BACK TO THE '60's.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10392, 9 May 1927, Page 5 (Supplement)

BACK TO THE '6o's.

TAKING UP OF WHATAUPOKOMR, WM. PARKER’S RECOLLECTIONS. EARLY TURF ECHOES. “Early in IS3O my parents, with their family' of thl-ee children, of -,vhom I was the eldest, my Uncle Henrv being another of the party, came "to New Zealand in the clipper ship Red Jacket, commanded by oi*i Reed,’ remarked' Mr Wm. Parker, or Manmipapa to a Times interviewer. “Amongst the passengers were Thomas Fowdrell, his wife o and three grown-up children, Mary Ann, Emma and Henry. They were friends of my parents and came from Cneshwe where my father’s people had resided for many generations. Other passengers included Mr John Eldon Gorst, who shortly after landing became a magistrate in Waikato and was very conspicuous in the early stages or the war there, and the Reverend .von Dadelszen, the latter bringing a large family with him, one of whom was Otto, afterwards manager of the Union Rank of Australia at Gisborne. AUCKLAND IN THE, ’6o’s. “The ship left Liverpool and first touched at Melbourne, where, amongst tho passengers who disembarked was a Alt Stewart, whom I well remember because after going ashore, lie brought my mother a large basket of fruit to the ship. In due course wo left Melbourne for Auckland, and actually sighted The Three Kings within three days, but were n nr: «r« itk its its m m m ■

then becalmed, and from there to our destination it took several days. Oil landing at Auckland, and going along the wharf, we saw many Maoris, mostly v.omen, who had kits of produce for sale. We made our way c a boarding-house kept by one Warne. I think it was about half a mile from the wharf, and, during our few days’ stay in Auckland, I remember going with a party to the toil of Mount Eden. To the best of my recollection there was just a track from the hoarding-house to, the Mount. The sight on looking into the .crater I’ve never forgotten. After a few days’ stay in Auckland, we left for Napier in a. little steamer called “The White Swan.” 1 clout knew why we made for Napier, hut it was probably owing to the fact that old Mr Powdrell had' three sons (John, Samuel and Joseph) who had gone to Hawke’s Bay from Cheshire some years before. Mr Powdrell probably induced my people to go with him there. “Shortly after pur arrival in Hnw&e’s Bav, my father and uncle weijf&rto partnership with a Mr. William Rich as stodk dealers, shippers and butchers,-and’as their business employed manv hands, most of whom came, from Auckland, there were some characters amongst them, and it was a pretty hot shop cut of which it was most difficult for my mother to ke p me. One of these characters whose nickname was “Donnybrook” was, I think, the roughest I ever came across. I saw him catch a horse in what is now known as Clive Square ride him away into the country and I knew lie brought the. horse hack a<min at night and let him go again. The; horse belonged! to a Captain Hunter. I think he was a retired military officer, who kept a livery-stable on the site where the Cathedral now stands. Capt. Hunter had to pass our premises every morning- to got to his stable. “Donnybrook’/ knew ha had passed, and that the way was clear for him. A SCUFFLE—ANT) WHAT FOLLOWED. “In Carlyle Street, Napier, quite close to Clive Square, one day 1 saw a scuffle into- which Napiers only policeman got into grips , with a big Maori named Te Rangihiroa, whilst taking him to the lock-up, which was situated in Faraday Street. The Maori, when just opposite our place, got going some, and, as he was very wiry, was getting the better of the

policeman, to whose assistance my uncle rushed and at once chew a tomahawk from Rangihiroa s belt which was around a conspicuous led oS he had on. The tomahawk was thrown aside and the ahongmal was later locked safely m the lockup which was more than half a mile away from where the scuffle took T} an <r 'h lib a was dealt with the neh to Wcve the R-.M I don't know but I do know that some tlirre or four years afterwards he wafnne of the .leaders of of Maoris) (acting m concert With those who were at Omaranui, whose designs were so summarily frustrated on the 12th October. 1866) auproa rhino- Napier from the Petane side who were met bv a small -force sent out to intercept them and that he was killed at Fsrrnoho. where the- old public road between Napier and Taupo ran through the property then !m-ned hy 0.-Ll-l K-mto Oarr two gentlemen who bed not long been Settled there,' William Airev /Bill') Richardson told me he shot- Eangihiroa t-hote, i, .one or-two others. sa>d tliev : - sotted ’ : Kim. ■d, genera lv fonpp^f^t. Oswald Carr, just mentioned, had been ' a Paptam m the Roya.l ArtiL lerv and he afterwards lost his Weat; Euakituri with the forces then pWnr the- ruffian Te Kcoti and his followers.

