ECHOES FROM THE PAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7341, 30 May 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

ECHOES FROM THE PAST.

To aome among the baay crowds which throng Auckland , ! thoroughfares to-day-new men, a new generation, who in the fall flow of the lovely city's prosperity hasten on, •topping not to question the past—these echoea of the recollection! of some " old identities " —whoae ranks are thinning yearly— may not be altogether devoid of interest. The writer having been long resident in the country, hae had frequent opportunities for coming into contact and conversing with numbers of those pioneers of our present civilisation, to whose courage, industry, and dauntless perseverance, in face often of almost insuperable difficulties and unforeseen or previously unrealised dangers, we owe all oar present advantages. Of coarse the early settlers had their own masons for leaving the laud of their birth to face the perils of the deep, and the still greater daugers of life in a land of lawless savages. Love of adventure, the desire to better themselves, loss of fortune or friends, were the levers which moved them. Scarcely can we suppose that philanthropy, the desire to benefit the " unborn millions "—to use a favourite phrase of oar " grand old man " — could have impelled them to bid farewell to the civilisation of the old world, and exchange the comforts and gratifications of their life there for a long aud weary wrestle with the forces arrayed against them here. Yet, although it is extremely unlikely thai they ever thought of us in their se!f-communinge, none the less do we owe them a debt of gratitude which it would be inexousable in U9 to ignore merely because they cannot lay claim to it.

What a different scene presented itself to. the eager eyee of those early immigrants of forty or fifty years since, from thai which greets their more favoured successors to-day ! When the Duchess of Argyle and Jane Oifford arrived in Auckland, for instance, some forty years ago, Queen-street &nd its fine edifices were things of the future, and in their placa was a raupo swamp, in endeavouring to wade through which some of the lackless female immi&rantn lost the only shoes they were possessed of, a somewhat serious loss at the time, though it seems but a trifle now. The passengers came ashore in boats, which landed them just about where, at the present day, Wyndham-street springs out of the main thoroughfare. Without roofs to cover them from night dews or noontide boat, in many instances absolutely penniless, with little more in the shape of enrthly possessions than the clothes they wore, strangers in a atrange land, to which no kindly outstretched hand gave them a welcome, tbey muat have felt desolate indeed, and it may easily be imagined must not seldom have looked longingly backwards o'ver the wide ocean to the homes they had left. The dreary desolation, of their first arrival; the heart-siokness so often experienced during their hard straggles to vanquish natural obstacles ; the longing for a sight of dear faoes far distant, of the hand-clasps of loved friends they would never meet more : these sentiments explain the clinging of the old euttlers to the sweet name " home." We hear Great Britain often enough alluded to now-a-days as the 'Home Country, , but in those old days the settlers called it ' Home,' and rough voices would take a softened tone as they said it. I have seen the teara start into the eyes of women of tender heart, as they thus alluded to the land of theii* birth, after thirty years of absence. So true is it that "many waters cannot quench love;" and love of country is with patriotic son Is—who can boast one—a sentiment, or rather a passion indestructible. To those " old identities" " a handful of earth from the land of their birth " would have been worth more than rubies.

