ON BOARD SHIP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 10 June 1939, Page 11

ON BOARD SHIP

AND IN RAUPO HUTS EARLY CROPPING IN WAIMEA* When the ship Bolton arrived at Nelson on 15th March, 1842, there wa. *n\ board, among: the Nelson settlers, a father, his daughter (aged 12), and his two sons. The journey had been made primarily in the interests of an elder daughter who had, however, unfortunately died on the way out. The mother of the family had died some years previously at Dover. As the new arrivals landed, earlier settlers were making the road from what was to be the tow n to the port, and on the job was a boy who saw the 12-year-old girl as her father inquired the best route to the headquarters of the Settlement. (They were advised to take the track which is now Washington Valley). When this boy went home, he told his mother and sisters that he had seen the girl he was going to marry, if he could. Some years later his am. bition was realised, and a room was built onto her father’s wharc at Spring Grove. There they lived for a few years, until they acquired land of their own. There were eleven children, and fifty-four years of happy married life. The husband died in 1903. and his wife in 1923 at the age of 94, and there were 203 descendants then living.

The reference is to Mr and Mrs Sydney Higgins of Spring Grove. All the trials of the first settlers were faced and overcome—living in raupo thatched whares, slab huts, rooking out-of-doors and then in mud ovens, living at times on fern root, birds, and occasionally wild pork, clearing land and planting the first wheat, harvesting by hand and grinding it In cofTee mills. Mrs Higgins acquired experience as doctor’s assistant in maternity work, and was herself called on frequently when medical aid was not available. The story Mrs Higgins has left on record, a brief review of her life made at the request of her children, is typical of all that is best in the actual colonisation of New Zca. land. When Mrs Higgins was 12 years old. her father sold out at Dover in Kent, and secured a passage to New Zealand in the ship Bolton, with his family. The white cliffs of Dover were soon passed, and the vessel was out in the open sea. “We had a nice time.” Mrs Higgins wrote, “till we got to the Bay of Biscay. Then we had a fearful gale. It commenced on New Year’s night, and the sea ran mountains high, and kept on for three days and three nights. “During this time, we all had to stay down below. The bulwarks were washed off on one side of the ship, and a

lot ol' timber and some pigs were lost. The captain’s wife was washed out of her cabin three times, and once they thought she was dead. It was a terrible time, some crying, some screaming, and some praying. “My dear sister died two months after leaving England (the family was on the way to New Zealand for her health), so the sea voyage did not save her. AFTER THE STORM “When it calmed a little, they led us up on deck, but what a sight it was. I cannot forget it. One man was washed overboard, but was pulled in again with the next wave, and one man had his arm broken. The waves kept washing the men from the pumps. The vessel was over on one side with all the weight of the boat’s rigging and timber hanging on to the masts. We had a black man for cook. He took ! the copper axe. and chopped the ropes and it all went overboard, and the vessel righted. “We had been shut down for three days and three nights. The big mast was broken and the sails gone. The ship had been a man-of-war. If she had not been a very strong vessel, she would not have withstood the storm. A ship came along, and she stood by for three days giving timber and helping to J repair our ship to get to port. Our cabin boy (he was a nice young man) found that his brother, whom he had not seen for nine years, was mate on j board the other vessel, and what a j jolly time they had. There was music and dancing, and this helped us to for. get our troubles. My dear sister was 21 when she died on board and I was 12. It was a sad time and there were not many dry eyes that day.. After that awful storm, we had a nice voyage out all the way. "We called at Wellington, and stayed there for ten days, then fitted up to i come round to Nelson. Then our j journey of five months on ship was ARRIVAL AT NELSON j S "When we reached Nelson, our cap- | tain would not come into the harbour, but anchored out in the bay. It was such a big heavy vessel and the Fifeshire was on the rocks. We went ashore in boats, and could not get any of our things for two days. There were 350 immigrants on board. Our black cook left the ship in Nelson. Our captain got up a subscription for him, he was such a brave man. He later married here. MAKING THE ROAD TO THE PORT “When we were put ashore, there

