KARORI'S MERGING

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1920, Page 9

KARORI'S MERGING

ABOLITION OF BOROUGH

INTERESTING REMINISCENCES

To-night, with tho passing of the liicmth, there passes out of existence, a'fo, the Karori Borough; and simultaneously with, its demise the city teuudaiies move outward. To-morrow the hill suburb sends her documents and her till to the Town Hall, and' in future her citizens will concentrate their civic! attentions upon the sayings and the doings of the Fathers who sit around the horseshoe table in the Municipal Chamber."

It will not be the-first occasion upon, which Karori's boundaries have changed, though probably it will bo the last. Before 1870 four local bodies, created by the Provincial Council, governed the district, tut in that year, at the request of the people who dwelt there— in those days termed settlers—the Karon and Makara Road Board was created. Five years later another change was made; the Road Board was abolished, and, under the Greater Wellington scheme, a Wellington Highway District was established, which embraced! within its jurisdiction every local body, including Kaxori, in the district reaching from the coasb to the JRimutakas. But in 1880, this scheme proving unsatisfactory, the Karori-Makara Road Board was again established, and it took in this time Miramare and Melrose. Other changes took place, until, in 1891, the Karori Borough was formed, and a Borough Council elected, and over this body Mr. Stephen Lancaster presided as the first Mayor. So much for Karon's local politics and civic changes.

But Karori has a remoter history than that inscribed in her road board or municipal records. ' Hers, however, is a record of peaceful days and sturdy progress. A few interesting reminiscences of those past days have been supplied to The Post by Mr. W A. Eidivards, secretary of the Early Settlers' Association. One of the first traceable references to the district was found in an 1340 ropy of the New Zealand Gazette, published at Petone. It is contained in a letter of Mr. Samuel M'Donald, who avompanied "Mr. J. J. Thomson's sur•vsr party." • This party, stated Mr. M'Donald, was out to "discover a road over the hills, which formed the western boundary of Britannia (Wellington), called the Tinakora Range (the spelling of the name is giving as published). On crossing the rang 6we came to a beautiful plateau of "land one and a half miles off the town, and containing at least 5000 or 6000' acres of such open timber land, almost free from underwood kerewau, covered with the finest spars I have seen in New Zealand, many of them being upwards of 90 feet without a branch, chiefly Kikatea (Kahikatea) and Moy (Maire) or the white and red pine of the sawyers. The land has an elevation of 400 or 500 feet above the sea, with a gentle descent northward, and is intersected by several rivulets of clean water, all of which unite and form a considerable stream. Here the hills closely confine its course for a mile. . . The beauty and fertility of the land, its sunny aspect, the great value of the timber, and water power, combine to render it a most valuable acquisition to the township of Britannia, and independent of the available land in the valley of Eritonga (Heretaunga)."

The first reference Mr. Edwards has been able, to . obtain to early settlers mentions the name of Yule in the year 1841. Pioneer Yule was evidently one of the Adelaide arrivals. His solitary axe awoke the first echoes of industry over the Karori valleys, and in a very little while he cleared the he.avy timber off an area of twelve acres. Here he grew his wheat and raised a log cabin. Gradually as time went on a small •community gathered together in what to-day i.s known as the lower part of Karori, the vicinity of the present ■ Council Chambers. The records and recollections of netilers seem to indicate that in the early days this little community lived qi/-ie apart from the city with• a strong separatist spirit considerably developed. At first a six-foot road, cut bythe New Zealar/i Company, connected Karori with WelMfigton. It is now the main road via minus the tunnel, which did not arrive until about twenty-one years ago. The men working on this road received 2s 4d a day and rations, and as many as 60 hefty pioneers of labour in New Zealand were employed upon the task at a time. For a while the work hung fire—the reason is not stated ■ —but so badly was it required, and so glad were the settlers to see its advance, that a tacit agreement existed among them that as it reached each section in turn the settler-owner should provide the men with a "bowl of. punch." In the year 1846 occurred Native disturbances in the vicinity of Wellington, and though Karori escaped tragedy, it nevertheless had its scares. Some of the sons and daughters of its early set-, tiers will tell to-day of how their fathers worked in the forest and on their sections with their firearms within easy reach, and their cartridge belts around their waiste. A stockade was built in one of the highest points of the district —within a few yards of where Lancasterstreet intersects the main road. A strong pallisade was erected, and enclosed within were two t small buildings. For a time this stockade became the daily rendezvous of the settlers, and often for greater precaution some of them went there to grind their corn in a handmill which had been established there. Many, of the settlers removed to the town of Wellington, amongst them Mr. Justice Chapman, father of.the present Judge. Karori had its branch of local militia, raised under the Militia Act, and they were drilled by one Captain Haddis, of the 58th Regiment. On one occasion a police patrol scouting through the bush let fly a volley at an imaginary foe, killing, as the Wellington paper jubilantly recorded at the time, a poor harmless goat. This seems to. be the only Karori casualty in connection with the early Native troubles.

It is on record that the Karori forests contributed a considerable number of fine masts and spars for storm-disabled ships which visited Wellington. These were hauled down the main road by bullocks.

One interesting incident connected ■with the suburb's history is vouched for by Mr Edwards. It is in connection with a meeting hall, which was erected on the site of the present Borough Chambers. In 1842 or 1843 a meeting was called to provide a haJl that- would do for church eervioes, night and day school, and public meetings. Two of the settlers gave portions of adjoining sections, and tho hall was erected by the people themselves. Afterwards the building came to be used also as aj library, as well as a night school—the latter conducted by Mr G. Spiers, who followed many occupations during the day in Wellington. For some years, rs the settlers went ona by one to their long rest, the practice, until other sacred places were found, was to lay them in the ground around this hall, which, for a time, was the only house of worship. Then when Karori grew and became a fiorough, and there was need for larger municipal buildings, the old place was pulled down and the present offices erected. A representative meeting of settlers discussed the matter of the preservation of this burial ground, and

it was agreed that the present Council Chambers should be built over the whole of the grounds, on the understanding, -*o it is stated, that the Borough Council should place in the English Church a brass tablet recording the names of tho6o pioneers whose graves were to be covered by the building. Two settlers were appointed to collect the names; but some of thorn were not obtainable, and nothing, so the informant states, ha.r, yet been done in regard to the tablet. Probably this matter will now receive the attention of the City Council.

In later days there were gold rushes at Baker's Hill, near the present Karori tunnel, and though the precious metal was found, it was not in payable quantities, and the hastily-formed companies went into liquidation. There still remain evidences of those exciting times in one or two old overgrown shafts. In the same way there can still be shown in the uplands of Karori some of the old sawpits, where timber was prepared for the houses of the pioneers. Thus, though Karori's history is one of peaceful days, it still has records that are treasured by those who have spent their years in its environs.