Labour, in these times of universal depression, cannot exactly be said to have been scarce; yet wages continue good, and the labouring classes are masters of the situation, dictating terms of service, hoars of work, &c, and claiming as inalienable rights, the unrestricted enjoyment of high days, holidays, and Saturday afternoons. Bow different was it with their homeless :predecessors! Labour was in those old days scarce indeed, and yet the labourer had no force of dictation ; he had to aooept what offered, or go hungry. There was no Benevolent Society to fall back upon, nor charitable public to appeal to, no handy friend ' flush' of money to ' shout,' nor timeserving politician eager to take up a grievance as 'consideration' for useful votes. Thankful for offers of employment, food, and shelter, which were awaiting them, the immigrants did not stop to make stipulations, and in many oases were huddled, with their wives and little ones, on board tiny coasting craft before they had had time to feel their feet, ■ and hurried off to distant timber stations, where, cut off for six months from all communication with the outer world, they had to toil from early morning till dark for a pittance which was always absorbed in advance by the station store—supplied, . of course by the station owner—and where exorbitant prices were demanded for food at which the labourer to-day would turn up his delicate nose in disgust. By this means two objects were seoured: Cash, inconveniently scarce, was saved; for the commodities of life supplied by the bush owners, being of the very poorest quality, coat them comparatively little, and being retailed at extortionate advances, returned a handsome profit, in addition to that obtained by fixing wages at the lowest possible rate. Then, the labourer being always behind-hand at the —the inevitable and anticipated consequence of his low wages—could not leave the station, bat mast keep toiling on, hoping by the sweat of hi* brow to some day clear himself of his debt to his employer. Indeed, from many of these places there were bat two chances of esoape during the entire year—namely, on the occasion of the halfj early arrival of the coaster which brought the station supplies. Her return was always an event looked forward to for long, watched for with anxiety, and hailed with rapture; for she would, maybe, bting letters from home for those who hungered for tidings of dear ones left behind. She would certainly bring news from Auckland, the most trifling details of which would be devoured by those so long isolated with an intensity of eagerness scarcely comprehensible by the daily newspaper reader of to-day, who notes, with apparent nnoonoern, events of world-wide import. She would bring also supplies of viotuals wherewith to replenish' the bare shelves and bins of the store, and once again the poor toilers would have it in their power to have their homely tables satisfied. Maybe, * for nearly weeks beforehand, they had been compelled to subsist on potatoes, washed down by weak tea, without augur or milk, with occasionally a bit of fat pork to vary the monotony. How would this suit the station hands of the present, who. though liberally supplied with all life's neoessiiries, consider it a great hardship to have to put up with the '• everlasting mutton ?" Perhaps a fresh batch of workpeople would be on board, ooming to get their first taste of life in the bush— b« disillusioned — and. possibly Ssnongst thoia flight be found a face familiar i:» eoaie among the homesick and well-nigh disheartened workero already on the spot. V " ' : Bush-felling had its charms, ao doubt, and sawing timber its alleviations—as when a pitman got a turn at top sawingbut when the heavy toil went on and on, day after day, month after month, without any prospect-of oeuation, and that for the barest livelihood, a strong frame and a stout heart were indispensable, if the hope of bettering themselves, which had induced them to emigrate, was ever to be realised. In some instances the strong frame, in others the stout heart, whs wanting. To all it seemed peculiarly hard that, having been induced to cross the ocean by glowing misrepresentations of the life awaiting them, they should, on their arrival, find themselves in a worse position than they were in their fatherland. In the very early days, there was but little employment, in the North at any rate, other than .that offered by. bush-owners, timber dealers, and the northern copper mines, and \t may easily be understood how unauited such i severe labour was to many amongst those whom misfortune or enterprise had led to accept the tempting baits held out. •' >■. I Of course' the early i settlers did not all belong to the labouring classes, but by far the larger proportion Were in an impecunious condition, which - made it imperative upon ' them . to obtain- employment of some kind. Looking back after the lapse of many years, when, having wrung from fortune a competence, -they could enjoy their well-earned rest, some of them would exhibit no little pleasure in relating stories of. the past, and in, "fighting their battles over again," proud father than otherwise, that' single-handed, without a penny or a friend in the world, they had fought their way inch by inch; > « ; We who have lived long in Auckland, are very proud of our beautiful 1 town—beautiful ill, even .visitors from far off lands, aoknow-

ledge it. ; Year by year ' its fine . public building*, warehouses, and handsome private residences increase in * number, while \ the lovely suburbs constantly extend their limits in all directions. ; The eye* of new arrivals are greeted, as they round the North Head, by as lovely a panorama as eyes could desire to rest upon, extending for miles up and down the banks of the Waitemata. Huge steamers and great sailing vessels crowd i the wharves, and the harbour is full of craft of infinite variety. ! I fancy Ivam ■ dreaming sometimes when I look upon the "Now,' and think upon the " Then " as described by fluent tongues now silent for ever. Government Home of those days would be disdained by » simple clerk to-divy. . The few civil servants were housed in very humble tenements, bnilt of wood as indicating their rank, for with the Governor and staff at their head they, of course, formed the colonial Upper Ten, a pre-eminence they still retain, or at least consider themselves entitled to. The wooden houses could have been counted upon the ten fingers. All the other' domiciles were of " raupo," put together by the Maoris for a trifling sum, and very cozy little nest* they were, too. ' ; The natives about Auckland were very friendly, and many a seasonable gift of kumaras, or other native produce, would testify their kindly feeling to those who treated them with consideration. Indeed, many old settlers have assured me that they have ever found the natives unvarying in their friendliness, and they would - much more willingly have trusted themselves unarmed in their midst than with some of toe Europeans who had found their way tot tie oolony. It was, of course, to be expected th it, in a shipload of people ready to accept fiee passages, there would be not a ; few of tiie baser sort—the very scum of the old, countiy population some of them were. These wretches, in addition to those who had arrived by other means, could not fail to make trouble wherever they located themselves—on the timber stations among the whites ; or among the Maoris in the pas— wherever they could gain access to them. Many a deed of violence— and even horror—was perpetrated by them ; and there is no doubt that to the provocation of some, and the incitations of others, not a few cf the native difficulties were due. PHORMIOM TaNAX.