EARLY DAYS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 17, 21 July 1928, Page 17

EARLY DAYS

ROUGHING IT AMUSING INCIDENTS BISHOP AS DRESSMAKER In her autobiography, a copy of which (as yet unprinted) is in the Turnbull Library, Wellington, Mrs. Selwyn, wife of Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, describes life in New Zealand during her 25 years' residence from 1842 to 1857. The settlers had to rough it in those days, especially when travel was necessary. Some of Mrs. Selwyn's storiescontain a considerable element of humour. Mrs. Selwyn writes: — When the time came for George (Bishop Selwyn) to start on another long bush journey, ho took me to Auckland '(from'the Bay of Islands) with Willie (their son), to stay with : the Martins (Judge Martin), at Taurarua (Parnell, Auckland). It was my first visit to that hospitable place, and the eomingthere was my first introduction to. "the charms of a fore-and-aft schOuer! Both Auckland and the life at Taurarua seemed highly civilised after our community life as to meals, at the Wailnatc; also, ladies and gentlemen coming to call; a papered room and a return to old familiar habits impressed me strongGeorge went round to Taranaki by the Government brig, thence down,the coast to Wellington, crossing over to l\ Telson. This was years before tho Canterbury settlement and .Christchurch were thought of. I think he touched the lowest depth in some of the fore and afters he had to sail in, but he always made merry over. his experiences. , But alas! the visits to. the English settlements were very sad ones. There had been a disastrous collision at the end of last year between the English and the Maoris, ending in. many English being killed, at the Wairau. Ido not enter into the causes; but the exasperation of the English was great—it was probably so on both sides, for the Maoris felt themselves unjustly treated by the New Zealand Company. The effect was that among the English no one had a chance who stood up for the Natives; so they were not very civil to the Bishop, who spoke out very boldly for them. Yet nothing quenched the hospitality of. the malcontents. . . . Meanwhile I, with littlo Willie-and Mary Crump remained at Taurarua. ' The Judge (afterwards Sir William Martin) was an old college friend of the Bishop, a delicate man as to health, a regular,student in his tastes, very learned in languages and literature, never ato a fault when you asked for.information, on any subject, like-minded with George in the welfare of the Maoris,' quite as ready to do battle for them.as he was, and entering into all the Bishop's far-sighted plans for them, and for laying the foundations of the Government' and of the Church in Now Zealand on a sound basis. In after days, he entered as heartily into the Melanesiaii Mission> especially the philological part, and was a warm ally of Bishop ' •Pattoson,.'-who by nature was a student. He heartily entered into .the fun also, .and when the day's.work was"over used "to .read.pleasant books to Lady -Mai-tin; and me hi the evening over the wood: lire. .. . The Attorney-General, Mr." Swainson, lived,close by Sir W. Martin, also in the little bay of Taurarua, his house being divided from that of the Judge by-the-little ravine that led' to the bay. BISHOP SELWYN AND JUDUE MARTIN. Taurarua is just, at the beginning of ■the Waiteniata, along wide inlet, a few bays up which the town of Auckland .'.was built—in those days of wood. Opposite, to Taurarua was the North Shore, ending,- at the entrance-of the harbour, in'a long piece of low land with a hill on it, where was the flagstaff overlooking the open sea, whence incoming vessels were signalled. llbw I used to watch that flagstaff; and when r George was coming back—in-tho Undine at first, it'll en the Border Maid, and lastly the Southern Cross from Melanesia: and also for any vessels from England , likely to bring letters! . ( .;. :■;■ In September, 1844, the Martins paid us a visit, and soon after them arrived the members of a translating committee—a syndicate, as George called it—to. revise translations already made—a syndicate of the best Maori scholars" tobe had. First, Archdeacon (afterwards Bishop Williams) the brother of Archdeacon Henry of Paihia. He was an Oxford man, and the two were looked upon as the heads of the C.M.-S. New Zealand Mission. Next, the Rev. R, MaunsoU, a much later member of it, a racy Irishman, a very able rnaji, and with a rare knowledge of Maori." The last was a layman, ■Air. Puckey, a cateehist, who had been brought up in New Zealand from early ...days.. J W> were admitted sometimes to hear them. It was, highly interesting and sometimes amusing. Mr. Maunscll would givo such colloquial definitions :ot a word, generally supported by the cxoelelnt Puckey. George had not in those early days such intimate knowledge of the language ;;s enabled him to copo with these philologists, but. he : could, supported -by Mr. Williams, put -,I,l^ l ve- t0 ?, n anything too familiar for BiWe or Pr-yer Book.' CARRYING THE BABY. ' ■ Mrs. Maunsel! and herlitUc baby Eliza (afterwards Mrs. Bice) wore also with us, George (Bishop Selwyn) havih„ carried the said baby all the way from tho Kenkeri. She was wrapped in Jus maud, and strung round his neck. • Waimate home was broken up at the. end of the year, in October. A\o went with the Martins to Auckland, where George rented a house pending the building going on at St. John's College, our future home. The students and the Maori school, as also a few English-/scholars, were settled at Purcwa with Mr. Cotton. Purcwa is a, pretty spot at the head of Orakei Creek, St;: John■„.. College, being more inland.Huts were put up, and a great barn served as, schoolroom and hall. Here the', party remained, till the autumn of 1845, when they,and their buildings moved up,to the college ; . , WELLINGTON IN THOSE DAYS. I fake up the tale at Wellington. .We lleft Auckland hurriedly for Wellington, as Mr. Hadfield, the missionary in charge, of .a- largo district near, was ... supposed to bo lying on his death-bed. His district. Was the home of the great chief Te Rauparaha. Rangihaeta, his . brother, was not far off. They were both, great chiefs after the old type, . but the last, was much more of. a savage than his brother. They had both taken part in the Wairau affair, and were very obnoxious, therefore, to all ""the English of the Wellington and Nelson settlements. We left Wellington.for Waikanae, • Mr.-Hadfield's post, on the West Coast, :'*in , primitive style—George (Bishop Selwyn) on foot; I mounted on Mr. Hadfield's very nice horse, accustomed to bush journeys; the two maids with ono between them, ride and tin; littlo Willie in a large potato kete (basket)

affixed' to poles and carried by two men; and about four Maoris, also on f00t..". In ".those days ymi went straight out of Wellington into a niost lovely wood; it has suffered sadly from- tiro and ruthless clearings since. But wo saw it in its pristine beauty; the luxuriance of the vegetation; the parasites and creepers on every stem of a tree; the masses of ferns of every variety, including tree-ferns most lovely. Later on,' we found ourselves on a high road ■which sloped straight down to the sea far below. The bank was clothed with shrubs in groat variety, and starred with splendid tree-ferns ■at intervals. It was a sight to see; and it is to be hoped that its steepness has saved it from a settling Goth who wanted to plant potatoes. The shore extends north as straight as the line of duty. It was curious to watch the. waves rolling over as far as eye could roach. CUTTING UP THE PIGS. .The Waikanael Natives made us very welcome, and came to inspect us freely. They did not seem to have any designs on hand against us, and were eager to bo ' doctored, and to take much more physic at my hands than I desired to give. Mr. Hadfield had-been truly liberal, for I found a row of huge jars in the house, liko ■ Ali Baba's jars, which had, contained Epsom salts! evidently given freely, Ido not wonder that the - next . clergyman there, who dealt only in ■ globules, was accounted very stingy! There were no shops, of course; we made bread and bought pigs. The Maoris were much taken with tho rule the .Bishop established, that they should be bought by weight. Accordingly, "when, piggy was prepared, tho steelyardwas sot up,-and he was assessed at so much per pound, to the satisfaction of all. "Now then, Mother Bishop," said they, "you must show us how to cut him up." I should think that herein I occupied a unique position, as it would hardly come under tho sphere of a "Mother Bishop's" duties at Home. So I stood up aloft, as they wished, and directed their movements with a stick, amid continued appeals as to whether they were to cut to the east or to tho west! George (Bishop Selwyn) went to the south hoping, by taking up Mr. Hadfield's work for a time, to assist in keeping tho peace. We had no alarms, and learned a good deal of Maori during our stay here and at Otaki, to which place Mr. Hadfield's c-ther quarters, about ten miles beyond, we also went. Here was a very small -raupo (reed) cottage of two rooms, and an outhouse. It was a populous place (with Maoris), and we were much inspected by the inhabitants. An early morning school went on after the daily service in the chapel—a school duly attended by the great chief Te Ranparaha, who was one of the Maori leaders in the Wairau, and was exceedingly hated by most of the English settlers. lam not prepared to say how much he learned, .but he showed goodwill by coming;.also, he kept a sharp- look-out ou tho rest of the class to keep up their attention; 'and he certainly liked the English breakfast afterwards. The very hostile feeling towards him made him shy of the settlers, but not of the Bishop. He seemed to wish to bo on friendly terms with the- colonists now. . SITTING ON THE EELS. ■Ho went from this place up the Manawatu River to a large gathering pi Natives, and afterwards on to the beautiful Gorge. We went in a canoe with a good party of men to paddle, all bent on catching as many cols as they could. Wo often met other canoes intent on the same thing, and after brisk and noisy salutations the parting token of regard was to throw a lump or two /of cols