THE PUHOI SETTLERS.

Northern Advocate, 9 December 1918, Page 3

THE PUHOI SETTLERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I see that Mr Fagan, on the information of a Prussian acquaintance from Spandau (a great Hun arsenal) describes Puhoi as "a special military settlement." Now I happen to know Puhoi well, though I have rot visited it for several years. Mr Fagan'? informant of 2 r > years ago was "pulling his leg." Fie to you, Mr Fagan, to credit a Prussian from Spandau! Proh pudor! I myself, though by no means such a fiery antiTeutonic as your Onerahi correspondent would say with Falstaff's tailor: "I like not the security." The settlement of Puhoi, founded by Captain Kripner, was of purely Bohemian origin; the settlers were Czechs. In all my visits to Puhoi—and they were frequent when I owned the "Rodney Times" —I never met any Germans to my knowledge. The emigrants from Bohemia were Austrian subjects when they left Europe, for Prussia seized that part of Bohemia where most of them came from not till 1866. They were never subjects of Prussia. The German Empire was founded in 1870.

Now, I have corroborative evidence, The late Mr J. I. Wilson, for long provincial engineer, often talked with me about Puhoi. He laid out the settlement, surveyed the whole, and knew Captain Kripner and the old pioneers from Bohemia well. He described them as being dumped down in the bush without roads, and so hard up that they had to subsist at first on fern root and nikau. Probably Germans of various nationality have settled in Puhoi, also I believe some Dalmatians, and I know some of the descendants of the pioneer settlers have married Britishers. All special settlements alter their primitive characteristics in time. This is inevitable. But there is not the slightest record at Puhoi of "a niiHtary settlement" such as Mr Fagan's customer from Prussia related. If it did exist, how did the provincial engineer know nothing about it? Mr Massey is referred to by Mr Fagan wth unmerited contempt for not knowing what is a fiction. Mr Massey describes the Puhoi settlers as Slovenes. Ido not know what that term means—it is one of the newly-coined words like "Slovaks"—but undoubtedly Puhoi was a Czech settlement, and therefore, according to orthodox entymology, of the Slavonic family. To put a military settlement of ex-soldiers of the HohenzoHerns among Bohemians would be like-..showing a red rag to a bull. At the time of the Boer war Puhoi generally was pro-Boer. So was the present Premier of the Imperial Government. Mr Lloyd George's name could not be mentioned in 1899 or 1900 without a storm of hooting. He had often to run for his life. To-day Mr Massey says that he believes the Puhoi settlers to be as loyal as any part of the Dominion. I see no reason to doubt it. The papers show that the young men have well done their part, and many whose surnames I know have shed' their blood for king and country. Also Puhoi has contributed generously to patriotic funds.

There is a very good reason why Mr Massey should know Puhoi. It was in the old original Waitemata constituency, which first returned the Premier to Parliament. It is unjust and un-British to pass a serious reflection on such flimsy evidence without ascertaining facts from those qualified to speak with knowledge of the subject.

It is dangerous to-day to call anyone a German falsely. An S.M. has declaimed it actionable, and I opine that a Supreme Court verdict for libel would be given for the misuse of the word. The epithet "German," as applied to anyone is equivalent to "rascal." In the present case the origin of Puhoi is too well establihed to be disputed; and I have myself every reason to speak well of those residents I knew in the past.—l am., etc., A. H. MASON.