OLD CANTERBURY

Evening Post, Volume 32, Issue 32, 6 August 1931, Page 4

OLD CANTERBURY

A LINK WITH GODLEY

SON'S REMINISCENCES

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 12th June.' In ]91G Loid Kilbrackcn wrote his reminiscences for private circulation. Ho had been piivate secictaiy and an intimate iriend of, Mr. Gladstone for twenty-seven years, and-his references to the great statesman made tho work WoUhy of a wider circulation. Honce, after fouitcen ycais, the book has been 1 published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co.

Lord Kilbrnckon was tho eldest Bonn of John Robert Godley, who was known 'as the founder of the Canterbury Province in New Zealand. In the opening chapters ho'iefers to his experience as a child at,Lyttelton and on tho Canterbury Plains.

"My father started for New Zealand, 55 he says, "at the end of 1849, whon I was two and a half years old, in the sailing-ship Lady Nugent, taking witb him my mother, myself, and,two servants. The voyage occupied 103 days, and my mother was the only lady passongoi1. Wo touched first at Otago, then at .Wellington, where we spent a few weeks, and finally went to our destination, Port Lyttolton, where we lived for more than two years. This period, though an important one in tho lives of my parents, was to me merely an agreeable and healthful time, of which I carried away very pleasant reeolleetions. Wo had a fairly comfortable, though small, house; the town consisted mainly of wooden huts, and the life which we led was one which must have seomed decidedly simple, not to say rough, to my father and mother, though to me it was enjoyable enough. Tho wide open spaces, the outdoor life, and'the absence of many petty restraints to which children are subject in more civilised countries, made it for me a happy tinifc, to which I looked back-with regret for many years after my return to England. I havo still a distinct recollection of many scenes and incidents during our stay, though I was not much more than five years old when, my father's work being accomplished, wo left Now Zealand. I will mention a"£6w of them. .AT DEAN'S, BUSH. "My father used occasionally tomove,his establishment from Lyttelton to" what were called 'The Plains,' at Eiccarton, on the River Avon, near Christchurch. Here wo lived in a small wooden hut, which was just large enough to hold my father, my mother,1 and myself; our servants slopt in tents close by, and all "our cooking was done at a campiire in the open air. On one of these occasions, during the day-time, our hut caught fire and was completely consumed.- I have a clear vision of my mother trying in'vain, at an early stage of tho fire, to extinguish it by pouring

\vater on it from a kettle. I remember the landscape perfectly; the immense level plain, with hero and there patches of the primeval forest, and in the distance the range of snowy mountains,, tho High Alps of New Zealand. "One such patch of wood was close to our hut, and here -I- used sometimes to be allowed to go with a friendly Maori and sit in a rude- shelter of long grass and boughs of trees, above which, was a horizontal pole, so placed as to form a convenient perch. The Maori' used to attract certain kinds of birds by imitating their notes, and, when they lit on tho perch, knock them down with a long stick. ■ Maoris were thon plentiful in that part of Now Zealand. For the most part they had not adopted European dress, and the men wore nothing but a large cloak of matting. Thus clad, they used, old and young alike, to anuiso themselves in the streets" of' Lyttelton by whipping tops, a sport wkieii I suppose was new to thorn, and of which they nevor seemed to tire. "I have a very vivid recollection of interminably long journeys which Tperformod on horsebackj seated in front of Powles or of a man named Holland, who was my father's groom and horsekeeper. Carriages and roads were alike unknown in the colony, so far as I remember. "The great excitement on these occasions was the crossing of brooks and rivers, which were numerous, and had to be forded or swum, according to circumstances. There were ■largo numbers of wjld pigs on the plains, and 1 can still see my father on his horse, with a long spear resting in a socket beside • his stirrup, aud rising perpendicularly above his head, as he used to roturn after a day's pigsticking. , FIRST STONE OF CATHEDBAL. ''I can dimly recall tho excitement caused by the arrival of tho first imfportant: batch- of settlers iv the Charlotte Jane, the Eandolph, and the Sir George Seymour—thero were two or three more ships, but their names have escaped me—an event which I believe is now, regarded in the colony - much as tho landing of tho Pilgrim Fathers, is regarded in tho United States. On tlio other hand, Iremembor very distinctly being present when my father laid the first stone of the Cathedral at .Christchurch; tho process'of stone-lay-, ing interested me keenly, but -my father's speech, which followed) bored' me,almost to tears. The only other" reminiscence; which. I shall "record,'a very trivial .onei is that we. kept "for some time a, tarne -kiwi• (pronounced 'kee'Weo') or apteryx, which lived in ' a barrel and was fed with little -bits . of-raw "meat. When it i?died, its skin was preserved ana stuffed; and it-now forms part, of the collection of! .New Zealand birds which after my mother's death'we presented, in accord-* ance with what would 'doubtless have .been my father's wish, to the museum of Harrow School. *' .