PIONEER BROTHERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 5 August 1926, Page 7

PIONEER BROTHERS.

VETERAN GOLD-SEEKERS AND . S A AVM ILL EH S.

NORMANBY IN THE EARLY DAYS.

A good 1 deal of adventure, and a great deal of the rough end of life, crowned with prosperity after many ups-and-downs, has been tlxo lot. of two sterling pioneers whose descendants and friends are many in the Wellington and Taranaki country. These oldtimers of the courageous, hard-working kind are Mr James Hobson, of “Whitiora,” New Plymouth, and his brother, Mr Tom Hobson, of Normanby, both now well on in their eighties (says tho New Zealand Free Lance). Mrs J". C. Ekdahl, of Hawera, is a daughter of Mr James Hobson.

Sixty-four years, ago the two Hobsons, sturdy young Northumbrians, first set foot, on New Zealand soil, after a long voyage- of 124 days from London im the ship Prince of Wales. Mr James Robson, yarning over those far-away days, recalled some of the story of his family, whose recorded history on the borders of Northumberland and Scotland goes back many hundreds of years. Their home was at Greem-idge, near the old Homan Wall on the Border. Tho Hobsons in the old days were ‘‘nioss-tropers,” and many a raid they made against their hereditary foes the Armstrongs, who lived: in their tower just across the Border. The family were perpetually in trouble with the authorities for their reviving and war-making propensities, but the folk of Mr Hobson’s mother’s side, the Charltons. were prudent enough to keep well in, favour with the ruling powers’ in Northumberland. James Robson was intended by his 'family for a Presbyterian minister. but 'he preferred! another occupa-t-ion. and lea rued the engineering; trade wfcih; a Xorthn mberla nd firm.

YOUTHFUL ARTIST AND HELMSMAN.

Til those- days of the sailing ship passenger traffic, the immigrant was very often something of a. sailor by the time he landed, and James Hobson learned much on the voyage, that helped him in his after days of colonial life. The Prince of Wales canned about 200 passengers. The crew numbered 24, and real old sailors they wore, for in those, days the seaman bad to he a thorough master of his calling. The crossing of the Line- was celebrated with all traditional observances. and here young James' Hobson,’s gift for. drawing brought him under the captain’s notice. The skipper saw a. sketch Hobson had made of the nautical ceremonies, carried l on under the eye of old Neptune, and he- got him to make a copy of the drawing, and later asked 1 him to come to the cabin daily and write up the log under his (the captain’s) instructions. “Now. what can T do for you in return, youngster?” the commander asked. “T’d like to learn to steer the ship, sir.” said Robson. Po for the rest of tho voyage Jimmy T?ob=oiv took a trick at the wheel every night when the passengers were off tlm poop, and learned to steer well both by compass and by tbo wind. ON THE OTAGO DIGGINGS. The brothers, landing at Port Chalmcr. caught the gold, fever like so 'many thousand other newcomers in the early ‘sixties, and made their way up country to the diggings. James Hobson tried his luck at Gabriel's Gully, a lively scene in those days, a, great canvas town, with thousands, of men all working a,wav with sluice and cradle. From Gabriel’s- lie went to Mnllocky Gully and other Otago goldfields; then he found his way north. Even after he had entered other pursuits. some years later, the- old l fever again seized him. and he left his Hutt sawmilling for a while to follow the rush across the strait to the new field' at the Whnknmarino in Marlborough.

BROTHERS MEET OX THE GOLD TRAIL. ••Landing at Havelock, we went up to the new rush.” he said, “passing a lew diggers here- and there; when we came down a few weeks later therewere 10.000 diggers on the field. T was at Mahakipawa, to-o. My brother Tom and' I had separated from each other in Otago; he followed the-rushes longer than I did. When T was going up to the Whakanrarino I met him coming down with a. party hound for another rush, with his swag of tools' and enm.o gear on' his- hack. It was our first meeting after several years. We stopped and had a talk for a few minutes, and then each of us went on. This was about the time the Afaungatapu murders were committed by the Burgess and Sullivan gang, who lay in ambush for successful diggers and murdered them for their gold.”

IX THE OLD BUTT FOREST, Before starting in the. sawmilling business at Upper Hutt, Mr James Hobson made a trip from Dunedin to Auckland as- second- engineer of the stela,mer Rangntiva. but came- to the conclusion that there were better lives than that of a marine engineer. The early 'sixties found l him with James CVuicksbnnk. sawmiller. at the Upper Hutt. This was at the beginning, of the Maori Kingite wars and a loopholed blockhouse, sometimes garrisoned by the militia, of the district, stood near, not from the mill. This 1 old b'oekhouse is still standing near “Quinn’s Post.” at AYnllaceville. Next lm went to the Wairarapa. and put no the machinery for a sawmill at Grey town; he remained there several ve-nrs as -manager. Then about 1870 It" went to Taranaki, and settled 1 at Keteiunrae. now Xormanbv, where he started the first sawmill. THE M LEERS AND THE SAWYERS “Keteiunrae.” said Mr Robson, “was a- rough frontier place' when we settled there iu'st after the close of Titokowaru’.s war. The forest- was- all around, with a. few clearings occupied by pioneer settle's. Captain Blake and his wife. Takiora. were living there, also Air Brett, afterwards caplain of the Keteiunrae- volunteers embodied in the - native troubles, of IS7O- - There were about 20 pairs of sawyers there, pit-sawing timber; these- men were rough customers, some of them old soldiers. They resented

Uk* l introduction, of the mill and machinery, naturally enough, 'because- the mill interfered with their livelihood. Some of them tried to burin our mill down one night. In the morning I found the place full of steam; if they hacli only known a little more about the, machinery they could have wrecked the mill, lie had built the mill about a mile and a half from the present site of Normandy township., or Matnriki. as it was known by the natives; the large Maori village of Ketemarae was about a mile- from the present township. My brother Tom joined me there, and he has lived in Normanhy ever since. We supplied the timber for many places about Ketemarae and on the Waimaio Plains; amongst them was the Mannia Podoaht. The matai timber for the bastion blockhouses- and other buildings in that post came from our mill. At one time we had 70 bullocks in the teams carting sawn timber around the district.” THE RUSH BORDER DAYS.

There were anxious times on the frontier then, and the Robsons- helped to garrison a redoubt- that- was built in 1879 at Xormanby-—the site is the present Domain, near the railway station. The mill engine was hauled no under the close range- of tlm rifles at the rednobt. for fear the Maoris would attack and 1 burn' the mill. Rut the. critical Parihnka days' -passed, the redoubt wa ß no longer needed', the volunteers and armed constabulary were disbanded, and the pioneers were loft free to develop the industries of bountiful Taranaki. They have done a, great deal to make thh- beautiful nroviuce what it is, to-da.v. to clear the forests and to break in the good' farm land,—pnlendid genuine tyne 6 ' of the men who found New Zealand in the rough and toiled their hardest at whatever they found to do. and' did it well.