CITY’S EARLY DAYS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 108, 7 April 1936, Page 2

CITY’S EARLY DAYS

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

MB. WM. COOIv INTERVIEWED. Reminiscences of Palmerston North half a century ago were given by Mr William Cook, of 156 Broadway Avenue, when he gave an interview to a ‘‘Standard” reporter yesteruay. Bright in spirit, and. remembering his early experiences at this centre with happy recollections, Mr Cook' celebrated his 80th birthday to-day. , From the verandah of his home Mr Cook can look upon buildings,housing one of the largest industries in the Manawatu—that of Messrs \V.m. Cook and Sons, Ltd., timber merchants—which his perseverence and business acumen nave built up, and he can smile happily, as he cl.cl yesterday, at the time ‘‘when he would have left Palmerston North if he could, but could not.” THE INITIAL VENTURE.

About November, 1879, Mr Cook recounted, he had arrived in Palmerston North. He commenced business on the corner of Main Street and George Street, m premises now occupied by a locksmith. There was little cooperage business then, hardly enough for one man. Many of his activities were connected with making butter casks, and that was naturally seasonal. Each cask was made to hold a hundredweight of butter, and they were made of tawa, a very good wood like white beech. White pine was plentiful, but had not the general popularity it enjoyed now. The' tawa was split into shingles and was greatly superior to white pine. When casks were made of the latter wood they were enamelled. Sydney was then the chief market for New Zealand butter, not London, proceeded Mr Cook. One dairy factory started at Longburn and the milk was separated there, the cream being made into butter the same day. That venture did not prove successful, and another factory was set up at Makino, with still another at Bongotea, established by the same proprietor. As much as possible of the butter was sold locally and what could not be disposed of in that fashion was put in casks and sent overseas. Losses were sometimes made, and as an instance Mr Cook recalled that one local storekeeper who had sent a consignment to Sydney had had to pay for the butter, pay for packing it and sending it to Sydney, but then had to pay for a lighter to take it out to sea and dump it over the side. Dairy farmers thought they were in difficult times to-day, but their difficulties were very slight compared with those of former generations, Mr Cook added. Another use . to which Mr Cook’s casks were .put was to contain tallow for the Sydney and English markets. Sheep then lnd very little value in comparison with present-day standards. A leg of Romney mutton could be obtained for 6d, delivered at the door. Sometimes one paid Is a leg, but that was not often, 6d being the usual price. The skins were valueless and the fat sheep ''export trade was unknown'- here. Carcases were boileu down in order to extract the tallow, and even then severe losses were made on occasions. The ’Wellington market was the only one for fat sheep, and Mr Cook recalled that a local butcher who had a boiling-down works had even experienced a loss when he had bought sheep at Is 9d a head. Tallow usually sold at £4B a ton. Money did not come to hand quickly in the early days of the district, remarked Mr Cook, who said that much of the business and trading was done on the promissory note system as a result! Methods of transport wer* slow and wool sent overseas took a long time to reach its destination and the money a long time do come-back. ELECTION OF FIRST MAYOR. “It was like nothing on earth,” said Mr Cook, .when asked what he had thought of Palmerston North when he first took up business here. “If I could only nave gone away I would not have stayed here>” he added, “but I could not go. The town had a population of about. 2000 persons, as far as 1 remember, and soon after I arrived the first Mayor was elected. I remember there was one donkey here and they had it pulling a part round with a signboard on it. I forget what was on the board', something about one of the candidates. There was great excitement.”

The Square then, was covered in manuka scrub eight to ten feet high, said Mr Cook. One could not walk up Broadway in winter without getting wet and muddy and there were only a tew houses in that street. Every year fires used to start in the dry season and run from the vicinity of the present Boys’ High School toward Terrace End. March was the month fixed by law for burning-off , and on occasions one could hardly see in Palmerston North because of the smoke from bush fires in the immediate district. Even beyond Rangitikei Line, toward Takaro, there was standing bush of big timber. It was very thick and quite different from the bush in the r itzherbert area. Because of its plenitude timber was cheap, and on a general average its cost was about a fifth of its value to-day. Mr Cook said he had built a house in Main Street, using totara, and the price he paid was 4s per 100 feet, off the railway trucks. Now it cost 44s per 100 feet. Halcombe then was a busy town with several sawmills in operation. Horses were used, on the logging tramways, but bullock-teams were the standby for handling the heavy logs. DIFFICULT TRAVELLING.

Two days wore occupied in the journey between Wellington and Palmerston North, Mr Cook explained. One took the train to Foxton and from there went by boat, although coaches were running along the coast. ■ The coaches made a call at Otaki, but if the river there was too Hooded, -the coach and its passengers just had to wait at the hotel until the liver went down again. However, the river went up and down quickly. It was impossible to go to Foxton in winter by road because of the ' poor roads, and water lav in the Taonui swamp often for four "and five months of the year owing to lack of drainage. Because the main road to Hawke’s Bay ran past Whakarongo and Ashhurst, access to these settlements was quite good. Although the road through the Gorge was far more than a mere track, the experiences of some of the passengers were rather .hair-raising. There was no bridge at the Ashhurst end of the Gorge, a ford being used.. This was replaced by a punt when the river rose too high. If the punt happened to go aground with the coach on board, then the ends were left down, as they were when the coach was run on board, and the coach driven clown the ramp and out of die river. The Bupnythorpe area bad not been developed and there was no road to Feilding in the vicinity of the railway line, as now. The road to that district was by way of Rangitikei Line and Awahuri. THE HUTT DISTRICT. The Hutt was Mr Cook’s birthplace and he related something of the changes there. When that area was not fully settled the Waiwetu Stream was larger than the Hutt River, but since then the river had gathered the bulk of the water. Ships had been launched on the AVaiwetu, possibly of 150 tons, but now there was hardly water enough to accommodate a small motor-boat. AVhere Mr Cook played marbles on an area touched by the

tides there is now the green sward of the Hutt Park" racecourse. Since then the land has risen, and great changes have come about. p