FIRST SERIES-EARLY DAYS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 951, 13 June 1868, Page 3

FIRST SERIES-EARLY DAYS.

BY AN OLD COLONIST. " Fleeting aa wore the dreams of old. Remembered like a talc that's told, 'J. hey pass away." Chapter IV.--Pbog-b_.ss op the Southern end oi 1 the Province. I think it was about the year 1851-52, that rumours first readied Wellington and Wairarapa of the large tracts of fine country open for occupation in " Hourede," as the general public persisted in terming this district. My earliest recollection of these rumours was hearing a shearer, in the woolshed of a settler in Palliser Bay, aver that lie had been in this fabulous country, that it was all grass, and that a coach-and-four could be driven for 50 miles on end through it. Just before this, a party had passed up the coast escorting the Chief Land-purchase Commissioner, D. M'Lean Esq. They had with them a horse laden with coin, and a man in charge of it armed with a musket. All sorts of stories were told of the destination of this party, and of their adventures; —now the pack-horse had bolted with the money.bags; how he was ordered to be shot by the man with the musket; how that catastrophe didn't come off, owing to the horse pulling up of his own accord; how a tremendous native gathering had taken place at Waipukurau ; and how some 2000 men, women, and children had received 2s. 6d. each to sign a paper ceding all the laud from "Dan to Beersheba." One thing at least was clear from all this—that there was land somewhere; but what it was like could only be known by going to see it. Information was greedily sought after; and I remember, on meeting a gentleman who had been round the East coast' in a small vessel, asking him if he knew anything of the "Hom-ede." ."Oh, yes," he replied; "I called in there in the schooner. We sailed into a big swamp, and landed in the bottom of a little gully. On climbing up an immense hill, and looking over tha surrounding expanse, we saw nothing but a long sand spit, with the Pacific Ocean on one side, and an everlasting swamp backed by snowy mountains on the other." "But," said I, " surely there must be fine country somewhere about there." '' ITo such thing; the dry land is all sand and fleas, and the fluids all salt or stinking bog water." He modified this afterwards by saying there were some clay cliffs, but Captain Rhodes had bought them for a bale of blankets and a few muskets, to settle a whaling station on. This report was not encouraging; bnt as brighter accounts came to hand from time to time, I finally determined to go and judge for myself. Accordingly, after mature deliberation as to the best way of travelling, the method most likely to yield the greatest information was affirmed to be walking. With a pack containing blankets, changes of linen, &c, (weighing some 35 lbs), on each of our backs, my cousin and I started on our torn-. Witliout inflicting on my readers an account of the difficulties and discomforts met with, suffice it to say that we reached Waipukurau, and got a glimpse at the heart of the famous district, and then pushed on towards the port, where we found that all was not barren. Otlier Wairarapa settlers had preceded us. Mr. Northwood had taken up the Porerere station on the coast; Messrs. Tiffen, Collan, Alexander, and Russell, had seen enough to convince them what the future must bring forth, and determined to lose no time in establishing themselves. After examining the country, —aud making a selection, we started back, still walking, for Wairarapa. Hearing that the distance might be shortened by going through the 40, 70, or 90-mile bush, as it was variously called, we decided on taking that route. An old settler, at that time carrying on business as a storekeeper in Wellington, and who had just started a sheep station at Waipukurau, joined us, and we three "unhappy wights," carrying provisions for three or four days, determined to make tracks for the entrance to the forest. The night before we left, a whare wherein we had received hospitable entertainment,-was binned, owing to the ingenuity of the person who had built the chimney; he had cut the sods, of which itwas composed, with the long grass growing to them : the roof was of thatch, the walls of reeds, and the result what might have been predicted. Fortunately we saved our swags ahd a tin of arsenic. Bidding goodbye to our kind and now houseless entertainer, we started on our journey. Clear, crisp, and frosty was the weather, cold and rapid were the rivers, ancl weaiy and hungry were the travellers when Takapau was reached. Heavily hung the clouds o'er the mountains, and dank was the breath of the forest when we plunged into its sylvan recesses. Wet and disgusted were we, when, after crossing the Manawatu river sixteen times in a distance of ten miles, we found ourselves at a native settlement, three days out, and our supplies at an end. Tough was the ancient, chanticleer, and doughy the damper made from grown wheat, wherewith our hosts regaled us; dismal was the story they told of the travel before us. "Courage was low in our hearts when we resumed om- journey." Narrow the escape we had from a flood in the Ruamahunga. Many were the fleas that assailed us when we sought refuge in the pa at Kaikokirikiri, and great the imposition of the Maoris when they demanded a pound for a few potatoes and the shelter of their smoky whares. We had been three days nearly without food, during which time the rain fell incessantly; our feelings of thankfulness may therefore be imagined, when, after getting away from these aboriginal leeches who thought of> forcibly detaining us to ensure compliance with their demand, we reached the hospitable roof of an old settler in the Wairarapa valley. The result of our expedition was that the following yoar we drove a flock of some 1200 sheep round the coast, and our example was followed by many others. Most of our old settlers vividly remember the struggles of those days. For two years we were unable to send our wool away, but were relieved from our dilemma by the spirited starting of a bullock team by Mr. Alexander. The getting up of goods was equally difficult —that great artery of commerce, the Tuki Tuki river, being the channel whereby settlers obtained their supplies. There again the natives practised extortion until patience could, stand it no longer, and they were . driven out. of "the field by the building of a punt and the employment of white men in the undertaking. One instance of native malpractices may be amusing. We'had engaged the Te Aute'natives, under Te Wakarewarewa, to bring up three canoe loads of goods, at the rate of £5 a load. They were fetched from the Port,' and only brought to the island in the Rotoatara lake : there the canoes were hauled up, a messenger sent to ask us to go and see them. We accordingly went and were received by the Maories with a subdued kind of manner, and Te Waka, rolled in a blanket and veiy sick, was pointed out. We condoled with him as we best could, neither of us then understanding five words of Maori, and expressed a wish that our things should be carried up to the station. That, it appeared, could not be done, and for hours we kicked our heels on the beach of the small islet, wondering what aspect the affairs would . next - assume. When I suggested that we had better go home, we found bin* means of escape was gone, and there we were prisoners. Waka at length condescended to inform us that his sickness arose from the insufficiency of

