OLD NAMES RECALLED

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 April 1930, Page 21 (Supplement)

OLD NAMES RECALLED

MR GEO. SYME LOOKS BACK Mr. Geo. Syme, of G. Syme and Co. Ltd., came to Haivera with his parents about 1875. He was then a lad of 13, and attended school here for a time with W. M. Douglas, Jas. Winks, T. Tait, S. Adamson, Larcom brothers, and other local residents still living within sound of the town clock. School was then being conducted by a Mr. Thompson in on© of a group of building known as the Emigration Cottages, standing in the neighbourhood of the present soldiers’ memorial. Shortly afterwards Mr. Syme, senior, erected the first wing of the public school (still to be seen on the extreme west of the group of the main school buildings). A number of the outlying settlers, Messrs Buchanan, Hobbs, Peterson, Siggs, Gore, Sweeney and others, then resided in town, going out to work their farms daily, the district not being as yet thoroughly free from native disturbances, and parents being anxious to give their children the advantages of school. Mr. Syme remembers as a youth of 16 joining up with the Hawera Light Dorse and riding out to the scene of the- native ploughing operations at Livingston’s homestead, and recalls some of the incidents that occurred there. The Maoris on this occasion, as is well known, refrained trom the use of firearms, but several of the settlers who endeavoured to stop the ploughing were roughly mau-liandled, the a\ erage -native heing much heavier and often stronger than the European. This comparative physical superiority was miicn more manifest then than now. Tnere was one instance of a little volunteer, more plucky than weighty, who was lifted up bodily and suspended on a wire fence by a bulky follower of Te Whiti. Another Maori would not relinquish the handles of the plough until a well-known butcher, or Herculean proportions, walloped him over the wrists with a paling. Other exciting incidents took place before the obstinate ploughmen were finally ejected. Later on, as a unit in the local cavalry troop, Mr. Syme took part in the march of the armed constabulary and mounted companies to invade the Plains and taive up a position at a camping ground near the Kapuni. The force, some 400 strong, presented a martial sight as they crossed the Waingongoro with drums beating and bugles sounding at intervals. No Maoris were encountered on the march, but numerous pigs dashed acro&s the route into the tutu and flax on either side. Our informant remembers when the area between Princes Street (south) and Victoria Street was on open paddock in which a training course was situated, whereon Mr. Quinlivan and others used to exercise their houses. A hawthorn hedge outlined the High Street frontage, with alternative sod hank and p!ost-and-rail fences around the other sides of the block. Owing to wild pigs abounding across the Waingongoro, Mr. A’Court, the local blacksmith, did quite a side-line business in forging spears for their destruction, and this pastime was a highly popular one among the young fellows of Hawera, The town hall was just being erected by Messrs Searling and Strang, and ' there was nearly a bad accident when the heavy matai frame was being uplifted by a willing band of volunteers, of whom Mr.' Steve Adamson, senior, was one. A violent gust of wind caused one side of the frame to topple inwards, just missing Mr. Syme and others in its descent the brittle matai studs, all morticed (as was then < the custom) lor insertion in the plates, being smashed to pieces in the fall* and having to be replaced. Among tradesmen who did business in the town of Hawera at the time were Messrs Adams (baker), Suiter (tailor), Meuli (saddler); Ounningham (bootmaker), and Osterling (hairdresser). Mr. Syme went away to the Auckland district in 1881, and was absent from this neighbourhood for five years, hence there is a break in his local recollections. On his return ho assisted his late esteemed father in many of his local contracts for public buildings, and later on joined the firm, which took over the business of the Egmont sash and door factory. In early days Mr. Syme was a prominent athlete, and measured strides with the star sprinters of early days, William and Steve Minhinnick, Martelli, Hood, Major, Bayly, Mentz and others, and we find him annexing the Hawera Oup of 1881, winning the two sprint events outright. As might be expected, he still takes a vivid interest in matters relative to athletics and sport, generally.