REMINISCENCES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1352, 27 January 1898, Page 12

REMINISCENCES.

r [Br OLD SETTLER] : v ".'■ > ' It has Often been said that as one advances in years the scenes and memories of early ybnth. become more visibly and indelibly impressed on the matured mind, notwithstanding the > fact that many of them may have many years entirely, measure, I believe to be entirely true. My earliest recollections of Stew Zealand date back to the year 184?; ;t was then a youth verging on ten summers;; but I well remember it was on September morning of that year that the look-out on the foretop shouted "Land oh!" %.!' Where away ?" was the question put to him. "On the starboard 1 ; bow!" was thei reply. This was . the first and only land, we had sighted | since the shores of Old England receded from ourview some four monthspreviously. The; announcement therefore caused no little, nutter of excitement among* the passengers on that auspicious occasion. : ; We wereithen -bowling along with a beautiful fairwind, and all sail set, including studding sails below and aloft. ■These latter were immediately taken in and a man.placed over in the main chains, whose business thenceforward was to heave the lead every little while and report the depthi to one of the officers. No marine surveys of- cur immense coast line had then taken place. Every precaution was therefore very properly taken., ■■■■■'■ Anchors were hoisted out and many 3 .) fathorbs of chain laid {carefully out along t the deck in readiness • to .cast anchor at • any-moment j meantime all the passengers fore and aft brought up from below all their "weapons of wari" guns and pistols of naost ancient type, swords, cutlasses, &c., &c. These were all furbished up, lead bullets cast, and every preparation made to meet a savage and determined foe, We had made land on the we|t pojistippf*,tb%* South Island, and our destination" was at the head ;} of IJlind Bay, 'which I think we reached On the followirig day.HHere we fell in with several pioneer emigrant ships, by whom we were heartily cbeeted as we safely passed the' iiMated shi£ Fkeshire, "piled , tp " on the rock that to'this day bears her name; and dropped anchor m Nelson , Barbour, We had had an uneventful voyage if J except ; the fact that we should have been dapsized off the Gape of Good Hope a squall only that the sails obligingly burst all into ribbons, and so allowed the ship to right herself; and: * subsequentr.tO this,i;when running down r- our easting, we encountered a dumber of icebergs, and as at the same time we had heavy 1 falls/of snow,this considerably increased the danger of our position. Happily tor us whomtherewas a considerable number, we wereentirely oblivious of danger and revelled in the fact of our being able to play at snow-balling. ;It is 1 weUtfoatelnere is a tame, short though it be, when the cares of life, not tp say dangers,' sit only f upon us. Mj early impressions of,, days those of a huge and continuous; picnic. The little ~ ■ basin whereon the -city of Nelson now stands wasr-on jthe. principle of " nature more beautiful then than now. The "big bush—as we children named it, a ; lovely bit of timbered country rtintiihg several: miles, principally on the north-east bank 'of'' the Maitai river, presented a, bbld : front; to the city,, softened and tapered to speak, by • Pvergreen? bush proper interspersed with occasional buhchep. of toi toi, flax, nikau palms, and ;fern trees in rich luxuriance. Such loveliness' might have ; beeh e<jnalied but cpuld never have been surpassed and who shall describe and do justice to the beauties of the .Brook street ■streamfromits junction with the Maitai to its source in the beautiful hills above the„ I certainly cannot. Every little streamlet in those days were similarly adorned. Nelson was quite an ideal place for "new chums," as itwas also a kind of Chicago for the Maoris; The backbone range of mountains rising in the Collingwood district. overlapping the hills rising in Picton arid Blenheim districts forms an amphitheatre of the highest mountainsi in New : ."iZealand and thereby deflects the worst prevailing winds to such an extent sometimes that it is quite enervating to live there, hence perhaps the " terra-'Sleepy Hollow. \ In no other respect, as Jf ? knpw, is; the term applicable. Its presentlinhabitants rejoice in the fact -that there are; more Ixours of pure sunahine' in" Nelson in any given year than on any other part of the habitable globe. Be..that as it may, the pioneers had plenty Of and I believe they improved each shining hour first in selecting a suitable place for a houseand garden and also to be near firewood. This done, many of them built frames of round poles and built the walls and thatch of bullrush or raupo. Others, again, let the poles into the ground about two feet apart and temporarily filling the spaces with fern, and hatched the roof with toi-toi. x'he heads of families in most cases had to work for Company/ *nd in most

