THE PIONEERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 28 (Supplement)

THE PIONEERS.

By JOYCiI D. BURT. Fcaton Street, Waihi (ago 15.). How many of us are there who really do remember the early pioneers, and who realise the great work they did for us when they left England, their home-land, to come to settle in this wonderful country, now so fertile, but then uncultivated and barren? Wo will never realise the great hardships that beset them on all sides, and how bravely they struggled, day by day, and year by year, to build up cities and towns, and to cultivate the land which they knew would yield great riches if only they could settle and sow their crops. Undoubtedly the greatest hardship that these early settlers had to combat was the enmity of the Maoris toward them. Suddenly, and when least expected, the war-like Maori tribes would bear down upon them. The settlers would be forced to fine for their lives, while their houses were robbed of anything of value, and then burned. And when they returned—if they were lucky enough to do so—only the charred and blackened ruins remained, to show where their former homes had been. Many, indeed most, of those who came out to New Zealand early in the nineteenth century, wero quite unused to the kind of work that now faced them. Perhaps they had heard that it was a land " flowang with milk and honoy." Certain it is, howover, that, once they knew what they had to tace, they did not shirk what they took to be their duty. Tho land would have been even at ordinary times, hard to cultivate, being covered with fern, scrub, undergrowth and toa-tree; but, with their crude tools, our fore-fathers found it well-nigh impossible to effect any great clearance. Added to this, wero minor discomforts, which were quite now to them. The food which they ate Bad to bo mostly fish or tinned produce, and their vegetables were the roots of herbs and shrubs: Thus,

fhey did not have the veriety of fare from which,' hitherto, they had been able to cl.i'Ose.

■ Then the question of communication confronted them. Very oft eir, it was weeks before tliey heard anything of their neighbours, let alone. of their anxious relations ;<t Home. There were very few roads, and in' flood time, those that there were impassable. And if, by some great stroke of luck, they were able to send ft letter, there wero very many months of weary waiting before they heard from their loved ones.

Also, in the event .of anyone being seriously ill, it wan of little to to see a doctor* • even though one was sent for. There wero too few to bo able to visit all the sick, especially those living remoto from the towns. Very often the doctors could not reach them, on account of the bad stato of the roads.

And so it was amid privations and trials of this kind, living constantly with their lives in danger, that these sturdy English settlers persevered and " stuck to it," setting us a good oxamplo of courage and bravery, which wo would do well to follow.

The very least we can do is to remember them, and to revere their memory.