A SUCCESSFUL DANISH IMMIGRANT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1031, 21 January 1911, Page 20

A SUCCESSFUL DANISH IMMIGRANT.

MR. KARL NEILSEN, i : An, example of'what can. : be cloiio by •industry and perseverance in.the 1 way of pioneering, and for that matter in any otlier branch or profession of life, is furnished in a brief history of Mr. Carl T Nei!sen, one of Dannevirke's early settlers. Thirty-one years ago, Mr. jfteilsen was. a Danish immigrant in New Zealand, who could hardly speak a word of English, and was literally a. penniless man. To-day heis a man of business with town and farm property, and,- comparatively speaking, .wealthy, at the age of 54 years. Mr. Neilsen was_ born at Fredcrichan, Denmark, in 1857, and camo out to New Zealand in 1878 with four hundred other Danish and Gfirman immigrants ■in tho ' 'Terpsichore,". one of-the last boats. . Bush Felling Extraordinary. He landed in Wellington in March, 1879, and with others was sent through to Palmerston North, and as he says "let loose" in the bush there. Although the young immigrant had been brought up as a.farmer he had never seen bush before, neither had his comrades, and •tho manner in-which ■ they mutilated the unfortunate matais and totaraa almost made some experienced bnshmen weep with vexation. "We chopped a lot all round those trees," said Mr. : NcDsen, "and had several narrow escapes of - cho'pping -■ ourselves, ; out, 'Sbm'ehowHhdLtrees would I '-never come down. We made no money, and spent what': we had, so eventually I threw /uprthb job arid started on the road up the country. "At theitime J could not speak a word of English. I had no money, and could not pay tho ferryman who took mo over tho river near Ashhurst, so he' sot me to chop wood to square the-debt. This''being; done,' I'walked on again through the gorge'and up the country until I camo near to Tahoraite, where I saw a lot of Maoris. I had .been, told the Natives were desperate'people arid cannibals, and I was very much worried to pass the pa without them seeing me. However this difficulty was got over, and 1 came , along to what was known as Dannevirke." ' ~ ' ■' " Danriovirko In 1879. ,*lt ,was n.'wild-looking pl3.ce K remarkoft M?- Tliero- wasiva -polico' ;shanty, Jjind a'-school Avith; one :joom. i'h'o roadj-called Napier-Road," was a track stacked on each side with sleepers, ten feet high and in some places a chain wide, 'i'hero might have been live or six acres partly cleared, -anti there was a lot of fern on the east side. The: rest -was all standing bush, and very thick at that. ' .All That Remained. ■ So Jar as-Mr. Neilsen remembers the following were, the names of the Scan-' dinavian. settlers who-were in the place . when he went through Messrs. H. P. Jens'eri,; Dolby, Gronneb'ech, Johansen! Bax,'.'Larsen; B'c'rntsen, Anderson,' Fajer; Piersen, Habvorsen, Amundsen, li-vjng, and Israel. Of this number Mr. /I..'.'Pa Jensen .was. theronly one now residing in.tho place: 'The. rest had cither all gone away or were dead, but they ■ had left numerous descendants scattered about the district and province. Tlioir Trials. In tile course of a conversation with tho pioneers,. Mr. Neilsen learnt something of their troubles. The party had ai rived, in tho district some few years previously. iTliey started from Napier, in. wagons and bullock drays, and got •just -south-, of. '.Takapau,' where they camped. From thcro the men had to work. their -way into Dannevirke, and. ( carr,y:..the -.smallest - children. through the bush, track, which was impassable for anything in'tlio shape of vehicles. ,Qil arriving-. at;Dannevirke .each inuiiK grant was shown his -10-acrc scction, for. which he was to pay.£l per acre and. then left to .'shift-for himself; s'he forty-acre sections - commenced at Ma.ligatera. and finished at.the creek near where.-.the, Bell To.werjiow stands.' .A fe.w of the immigrants were given tents, but the others had to ••build-pharos. Of tho few acres cleared at tlio'time, a ■lire .had-been through, leaving a lot- of half-burnt, timber,. forn . and scrub. There was'ohs satisfactory thing about the business. .The men could not starve, as-wild pigs abounded in all directions. In fact as 'la'te as 1884 Mr. Neilsen himself caught and killed wild pigs in the bush now. known as Swinburne Street,, and;.where, lie now, resides. At the beginning there had not been muchwork for the. pioneers,. except at roadmaking. This, was soon finished, and then tlio men had to go north and south for work. Tho "sleeper" business'did not start for some years later. The Government of the day was blamed a good' deal' by the. settlers for the miserable, state affairs,, .but, according to Mr. Neilsen, tho fault lav with official, who had misrepresented 'things 'iii' Denmark and other places.. The,, immigrants had been tokl' by" this official" that 'they' would get plenty of goodclean land for nothing, 1 that there would bo -no very hard .work, and that everyone would sooii get rich. However, somo of the pioneers'were so dissatisfied that after a. time'they'left' Danuerirko altogether. A large, .number of ..sections were, not taken up, . and there was practically nobody residing on the twenty-acre town building allotments. Provisions were very dear, sugar and flour each .being 30s. per bag., The nearest doctol' was'at Waipaiva. Things werp-in such a miserable state that Mr.- Neilsen determined to go further north. '. Ho therefore went on to Takapau, and "ot work at Mr. A'Deane's, then lie was omployed: on the railway line, which was then between ■Waipawa and Waipukurau. ■' • '■• Hard Times. - New. Zealand was apparently in a vqry bad way at, this time, for Mr. Neilsen records that after leaving tho railway ho tried unsuccessfully to obtain work .on a large number of Hawke's Bay station's, and that he walked back to Wellington, via the Rimutakas, and found things just as bad in the Wairarapa. .He therefore walked back again to -Dannevirke for the second time, and after a time things improved. He obtained work at Messrs. Cowper 1 and Knight's farm, Kaitoke. After a time Mr. Neilsen did contract and ploughing .work for that lir-m. Two years after he arrived at Dannevirke' for tho second timc. He purchased a forty-acre scction for £200. This place has. since been .cut-, up-by-him, and turned into streets and building allotments. Ho could have purchased forty acrea where the Post. Office now stands for £150. Mr. Neilsen later purchased a sawbench and a small engine, and with these appliances .he got a. decent;start cutting Krewood for the residents in the place.- : Ho kept adding to the plant until ho possessed traction.engines and threshing machines, and with'these.he threshed tho cr.ops,-. and after.- some years' hard toil was controlling a rather extensive business. However ho still works an average of twelve hours a day, and ho gives, special per-sonal-attention, to all his work. ,