SOME MORE ABOUT PIONEERS AND PIONEERING.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 693, 19 April 1909, Page 5

SOME MORE ABOUT PIONEERS AND PIONEERING.

A OHAT WITH A'BANKERPASTORALIST. , THE DPS 'ANJ) DOWNS, OP . ■ ! MUTTON. . No one would take Mr T, R. Moor 6 for a pioneer of 58 years New Zealand standing—that is, no one who did not know his reoord. They see it out remarkably well; do these pioneers. Yet Mr Moore reached New Zealand in 'sl aB a email boy. There were only about 1500 people at Wellington and Lambton Qnay was a beaoh, Even twenty years after the Empire Hotel was on the harbor beaoh. Now it is a quarter of a mile from it, and great warehouses thiokly stud the intervening space. And Mr Moore knew Christohnroh when there were only ten or twelve houses there.. He had oome ont with his father and mother in the 700 ton ship George Pollock—on Monday he leaves with Mrs Moore to'join a 12,0(0 ton ship for England, yet the 700 tonnar would cause muoh more wonderment and onriosity then than the 12,000-tonuerdoes now—bo blase have we become. A MEDICAL COLONIST. '* Dr. Moore 'had given up an' extensive medical pra'ctise in England to try oolonising with his wife fad family, and the George Pollook landed them in Lyttelton, but in the same'year the Dootor determined to return to the Old Country and the family set ont on what was meant to be the return voyage in the William Hyde, going, via Wellington, New Plymouth, and Hokianga, where the veßßel was to load bpars. She got on the Hokiatiga bar and had to bo taken to the Mauakau for repairs. As this involved much delay and the' discharging and reloading of the spars, Dr. Moore took his little party aoroßß to Auokland and baok to Lyttelton, taking up land at Charters Bay. Thus by the misohanoe to a vessel, New Zealand saved some very good settlers, just as by a \Nreck at the time of the big Wellington' earthquake, members of a family afterwards to-take a prominent part in its development were frustrated in their intentions of leaving Wellington for good, after having already set out on their voyage.'-

THE LOT OP THE PIONEER. Dr. Moore imported , some shorthorns from England and the precarious exiatenoe of the pioneer was led. The pioneers had practically no market and the, farm relied oh mainly on the making of batter for Lyttelton. The only sheep on the peninsula for some time were some merinos belonging to Mr Robert Rhodes. While tlie market for bntter in Lyttelton was limited,and though some times tjs mnoli as lialf-a-orown a ponnd was paid for it, as there was no snoh thing as loe or refrigeration, it was yery diffloolt to make and ' keep. As there were only vessels about every six months, the. stores question was a difficulty. Dr. Moore brought a considerable quantity of ; supplies from England with him, ■ and these lasted a long time. Flour ! was brought from Adeltide and' California, and sugar from California also. IN HAWKE'S BAY. Mr Moore went to Ohrlstohuroh in 1856' where he joined, the Union j Batik. His brother-in-law, the late ' Mr MeiOertzhagen, had meantime taken up country at Waimarama in J Hawke's Bay in partnership with Mr Walter Oamfibell, and the latter 1 having been drowned in the Ttiki 1 Tuki, Mr T. R. Moore took hlsplaoe 1 as partner in 1874 and began his well-known oonneotion with Wai-: marama, whioh he left to reside In ] Palmerston ; North in 1907, The ■ story of Hawke's Bay is the pas- , toral eplo of New Zealand. The i Hawke's Bay pioneers got merinos from Australia as their stud sheep -from John Murray of Adelaide. They gave a oharaoter.and quality to the Hawke's Bay sheep which made their high reputation. Wai- i marama swopped a team of bullocks ] for 50 sheep by, way of a start. The | runliolder then thought himself very . luoky if he got 7d.or 8d and his clip ran to 7 or 81b., but in the, '7o'fl wool went down to 4d-to sd, anu the , boiling down for tallow came as a great relief. One of the Nelsons, who were gelatine manufacturers in the Old' Country, was a Hawke's : Bay and'William .Nelson, j after out there, returned _ to England and oame baok again with the freezing idea. He was an enthusiast ana got the Hawke's Bay farmers to guarantee him their output : for tliiee years as a condition of starting the Tomoana Freezing works. ■ A NEW ERA. That was the beginning of the new era in Hawke's Bay, but it wasn't plain sailing even then, and the farmer was lucky if he didn't find that he had gi?en his sheep for nothing and had to pay a substantial oheque to the Nelson's for a loss on their realisation a? well, when the aooount sales oame in. But after a few years, as experience was gained, and the market won., it began to pay, though Mr Moore himself, onoe he waß.plear of the guarantee, always made a point of selling out* righ instead of having his sheep fi;oen on his own aooount. Still the establishment of these freezing worfis proved in the end a great thing for Hawke's Bay and New Zealand. THOSE PIONEERS. AND THE "FOURPENNY BUTTER." v The Editor Manawatu Daily Times. Sir,—l would very muoh like to meet the "pioneer storekeeper" who has been talking to you about fourpenny butter. In the first place I want to know who ( was the real pioneer—the storekeeper or • the farmer? When the pioneer farmer came round there was never a storekeeper in sight. He had to hump his tuoker on hii baok from perhaps scores of miles away. It wasn't till the farmers had got round and got a bit ahead and made mouths to feed that the storekeeper came along at all., and then you oan be pretty safe in saying that be didn't oome for his health, but for what he oould make out of the farmer. Some of , them advanced money at high ini terest as well as goods to the farmer, and more than one merohant I oould