HOW WHATAUPOKO CAME TO BE OCCUPIED

“in 180-1 some of the Poverty Bay ( Maoris awakened to the fact that ( far too much of the land m their | district was lying idle. Three m . them, representing most of the P 1 m ‘ , cipal owners of Whataupoko, came to Napier in search of Europeans m dined to take up land m Poverty Bav. They were Henare R.uru, titan and another half-ca-sto named Tom Jones. Pitau was the elder brother of Wi Pere, and Jones represented people who then lwed o the southern side ct the Buy, o whom old Raharuhi Rukupo (Lazarus) was the principal man. ihese men got into touch with my rather and uncle with the result that they were induced to occupy Whataupoko. My uncle camo with sheep, winch 1 wore brought by sea and landed at The Point—just where it was pro-I posed to have a swimming bath ior Gisborne. The sheep had a very rouMi time within 24 hours alter be- , ing put ashore, many being worried • to death by Maoris dogs, . which j swam across from_ the Kaiti side J and elsewhere. Kaiti was, so to j .speak, swarming with. Maoris at that' time. This unexpected knock j annoyed my uncle, who- sought satisfaction by poisoning as many dogs around Turanganui as .ho could, sev- : enteen taking the bait and being ; stiffened outright. The Maoris were ' much upset at their loss and were inclined to vent their wrath on mv.‘ uncle, who thought it best to leave the Bay and he never returned. j

PACK HORSE WINS F’IRST H.B. CUP. Early in the ’6o’s there were among the settlers a good many who were fond of hersc-racing. One was William Rich, and another was my unci© Henry. Oil one, ©cccisicn tliG former, when *at Hunter s station, at porangahau, saw a horse (that had a pack on and it caught Rich's eye. He remarked to William Hunter, one of the two brothers managing the station, that the pack horse might well be put to racing and suggested that Hunter should train and race him. Hunter did not- feel inclined to do so, hut Rich took him to Napier and hacT him trained. As a result, Mr Rich won the first Hawke’s Bay Cup with the horse, now named Hurricane. Shortly afterwards, Hurricane was sent to Auckland to race, but,- unfortunately, during training, he' broke a leg and thus his career was ended. He was a brown gelding well up to carrying weight and I believe his sire was Riddleswortli. a horse that did service in the Wellington province for several years. “TAKEN DOWN.”

My uncle somewhere in Hawke’s Bay got hold of a brown gelding, a real good sort, that proved to be the cleverest stock horse lie evei had. I don’t know where lie came from, but X know that bis bian-d uas a. horse-shoe on the neck. My opinion is that lie came from the same district as Hurricane. Anyhow, my uncle won ever so many matches with him. He downed all Ins op ponents with one exception, i ie. lieve a horse from Auckland was readied up fer him . by .dames a well-known racing man ot .those days. The liorsc’s name was Brown Stout and, in all probability, be was procured specially to take my uncle down. - Amongst the lioises put through hy Newton (that was my uncle’s racing name) was fa grey owned by one McNeill, a brother of-Mc-Neill, partner of Colonel AYhitmore in several statons, the centre ot which was Rissington. Tins S ie y gelding rejoiced in the name or ‘‘Jimmy,’ and he was afterwards owned ‘by one Richard Pla-ntagenet Giffard, who lived at Waitangi, near Farndon. Jimmy never distinguished himself on the turf. Giffard s brother though became most distmguisned at the bar and was the first LordHalsbury who, perhaps, did more m the interests of law than any other man in the British Empire during the last 60 or JO years Eichard plnntagenet died in Hawke s Buy- | have no hesitation in saymg that to this day no better horse than luddlesworth was ever imported to New Zealand, and I’m not forgetting