! eat fern root and berries of different ( fc kinds and sow thistle, and a few fusty 1 fc ! biscuits. The Maoris told us to eat the : J kind of berries that the birds did eat. I : “The Maoris brought us some little ; i baskets of potatoes, and sometimes for ; j a shilling we could get them, j “Mr Fox came over from Wei- j j lington and took his brother's place. ! I He sent the men with their families i

were a lot of men who had come in before making the road round the beach. They told us to go over the hill down what is now called Washington Valley, and we had to go through a lot of flax, toi toi, and mud before we got round to where the church is now on the hill. That was where the building was that we had to go to.

“My father asked if there was any room for us. ’No.’ they said, ‘it is full of women and children.' There' were a lot of little huts made of rushes and flax, so my father and my two brothers cut a lot of fern, and made a bed of that. We had two blankets to us, because we had not got our things from the ship. My father took me in hip arms, and we lay down with one blanket under us and one blanket over us. and for two nights we slept like this, while my two brothers kept a fire and took turns to keep the rats away. "There was a boarded building to put the goods in. and the provisions in barrels—pork, biscuits, tea. sugar, and all they could leave from the ship. The provisions were* weighed out. and a little given to each one. “The people began to build little huts of their own of flax, raupo. and rushes. They brought our things as far as where the Saltwater bridge is now in boats, and then in a bullock waggon. Mi* Ben Crisp had a cart and a pair of bullocks he had brought from Valparaiso. They had very bad roads to cart on—all holes and mud. where the streets are now. There were no houses—nothing but the little huts and whares dotted all over the place. It was a queer sort of town, but we had to make the best of it. ROAD MAKING IN THE WAIMEAS “Before much work in the new land could be done, roads had to be made, so a lot of the strong young men were sent out into the country to work on the lines where the roads had been laid out. and my elder brother was one of them.

we had to use knives to cut it with, and then carry it in our arms to where it was threshed with sticks and flails.” i Mis Higgins tells how a boy who was i working on making the road to the | Port when she and her father and brothers arrived at Nelson, and who, there and then, determined to marry ! her if he could, which he did later, and they had fifty-four years of happy married life before his death. “My brother came for me when 1 left my employment to go home. He had to carry me through the Wairoa river, and go back and bring my things over. My father had bought a j cow while I was away, and when I i w ent back 1 had a cow to milk. My j brother used to get a wild pig some* | times. Then the vegetables grew and | we had a nice lot.”

i all through the country up to Foxhill j to settle down, with ten acres to each family. We had to clear the land and j got very nearly starved in doing so \ before we could grow' anything. It ! was a very hard time, and the men got I so that they could only work a few' | hours at a time. “My father brought out with him a 1 lot of garden seeds, and they provided ' us with some vegetables and together j with the wild birds which w'e shot, wc ! began to enjoy the eating of w'holesome : food.

“Mr Duppa sent some men over to Valparaiso for a lot of things such as potatoes, bullocks, carts, ploughs, w'heat, altogether a ship load.” Mrs Higgins’ father got a good offer of employment from Mr Duppa. and this necessitated his being away from home from Monday morning to Satur_ day night. Mrs Higgins spent much time with neighbours and later on took a position to learn to cook. milk, butter and cheese making. baking and housework. WHEAT GROUND IN COFFEE MILLS "When we had grown the wheat, the Company sent out a number of coffee mills. These they tied to posts and we took it in turns to grind our lots. “When the corn was fit to harvest,