§ K thev payment,^ and that/we couldn't^per... ';;^mi£t6d to leave until we had paid 30s. more 4 : oh- each; canoe;.^ At length I we had to yield, and thenj throwing off his blanket, who so , actiye as Te Waka in pushing off the canoes :; and furthering our wishes. No early set- .. tier was exempt from such impositions. As . time rolled on, and the district became set- ' tied, Messrs. Knight and Watts, by their . enterprise, relieved the inland settlers from these extortions. Meantime, what was the condition of the Port?: Its one store, owned by Mr. Alexander,, flourished in Onepoto gully; a pumice stone hut stood upon the western spit,;. Gf-pugh Island contained a colony of . . Maories ; . and a raupo , house, erected by the :y ''lmmortal Bob.Hollis, stood on the ground which the stable at the back of the Royal 4', Hotel- now occupies. A few aboriginal shriibs added to the desolation of the pic--7 tine. . The mission station at Waitangi was the single representative of culture. Te Hapuku had his pas at Pakowhai and Whakatu. ' Small vessels, by a process best known to themselves, dragged their hulks over the mud flats, and discharged cargo at Onepoto, whence, put into canoes, the "V 'goods femnd their way, by winding, swampy '". creeks, -up intp the country. If a traveller ; 'wished .to go from the interior to the Port, ' lie had the choice of going— shall I say by land, or by water ; strictly speaking, he had the option of going over a mountain, or of running the risk of losing either himself or liis. horse in the bogs; If he went and rev turned in safety he bragged of it, and was : as much ah object of interest as Captain . Speke, the discoverer of the Nile. After a '.little while, Captain Munn, of Wellington, settled, at the Port, and the Royal Hotel of the Wellington beach was translated, so to speak, into an effigy or raupo representative thereof, on the south- western coiner of the Ahuriri Bluff. Poor Munn, the province is deeply indebted to him, gone and almost .forgotten as he is; many jolly nights were . spent under his roof, and all the old identity who read these pages will say, with me, . „'w e, could have better spared a better nijin." Those who know nothing of the .early days, and who travel along the ■'"•..metalled roads which are now the pride of the province, will scarcely credit the difficulties the pioneers had to encounter or that it could be possible to spend three days in getting from Napier to Waipukurau ; over places where Cobb's coaches now run so glidly, weary, bullocks and exasperated dri- ; vers toiled and swore ; where now a neat or a bridge carries the road over the Vbrig, tiie dejected traveller of those days .. ti|gged at his horse's bridle — the quadruped immersed to the girths, the bipid to the knees, . and both plentifully besprinkled with the , odoriferous mud ; where flocks of sheep now wander, lost in wonder as to what has become pf all ,the grass in the world, droves ( ;o.f" pigs gi-übbed and grunted in blissful ignorance , of the fate with which the acl'yancing "strides of civilization threatened '.''them. . ."■ Every dog has its day," and the wild dogs flourished along with other things ; but all alike have come to be spoken of in ' the past tense ; and to . meet them now a man must stray from beaten tracks — a thing hot to be thought of, unless by him who knows himself to be both --bold and lucky." .