, P „ . Tlic Peer, Traduccr and IbWton, Xilw j j.i._ Musket of last century, or the most i successful of those imported dur in 0 ’ ihi century, Riddleswortli was imI nor ted to this • colony m 1843, and | anv thoroughlwed mare tracing to him is eagerly sought after by (those ! who know wlmt good thoroughbred 1 stock are worth. , TRADUCE®. OFFERED FOR j SONG. On one occasion that my father took a ship-load of cattle to Canterbury, whilst in' Ohnstchnrch he was offered the thoroughbred stallion Traducer for £9O. I bis hoise liad then acquired a reputation tor being a man-eater and .probably that was the reason for offering him at such a low figure. My father refused to buy the horse and it was fortunate for the N.Z. turf that ho'did. However lie came to this island and was mated with-a better lot of mares than he could possibly have found in Hawke’s Bay, where there were tli gii lilt- few in are s wortli bleeding from for racing purposes. Most or the best racehorses in New Zealand in the seventies were by Traducer. and he left an ineradicable mark in the colony through mating with marcs outside Hawke’s Bay. in .Central Hawke’s Bay there was hardly a thoroughbred mare to he found Old John He slop had Young Althaea and there were' a. few by the Bishop of Osnahurgh, a horse that left buf little mark on the turf. In Southern Hawke’s Bay, about Porangahau there may have been two or three Riddleswortli mares, and a few by

■ Figaro, Frantic or Glendon —anyhow the marcs in that part of the province came from Wairarapa. In those days, there was very little communication between Napier and Porang-c-hau and marcs from th© latter place could not, under the circumstances, he expected to he sent to Central Hawke’s Buy for mating purposes ] My uncle took a great fancy tc a chestnut owned ily a big Maor: I and tried over and over again to get I liim, but was unable to do so. Manama Tini, the owner, was _ the Vdggest Maori I ever saw. His weight at that time was about twenty-four stcnei seven lbs. Tini in the Maori language signifies ‘.‘bulky’—and, withal,"he was a very active man, Having won first prize for the best heavy-weight carrier at the first Agrieultural Show in Hawke’s Bay with a grey he called “The Squire,’ my unde determined-once again to ‘try to induce (Manaena to part with the chestnut. One clay, knowing that Manaena was in Napier, lie had the grey saddled! up and decked with the prize c-ard dangling about the horse’s forehead, followed him up as

he was riding home to’ Pakowhai. My uncle overtook Manaena betorcnetting to the Shamrock Hotel—about three miles out—and 1 , as a result the big fellow got off the chestnut and took The Squire, after changing saddles. My uncle rode the chestnut hack to Napier and at once put him into training. This horse lie named Rataplan and, as the Haw ke s Buy Jockey Club held a race meeting at Crecnmeadows shortly afterWiuds I believe it was the first held by a properly constituted club in Hawke’s Bay—Rataplan took part in the Maiden Produce Stakes, but

whether he or another horso name Numa owned by Ashton St. M a very nice bay afterwards taken t Auckland and raced there with sue cess--won this race, J really canno remember, although 1 saw it looking over an old-note.book of m. father’s J see that Calcutta ovrees stakes were in vogpe tlier and tha Rataplan brought £C- and Nunia L 2s 6d in one drawn on this race, ant .that, m a similar sweepstakes on th Farmers Purse Sell amyl brought £. 10s and Rataplan £2 12s 6d. Late during 'tlie day Rataplan started i the Farmers’ Purse and ran, a dca heat for Ist place with named Schamyl owned by .Mi 1 ■ Chapman a well known sportsman o S period. This race ended Rata. Plan’s dicing career. It was not tc -1 wondered at when he had beer ! carrying over 2-5 stone regularly whei | hacked by -Manaena. Aly unclw an proachecl Chapman- with mn offm tc > rlivid’e tho stake, but, a,s Chapman 1 Sv that Rataplan had broken down, ho naturally would not agree to the proposal This horse was Wecl in ,r o t him there. 1 don’t think any better evidence is required to prove that seventy years or more ago lea - ly good well-bred horses woie raised in that part of the East Coast. 808 TH EL WALL, THE ATHLETE. Robert Thelwall, one of Gisborne’s oldest living “knUHes, arrived at Auckland m 1864 or 18bo, on his way to Napier to my lather and uncle, who were Ins bMcous ins. Before leaving Auckland he had a running match ior a. fiver aside with a fellow passenger from England—Lieutenant Cutbill, of the 70th, who liad come out to join ins regiment. The match was run near the wharf, where the ship was lying and Thelwall won it. He then made his way to Napier, staying there a short time. One day he was out a ter stock with two or three of our stockmen and, as I had a pony, 1 formed one of the party. As we were returning there was a halt mu® flutter along what was known as the little beach”—a reclamatoin has covered 1 it up—and I viewed it from behind' the others. Thelwall was riding if*grey mare, Topsy, and had inside running, and being jammed into the water the mare fell and all I saw of Dob were his legs and leet, encased! in long riding hoots, sticking out of tho water. Topsy was brought to Poverty Bay when we came up in 1867, and was looted at the time of the massacre.