cases these works were conducted on what I now believe to be most approved principles, viz., piecework under overseers, and when the week's work was done,'which generally was on the third or fourth day of theweek.it left the other time available for the men to do home or garden work for the remainder of the week. It also encouraged many to take up land in the country districts, where it was in reality much safer from threatened Maori raids than in the'so-called towns. The shores of Blind Bay, commencing at the, Farewell Spit, including , Massacre Bay (now known under the more euphonious; name of Golden Bay), Takaka and its numerous bays and inlets, till we get down to Riwaka, Motueka, lower Moutere and Waimea West on the one side, while Wakapuaka, Croixelles, D'Urville's Island and Queen Charlotte's Sound are on the other.' These were all literally swarming with Maoris, who all made for Wakatu (Nelson), Very interesting it was to watch their approach. The Cookies (lower caste [ Maoris) had cbarge of the canoes contain- ' ing pigs, potatoes, melons, pumpkins, kumaras, maize, and the thousand and one Maori productions of those days, whilst the rangatiras (gentlemen) came in great j state in their war canoes, beautifully equipped in Maori fashion, paddled by warriors, six feet high and over, a' splendid race of fellows ; and if the water was at all smooth, which was usually the case, the whole of the numerous paddles were lifted and they gripped the*? water with mathematical precision, accompanied with chants of war songs, led by one or other of the chiefs, standing in a conspicuous part of the high canoe, with spear and mere in hand. The gorgeousness of some of these war canoes, manned as above described, must be seen to be appreciated. The modern Maori has lost the warlike though graceful pose of the ancient race of Maori warriors, which was /bound, to command respect and. admiration from friend and foe alike. The fact of there being two, distinct races of aborigines was much more apparent fifty six years ago than now. One class were a fine manly, upstanding, athletic race of men, mostly with straight hair, high foreheads, aquiline noses, thin lips, wellmade prominent chins, and a geneial gracefulness of manner, that contrasted strongly with the squat, thick lipped, broad mouth and low forehead of their numerous brethren. That they were numerous may be judged by the fact that some years after this country was being settled by the white man their ascertained number approximated a quarter of a million, and at the present day they barely reach forty thousand, the great majority of whom are of the squat kind. Why is this thus ? My theory is that the former class of men did all the fighting in their intertribal wars, as well as against the English, and that the squat kind invariably did the menial work and were not exposed to the dangers of their warlike brethren, it cannot, therefore be fairly! said as between thp two casts of men that it is a case of the survival of the fittest, and.the great dimunition in numbers from fiftysix years ago can be fairly accounted, for principally by intertribal wars and wars with the English; and secondly their admiration of European clothing, which they only—for many years —adopted in part, hence they contracted chest and other complaints, which , after became hereditary and has been the cause of more deaths than wars.; Drink, too, no doubt has, to some extent, been a factor, but a small one compared to the others. You find them, now with fairly numerous families, and if they attend to sanitary laws there is no reason why their, downward course should not be arrested and their general longevity made equal with our own. That European settlement m this fair country would have been greatly retarded, if, indeed, possible, had all the Maoris been hostile towards us, goes without saying, but thanks to the influence of the early missionaries we found a large proportion of them friendly disposed towards | us, while still a large section of them could I foresee what must be the inevitable result of a large white population inheriting their lands, and tried every means to induce their more friendly brethren to tomahawk and drive into the sea every white man, woman and child. Knowing the little reliance to be placed in dark skins generally, this must have put our parents into a state of great perplexity as to what they should do with their children, and all of us who have children can easily imagine their feelings. " For myself I wouldn't care much, but what about the dear children." Who, I ask—having children —does not understand that phrase ? I maintain that the adult population of New Zealand in the early forties were heros and heroines, and here let me add inter alia, that it would only be an act of justice as well as grace on the part of the Government to make free grant? of land to every surviving son and daughter of these heros and heroines. How well I remember my father taking his turn with others , watching on the bills and the passes leading

I into the town of Nelson so as to give timely warning for the women and children to 'make a rush for the very secure little fort that encircled completely with double ditch and drawbridge the beautiful hill on which the Cathedral church now stands. It then i encircled a church, a small one certainly, but ! brie which we hope " the gates of hell may not prevail against." The Maoris did not attack ÜB;6n that occasion for the reason, I believe, that we were prepared to give them, a warm reception if they had come. We cleared the city boundary of all superfluous fern and every thing that would give cover to the wily savage. We were prepared to fight for dear life, and they* the malcontents, or rather patriots, were ; fighting for their own native land, I have j spoken to some of them in regard to the " Treaty of Waitangi." One of them told me that wo were a powerful and a wonderful nation, but a nation of hypocrites, and did not keep faith with them in regard to that treaty. Further, that bad we marched from end to end of their islands, conquered tfcem and taken the lands in Maori fashion, that we should have been held in higher esteem by them than making treaties and and breaking them I was at first inclined to get angry with him, but unfortunately there is too much truth in the allegation, so ! I forgive him; besides it opens up a great deal of controversial matter. Meantime the warriors are all gone, our parents, who endured so much, have also gone. The beautiful natural scenery has also mostly disappeared, and all the lovely songsters of the woods, or nearly all, are extinct. I was in the vicinity of a white pine bush a short time ago and I was charmed to hear the sweet notes of the mocking-bird, which I had not heard for years. It brought up so many recollections of-my boyhood's days that I write a few lines to his memory. "TJisterrto the inooking bi<d „■ -•" trie white pine tr>e, Sweeter notes T never heard, None so blylhe as he. Listen to his bell-like note, As he flits amongst the trees. Hear the echoea as they float, Borne aloft on summer breeze, I love to hear thy charming song, t Kemindir.gme ot happier clays, Whvn I was young and hale and strong, ' And roamed the woods, and hills, and braes. Sing on, sweet charmer of the doll, For near at hand thy litth mate Is ItVeninK to thee, spell, . Sitting on ber nest in state. Al>*« for thee, thou charming bird, Toy life, like mine, U hut a apan, Thy fcrest home will Boon be cleared By ruthless and unthinking man. Thy stately woods of which thou'rt proud, Are being felled from Hhore to shore, Their burning ashe* form a shroud For mooting birda we'll hear no more.