; name laid the foundations of hie fortune that way. Then about this butter business. The farmers often got more, than "fourpence" for their butter, but it wbb generally in the winter when they had very little butter for any one. Of course it was next to to keep butter hard in'summer, but even with all the drawbaoks of those days there were farmers' wives who made butter that lam sure waß as good and as sweet as any oreamery butter to-day. They didn't have power ohurns and all the modern butter making machinery, but just a primitive churn that itWas real hard work tor use-—perhaps {! asd# on the premises." .\Not if they dia%*t get it down to a "three per centum" moisture oontent, they got it beautifully firm and sweet and cooled it in the well or the oreek or a sod dairy or oellar. And though there weren't any dairy regnltions in those days, or inspectors, or experts, some* of these places woro most beautifully dean, as the housewives' own houses were. Your Pioneer Storekeeper is evidently getting bilious in his old age, and he doesn't tell you that they used to send butter from there all the way to England in kegs among general oargo, and in slow sailing ships without any cool ohamberd. And they made money out of it at that long before creameries were thought of, Take my word for it, butter that would stand that test isn't bad butter. I would like to Bee some of the faotory butter to-day put to stand it.r-I am, eto., A PIONEER FARMER'S-SON. ■ t - STOREKEEPERS AND FARMERS. ANOTHER INDIGNANT PROTEST. < The Editor Mnawatu Daily Times. Sir,—For cool cheek commend- me to your "Pioneer " storekeeper whoever lie is. Where would the storekeepers be to-day if it wasn't for the farmers? After all they are only middlemen; and though middlemen, may be necessary, they oouldn't live bnt f6r the producer. In the bash districts the sawmiller was often the pioneer, and when not him, the farmer. The storekeeper oanie along' to serve these two, and'mhke all he oduld out of them. , Very often he was the only one of the three that made any money* for whatever might happen to the other two, he got his profit both ways, As for the reflections he oasts on the early farmers, a good many of thepe men and women were farmers and farmers' daughters from the Old Country,' who knew their business thoroughly and their places were a pleasure to see for oleanliness, even though it may have been [only a day door, a thatoh roof, and punga or slab walls; The dairy was generally spotlessly olean however primitive it might be, even when it was only a dug-out in the oreek bank or in a hill side.r-I am; etc., , ' ''L,"