"Well. I was only 12 years old when i I began housekeeping for my father j and brothers. I had no mother or I sister to teach me anything, so I used to go to the neighbours! Mrs Gardener showed me how to make a pancake for | mv father’s supper. “We had to have our lire outside, as there were no fireplaces in our whares. Later Mr Tarr made a mud oven and baked bread and sold it to those who could pay for it. As there was no balm, we gathered green manuka leaves and used them in place of hops. It was very * bitter. We used to make a big fire on ! the ground and put the dough down on i the hot ground, then cover it over I with the embers and in this way we ! baked nice sweet bread. “As time went on, people began I building little houses, but as there was j no limber of any sort, they had to split slabs out of trees. VVAIRAU OR WAIMEA? “When news of the Wairau Massacre first reached Nelson, there was contusion as to name, some saying it was Wairnea and some the Wairau. That made the lamentation greater. for many fathers and brothers were out in the Waimeas making roads and we were in terrible trouble till they came home. "After the Wairau Massacre, there was no money for employment and rations got short. The settlers had to

It was arranged that when Mrs Hig- ! gins’ marriage took place, she and her j j husband would live at her father’s j j home. Her husband and Mr Jefferies J | cut the timber for a room, and Miss Ratt (a carpenter) built a nice room, i | “There was no furniture in those , I days so we had to make our own. It i [took Miss Ratt about five or six weeks | Ito build that room. j

♦ This is a story typical of the lives of many of Nelson's I pioneer settlers. We are told of the voyage out to New Zealand, of the arrival at Nelson before a road round the sea front to the harbour entrance had been made, and of | the early pioneering farming days in the Waimeas.

| SNOW AT SPRING GROVE "On the wedding day, a heavy fall J of snow covered the ground. There was ! not a tree or a house that was not I covered with snow. We all thought I that the minister would not get up—he came on a mule for there were no i horses in the place. The neighbours I arranged the party and sixty sat down , to dinner. “Mr Ironside, the minister, said he had not seen so much snow since he j had left ‘dear old England.’

“My husband had bought three young heifers, and one cow came in milk the first year. He later bought 205 acres and cleared some of it, and put it in wheat and oats and when that was fit to cut, we made a little tent with a wool quilt to put the baby under, and while my husband mowed, I tied up. The next year my husband bought a plough and a pair of bullocks for himself and put in a lot of wheat that year. Then the four cows came into milk. Our neighbour. Mr Ricketts, had crops to cut, so they helped each other.” The room in which they lived was then carted up on to their farm and another room added. Then her father and brother bought a section adjoining theirs and went up with them. Mr Higgins was so busy on the farm, that Mrs Higgins decided to build herself a kitchen, which she did —20 feet long and 12 feet wide —with chimney and mud oven. Later a new ‘house was built down in the bush. There were nine rooms and sometimes there were 23 in the house to cook for. When they took up the bush land, her husband often took his bullock cart and cut a load of firewood and loaded up that day.

“Then I used to sit up and do my sewing, and get a hot breakfast for him. He would then get into Nelson by the time the people were at their break_ fast so that the men could buy the wood. He would get back home about 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening. It would take all that time, and he would only get twelve or thirteen shillings, or perhaps lewt of flour for all the work.

"When the train began to run, it stopped the firewood carting. My husband and boys made a hop garden but they did not make much out of it."

When Mr and Mrs Higgins went down to their new home, Mrs Higgins’ father went with them and there he died at the age of 85.

"When the settler? first came, money was subscribed to build a Sunday school, and they gave Mr Andrews and his boys the job to make the bricks and build it. It was against Mr Hooper’s brewery.”

Mrs Higgins was the first girl Mr Matthew Campbell took to his school, and when the people moved up the country, he put a Sunday school up at Spring Grove, with Mrs Higgins as a teacher. It was in this school that she was married. The school was brought up from Nelson on a sledge by Mr Andrews and his sons. That was the first school in the country and it was used for all purposes, as well as a church. Later this was burnt do vn and another was erected, this is still there.

! “I was the first girl Mr Higgins spoke to at the brick school. He asked me whe jmy teachei) was. I told him Mr Hill | was.” [ Mrs Higgins, despite the early hardI ships of colonisation, lived to the adi vance age of 94 years. Mrs Higgins was a daughter of Mi | Stephen Sharp, and her brothers were j Messrs Robert and George Sharp.