N.Z. PIONEER REUNION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 244, 28 September 1922, Page 7

N.Z. PIONEER REUNION.

OLD DAYS RECALLED. SIR GEORGE HUNTER TURNS TO THE PAST. Speaking at the annual re union oi I the Early Settlers’ and Historic Association of Wellington, held-in the' Town Hall on Monday night, Sir i George Hunter M.P.. president of: the association, turning to the past ' oi Wellington said he recalled milestones in its history. July 2, .1843, would probably not be remembered by many present, but it was a memorable date, when the citizens’ volunteers, numbering 100, were assembled lor an address by the Police Magistrate. He recalled the enrolments for militia service in 1845, early promise of the ; Dominion's splendid patriotism. In April, 1816. an invasion of Wellington , from Karori was feared, hut luckily came to noticing. On September 25, 1.856, the troops embarked for Auck- ! land on the Moa and City of Melbourne. In 1846 Bethune and Hunter, held a stock saie at which the prices realised were better than those of to day. Wool sold at Is ajd He referred to the terrible scourge of earthquakes in 1848, whicii lasted nine days from October IG. The public buildings were all destroyed, the patients from the military hospital being accommodated in Government House, and those so unexpectedly liberated from gaol were placed under the control of the military. There were very few casualties. He read the wonderfully phrased letter from “King George Te Warn, and John Baptist Kahawai/’ which was forwarded, together with a barrel of flour, to Queen Victoria. In 1849 a memorial signed by the Governor, the Natives of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Land Company was successful in averting the threatened importation of convicts. MOSQUITOS—BUT NO SILKSTOCKINGS. Mr. B. D. D. McLean, of Marakakano, Hawke’s Bay, said that their president and he, as descendants of the old pioneers, desired that the association should go forward and keep records of past events. The Dominion had a great past, the knowledge of which should be taught in the schools to a great; r extent. He compared the present with the past. Palmerston in the early days was overstocked —with mosquitos, the killing of which furnished the evening’s amusement for the youths and maidens of the day. Now it was the pictures. He spoke of the trials of the pioneer settlers’ wives. Men had done a great deal for New Zealand, but not enough had been heard of the. women’s share. Most of these sturdy pioneer mothers had passed on to their reward. That Palmerston was a thriving town and prosperous district was owing more largely to tlu* private enterprise of the past than to the State aid of the present. Speaking of the early earthquakes, as told to him by Mr. Ormond, he gave instances of beds dancing on floors, chimneys falling through roofs, and people thrown to the ground at public meetings. Members went to Parliament at Auckland in those days sleeping on the cargo in the hold of the Stormbird, a little vessel of 100 tons, but the provincial councils of the day did good work with the. funds and means at their disposal. Records of all done by the early settlers should be kept, so that the future citizens might honour and respect those who bad gone before them, whoso memory and ideals would lay the formation of a noble nation. Their descendants had volunteered for a Great War, and were readv now if they were needed. We were facing a crisis in the Empire’s history, but if New Zealand faced whatever camo with the fortitude of the old colonists, we should come out of it with honour.