at us. It was kindly meant, but a dab' of, slimy, cold, wet eel was a remarkable expression of affection. The river' was beautiful (the land around us was then in its, native wildliess) but too full-of. snags and rapids for quick progress. We landed once to meet some people, aud on coming back I found my place at the stem Of the canoe nicely covered with fresh fern, quite a sofa of fern; and felt much at ease thero till I found the couch was on its travels to the other end of the canoe! The Natives had laid in a stock of eels, and stowed them under my seat, which not unnaturally considered me to be uncomfortable; the feeling was reciprocal. PO_tK—HOT AND COLD. George-(Bishop Selwyn) went south again in November, returning early in May, 1846 to Auckland, when soon after we went to take.up our abode at St. John's College. . . Here for the next year or two, we regularly ato hot pork there days in the week and cold pork - four days; only in towns was the luxury of mutton availabale in those early days, . and we had no poultry then. But I think the pork added to our glory at Home, being erected into a kind of hardship. The New Zealand pigs-were clean-feeding animals, living much on roots and any vegetable food, and so less rich than in England. Our next change was to beef —this is anticipating,.however; we were in the pork period now. When the land about us was brought into cultivation, tho grass laid down, and horses came into play instead of oxen, then we ato' the team; it was a tough job, and took some time. Wo could turn the beef to more account than the pork. I liked to go into the kitchen and instruct the Maori cook in the art of making stew—poor stews, however, for lack of vegetables or flavouring. "BEAUTIFUL PORIRUA WOOD.^' Our next move was to Wellington, whore we spent Christmas, and early in January started for Waikanae and Otaki once''more, through tho beautiful Porirua wood. George and lon horseback. Johnnie was too big for a potato basket; but he was still carried by ■ the Maori attendants. We were delayed en, route by heavy, rains, and reached what was called 'London's Accommodation House,' where we put up, tliough.it belied its name. I was riding a worthy steed, lent to 'mo by Mr. Hadfield, who was wont to ride n't the quickest pace and by the shortest cuts to and from Waikanae to Wellington. Straight in the road there arose a high hill, very steep on all sides, the horse instead of circumventing the hill, went full tilt at i|/liko a fly on a window-pane. Happily I could twist, his mane in my hand, so I did not ignominiously slip, off at hi^ tail, and roll down into'space; but I liked it not. The "Border Maid" canie round to Kapiti and picked us uprr-Rota, Teruiria, Johnnie, and myself and some Maori boys, to go to Auckland, leaving George to start in a few days oil, his overland journey. We sailed on 16th January, George going' to Manawatu, beginning his great journey, chiefly on foot. Ho went across to the east coast to Ahuriri (Napier) and thence to Taiiranga, confirming in many places and seeing as much of the Maoris as ho could. Tauranga was the abode of Archdeacon (afterwards Bishop Williams), the brother of the stalwart archdeacon of the North. He was a superior and' educated man, quite the flower'of the - .G.M.S. flOck, ' and a great power for -good among his people. Leaving Tauranga, George struck inland into some very rough walking, going on to the Hot Lakes, and coming home by Waikato, arriving at St. John's tho last day aif March. BISHOP MAKES A DRESS. But to go .back to the arrival- of the "Border Maid" (from the New Hebrides and other island groups), on 21st October, 1852, at I.ohimaram.i. The party at St. John's College was then intact, and thero was always, great excitement at the- return of the ship. Many went;down to meet the voyagers. I always waited for the quiet welcome in the house; but we could watch them coming—the crowd of Maoris ami Eng-1

lish; their the train of Mclauesians, now and old; then tho Bishop. Thero was much speculation this time as to tho quaint figures on either side of him, coming gravely along as if dressed in the height of the fashion; but these two girls, for such they were, had very skimpy petticoats, made, as we soon learned, by the Bishop himself out of a coloured counterpane, together with white Russia duck tippets—Canazeno Georgo called them—which he, after deep reflection recalled to mind having seen his sister wear, though not made of duck. I doubt if they were an exact copy, but not that'they were a great work of art elaborated by him and his sailing-master, Champion. They cut them out upon the deck with a knife in the approved fashion; and the garments answered their purpose; but they were funny. Theso girls were the first of their kind that came as scholars: Wabisana and Wasatrutru, of Neugone, were they; the first • as, thorough a lady as her fiance Siapo was a gentleman. They were assigned to tho care and instruction of Mrs. Abraham and myself. We dressed them liko other girls—George's canezons' being (metaphorically) put under a glass case as an encouragement to future bishops in dressmaking.