“FATHER OF FEUDING,” STILL HALE AT NINETY

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7085, 6 December 1929, Page 8

“FATHER OF FEUDING,” STILL HALE AT NINETY

An Old Pioneer

BUILT FIRST WHARE ON SITE OF FEILDING

Although lie lias exceeded the biblical span of three score years and ten by another score, Mr George Hitchman, of 77 Ferguson street,, Palmerston North, is as halo and hearty to-day as many a man half his years. It is only a week since he celebrated his 90th birthday, yet the vigour that carried him through the rigorous pioneering days of the colony, remains unabated. His is none of the appearance of that drear sixth age which Shakespeare paints, for he continues an active life, active to the end. He has cultivated a flourishing kitchen garden, in which ho does all the v labour and in addition does cobbling and carpemtery work with a hand that is as steady as it was in his prime. Mr Hitchman has seen the Manawatu district develop from the primeval forest to its present position as one of the most closely settled farming districts in New Zealand. Ho may well be called “the father of Feilding” for he was the first man to settle there. "When Mr Hitchman brought his wife and family of • seven children to New Zealand in 1874, they sailed from London on the .good ship Salisbury as members of. the. first party of immigrants which the late Colonel Feilding brought out to settle the Manchester block.

They landed, in New Zealand on January 20 of that year, after a voyage lasting approximately 14 weeks from the mouth of the Thames: The voyage from "Wellington to Foxton was a thihg not lightly to be recalled, oven 60 years on. The immigrants were huddled like sheep in the hold of the old coastal vessel Manawatu and after arrival in Foxton, were left to their own devices to reach the bush hamlet of Palmerston North. . Mr Hitchman and his family: travelled on one of*the timber trucks engaged in carting timber from the sawmill at Terrace End to the -river port. . - ■ ■.. . . The First Where.

Delaying only one day in Palmerston North,-Mr, Hitchman rose early on the morning of February 1, 1874 and walked a. distance of 14" miles along the hush track through Awuhuri to Feilding. Here, in a clearing on the site of. the present Feilding police station, he set about erecting a bark whare to shelter his wife and family who arrived the following day on a bullock waggon. Twelve other settlers were .very little behind Mr Hitchman, and numbering the unlucky 13, theso pioneers set to work to erect the crude Whares that were the nucleus of the, s town. Thirteen ,is apparently not Mr Hitchman’s unlucky number, however, for he is etili digging his garden, while, the other 12 of those-13 pioneers have all passed the Great Divide. • Hazardous Years. Mr Hitchman referred to the fact that no reference had been’- made to these first two years, in published ac-counts-of Feilding’a jubilee but in his opinion, they had been the most arduous and hazardous for the pioneers. ■' .At one stage his wife, 7 children and himself, lived in a room 12ft by 10ft, while the track which , then ran along the course of the future Manchester street, was rendered-so impassable by the heavy rains and the passage of the bullock carts that,, in his own words, it required “a flat-bottomed boat to get about.” Stores had been brought from Foxton along the timber tracks and from Palmerston North to Feilding by bullock waggon, la fhat first year, wirth two other men he cleared and stumped the site of the present Feilding railway station and-had been one of a party which cleared the way for the first formed -yoad in Feilding—the stretch from Manchester street to Grey street. I, Maoris Friendly.

At that time, the only communicajtiou "between Palmerston North and Feilding had been through Awahuri and there had been only three white T caddents settled along that track. Three Maori pas were passed on the

journey; and-the natives in residence hod -proved .very friendly; to the white immigrants. Before he had left England, he had been solemnly warned not to go to New Zealand, as the Maoris there were eating people "hut” commented Mr Hitchman with a smile, “I had made up my mind to go and I thought I might as -well die that way as any other.” , Two years after he had reached Foilding, a commencement had been made upon the construction of the railway line from Poston to Palmerston North. Eater, he worked on the line connecting Palmerston North and Peildinig and laid the first points at Bunmythorpe. Pour years after he had built his bark whare on the site of Fcilding town, Mr Hitchman and his family moved ; away from the growing settlement and he made a start on clearing tho site for his future home D'fiside tne track that represented the Kiimbolton road. With his own hands, he stumped, burned and cleared, 183 acres and cut the timber for tho homestead which was to mark the bend in the road still known as “ Hitchman’s corner.” Por a number of years, Mr Hitchman worked on road-making and plate lay-,-..dag and in tho latter occupation found very. useful the experience which he had gained as an employee of the Great Western Railway Company at Home. He also worked for a period at Terrace End, where he erected a railway siding near Manson and Bartholomew’s sawmill. During the period of this occupation, he used to walk from Fcilding to Palmerston North every Monday morning to commence the week’s work. Under their agreement with the Manchester Block Corporation, the immigrants were given possession of an acre of land with a house 24 by 12, which they paid for at tho rate of 9s a week for three weeks. Their passages from England were free, the only payment made being £1 for each adult and 10s for each child to buy ship’s kit. The corporation, contracted .to. £®l iffi"

migrant work for five days a week at a wage of'not less than 5s a day, for three years." Now, at tho age of 90 years, Mr Hitchman tills his garden and reflects on the metamorphosis which half a century has cffcctod. His oldest son is 08 years of age and his youngest 54. They wore both' present last week at their father’s 90th birthday celebrations. ■ - .