, and George Streets, and in and about this patch the' settlers eked put a inisetablo existence'. In the name of their town and the names of .three bush roads, however, tliey lived again in: the. nienKiry 6f their, fatherland, arid stuck to their labours with tho .hardiness and fortitude which had characterised' their forefathers .when those bold sea rovers conquered Britain... .'

In 188 G. began the sawmill era at Dannevirke. Sawmilliiig had commenced in the Hijtt. district many years before, the mills had crept .through, the Wairarapa, and 'then .seized -upon the Forty-Mile 'Bush aiid the : : SeventyTMile . Bush." ! Having eaten up these liugo'areas : 'of! forest; the;industry"isr no-il-, taking" "itsi lizard-like >: way up .the :middle 'of the island.'. The. first mills'in- Dannevirko' were erected'by Messrs; H. M'Kenzifc, Henderson, and' Wratt, but in a few years there were som» thirty, or forty mills' going, and the great forest was ;soon in the hands or:rathw.'-the teeth, iof the . jagged circular'saw:VJ : -lb>.-was-'; then that the town'boomed with money spent, with a lavish hand by young and hardy sons of the . bush. The timber industry • went-, ahead with leaps ami bounds, and Dannevirko grew like a mushroom, and became a townauip which was spoken of' all over the country -as a good place to settle in for a time. The. town had no,t tho advantage of being able to run other industries sido bj\ side with the milling, for the simple reason that at the time it was not considered that Zealand would ever have any other industries. Times were bad, the - borrowing boom had ended, and the Tarawcra- eruption ■had taken its; place, and with\such; suddenness that pepole in a fit of despondency were, openly stating, that, tho North Island would soon.'require another Maui to .fish .it up again, : and there was no faith in panuevirke, : ..nor, for .that matter, in New' Zealand. It; was in these circumstances that Dannevirke commenced its evolution from sawdust to wool and mutton- and butter-fat, but for some twenty years, it was all sawdust, and the other branches of industry were not looked into.- - Gradually it was found that tho bush was passing away,, and the usual pessimist made the statement that as Dannevirko had never trimmed its'lamps, it would now miss the bridegroom of prosperity. Such was the doom foretold of Danrievirke by the dreamers of bad dreams. They for-, got, however, tho great area of country tapped. by the sometime sawdust town ; they forgot the . old pioneer aphorism' that what will grow bush will grow anything, and, lastly, they forgot the 'indomitable snirit of townspeople who had before fouglit and -beaten misery with the gloves off. Dannevirke-again took off its coat, ;and, metaphorically, waded into the light with' renewed vigiur. With- sheep-farming, and, later, the advent of the dairy industry, the result is seen to-day in the picture of one-of-.tho most prosperous and progressive inland towns in New Zealand, and the recognised capital of southern Hawke's Bay. -