EARLY HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 135, 9 June 1928, Page 8

EARLY HISTORY

TAKANAIsTS ANNIYEKSAKY THEN AND NOW (Written by S. Saunders.) A little more than two months ago the Taranaki Province celebrated the anniversary of the arrival of its "Pilgrim Fathers," in IS4I, so modestly that the outside world had little opportunity to appreciate the importance and significance of the occasion. Taranaki was unique among the provinces in the manner and method of its settlement. The Wellington and Auckland settlements were established under the aegis o*f ships and constituted authority, and with the facilities offered by excellent harbours. Taranaki, only some fifteen months later, was peopled by the Plymouth Company of New Zealand while still without as much as a passable roadstead, a single road, or any protection from the wandering and marauding Natives. Its occupation was the most heroic of all the heroic adventures that marked the settlement of this country. Its story never has been adequately told, and probably never will be; but a little stained and moth-eaten book, with numerous faded and mostly unreadable marginal notes, sent to me by a correspondent a little while ago, contains many pages and paragraphs which throw some light upon the Taranaki of the early and middle 'forties. The book, published in London in 1549, is entitled "An Account of the Settlement of New Plymouth in New Zealand," ami the author is Mr. diaries Hursthouse, the pioneer of a well-known family that has made its mark in various spheres of activity. The volume is dedicated by permission to "His Excellency Sir George Gray, Govornor-in-Chief," and is prefaced by an alphabetical list of subscribers containing 229 names, 170 of residents in England and 59 of residents in New Zealand. Among the yet familiar names on the list are those of Sir George Gray, Governor from 18th December, 1845, to 7th March, 1553, Captain Eobert Fitzroy, Governor from 26th December, 1843, to 17th November, 1845, Sir Francis Dillon Bell, sen., Mr. Justice Chapman, Mr. H. King, Mr. G. Lethbridgo, Sir Donald M'Lean, Hon. Henry Petre, and Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield. It is fairly safe to say that Mr. Hursthouse's production, the labour of five years, is the first book published dealing exclusively with actual settlement in the Dominion. THE CRITIC'S COMPLAINTS. Here only some fragments can bo quoted from its pages. Mr. Hursthouse, unlike some of the tiresome writers of prefaces in his own day, confines his "introductory remarks" to three brief pages. By the time he had completed his investigations the New Zealand Company had taken over the interests of the New Plymouth Company, and by this arrangement, no doubt, his hand had been considerably freed. At any rate, ho has a deprecatory word or two to say concerning the policy and administration of the larger company. "A grave error in the colonisation of New Zealand," ho writes, "has been the hasty' planting of so many scattered settlements—Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Manawatu, Otago —powerless to afford any mutual assistance, some of them almost unconscious of each other's existence, and possibly, before the evils resulting from this system became clearly apparent in England, other new settlements will be added to the list. It has been^vcll observed, that from the character of this country, its colonisation will be best effected by scattered settlements on i,ts coasts. The mistake has been in planting them too soon. It is notorious in the colony, that if the New Zealand Company had confined its operations to one or two places, its persevering efforts, strict integrity, and large expenditure, would have been productive of more advantageous results." This was written more.than eighty years ago, and the intervening years scarcely have justified Mr. Ilursthouse's conclusions. It was the facilities for water-carriage that decided the location of the big cities of the Dominion, and any unnecessary delay in their erection would have postponed the development of their back country. Another of Mr. Hursthouse's complaints—and it is the last that shall bo quoted—is the absence of a newspaper. "From the first," ho says, "Wellington and Nelson have had their papers for the publication of their individual claims. . . But Taranaki has never enjoyed the advantage of a. paper ... so that settlement is comparatively little known in England and has not attracted that attention as a field for colonising enterprise which I am prepared to show it pre-eminently deserves.'' This disability was removed many years ago, and to-day the province is at least as well "papered" as is any similar area in the Mother Country. SOME PREDICTIONS. In his predictions regarding the future of New Zealand agriculture, Mr. Hursthouse is only partially successful. "As all young colonies must at first import food," lie writes, "and as the growth and progress of this one has been so lamentably crippled, New South Wales, herself a large importer, has hitherto supplied most of its flour. This, however, will not bo the case much longer, and when the immense agricultural resources of Now Zealand are fairly developed, and it becomes what it will bo—the granary of the South Paci-fio—-Now South Wales herself will probably bo an excellent market for some of its grain exports. If with the certainty of good homo markets for some years to come, and the probability of others in New South Wales, it will be considered necessary to look still further, wo find that New Zealand is conveniently situated for supplying several places which may become excellent markets, such as the British possessions in China, the French in Bourbon and Tahiti, the Mauritius, the Capo Colony, and some of the numerous islands of ,the South Pacific, which English enter-" prise and 'steam communication' may soon enliven with the busy hum of commerce." In his allusion to the development of the dairy industry, the vision of this cheery optimist approaches nearer to realisation. "Dairy farming, as a distinct and separate business," lie says, "lias not yet been tried; but there is "every reason to suppose that it would answer well, especially if combined with the curing of hams and bacon. Good firkin butter ranges from 7d to lOd per pound in the colonial markets, cheese, bacon, and hams from 4d to 6d. These would bo remunerative prices. It has been shown that bush land is well adapted to dairy fariis, lyhich certainly possess an advantage over arable farms, in being less dependent upon good roads." 3'jighty years after these decisions need some revision, but they still are not unworthy of a sagacious observer. Mr. Hursthouse was looking ahead eight decades, and through the mists ho saw tho reflection of some of the dreams he had dreamed. The European population of the Taranaki settlement in IS47—it was not until sonic years later that it blossomed into a province under an Act of the Imperial Parliament—numbered 1137, made up of SCG adults and 571 children. In the official returns children over fourteen years of age were styled adults, and tho figures show that six years after the European occupation of this fruitful wilderness it was maintaining 650 children under eighteen years of age and 487 adults over

that age. There can-be few communities of a similar size in the world at the present time showing such a preponderance of infant life. Mr. Hursthouse bears glowing testimony to the virility of the young settlers. "This climate," ho writes, "is highly salubious. Tho children born here are considered by their mothers to bo remarkably fine, and, making all due allowance for maternal hyperbole, they certainly; promise to be a large and robust race. By the census of 1547 the population was 1137; the births that year and in IS4U, when the census was 10S0, amounted jointly to 104., tho deaths to four, teen, two of which wore aftcidentalj yet, in 1847, fever and- whooping-coujrh were introduced into the settlement from Auckland." The figures show that tho ratio of births was one in eighteen and the rates of death one in 157, while in England the ratio of births was one in 32 and the ratio of deaths one in 44. Mr. Hursthouse, with the inspiration of the enthusiast who dreams dreams and sees visions, descried in the future New Plymouth occupied by half a million people; but for the present he was content to estimate from existing data tho population that would be required to cultivate and develop tho settlement in his own day. He would have had 50 capitalists, or large farmers;-200 small farmers; 2DOO agricultural labourers; 800 of the common mechanical trades; 300 engaged in trade and commerce, and 50 professionals; a total of 3400 male adults. Tho settlement, now a province, long since passed that stage. New Plymouth has a population approaching 20,000; ita hinterland has developed beyond all recognition; its people have pioneered the greatest of the Dominion's rural industries, and Mount Egmont remains one of the entrancing natural spectacles of the wide world. The .shade of the province's first historian should remain .content.