HEARTY PIONEER

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 247, 14 July 1932, Page 5

HEARTY PIONEER

Romantic Past Recalled MARTON AS IT WAS Martoil, July 13. Born at Wellington in July, 1842, Mr. Zechariah Meads, now resident at Rata, near Marton, has just entered upon his 91st year. He has been a resident of Raugitikei for over 74 years, and is to-day hale and hearty and one of the most esteemed settlers of the district. It was in 1858 that Mr. Meads set forth for Rangitikei on foot from Wellington with his father, the late Joseph Meads, who eventually died at Leedstown, Rangitikei. in 1878. The youth led and drove a bull from his old home to what was to be his new home, and successfully procured the passage of the animal across the bridgeless coastal rivers of those days, some of which—such as the Otaki, Manawatu and Rangitikei—were like Jordan’s flood. Arrived with his son at Rangitikei after having traversed almost trackless country of flax, scrub, and toitoi, Joseph Mends purchased 900 acres at Mangaraupi from the then Sir Charles Clifford. For a residence Joseph Meads built a whare for which he felled the timber and adzed it. The roof was of toitoi. He acquired further land from Major Marshall, of Tutu (one of the pioneers of the Rangitikei district). In those early times the main road north of Marton was a mere “paper” road with no particular track—a sort of a “wander on” where somebody might have wandered before. The district was verv sparsely settled. Mr. “Zech” Meads states that several of the Rangitikei settlers provided bullocks to drag from Wanganui the boiler end engine for the first sawmill established in the district by the late Mr. Bull, after whom the town of Bnlls is called, and father of Mr. James Bull the well-known Hunterville sportsman. When young Meads arrived from WelMngtoM, wuLfor mk* taa» aft*4

ran on all the vacant lands, and roamed through the flax and scrub, and throve well. To-day he can recall incidents of the early days with remarkable vividness. He can remember the coming of the Galpins, the Hendersons, the Bartletts, and the Hammonds—all names associated with the early history of Rangitikei. Eventually Mr. “Zech” Meads purchased land of his own, and became a most successful settler. It was only about eight years ago that he decided to retire, and he now lives in a comfortable icco* at Raia, a sturdy robust a>aa>