OLD TIME REMINISCENCES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 9

OLD TIME REMINISCENCES.

(Specially written for the Neio Zealand Mail) No. 11. A* &Y AN OhD COLONIST; During the limb that the New Zealand Company remained in existence, things went on as merrily as the proverbial marriage bell. The original land purchasers were getting setttled on their lands and expending their iittle capital, but when nows cache that the Company had failed and broken up, there was dire disaster in New Zealand. It was previously known that the British Government had been approached by the New Zealand Company with a view to their taking over their affairs in New Zealand; and this fact caused considerable alarm to those who had paid for their lands ih England, as they Could plainly see that unless the work of immigration could be continued, and other covenants which the Company had entered into with these land purchasers, their lands would be but of little value to them. I remember one gentleman went Home for the express purpose of enforcing his claims in the Law C >urts if necessary ; but he compromised matters with them, and came out again, sold his land for what it would fetch and cleared out of New Zealand. Othei- claims were immediately pressed and resulted in extra land scrip on a uniform basis being issued to all those who had bought laud from the Company, and.to those who made judicious selections and could hold on to it. This was a great boom far exceeding in value their original purchases, which was perforce more of a haphazard arrangem .-iif, as none of them had seen it Until they came to settle. On the cessation of the Company’s works a very larg. prop >rti >u of ttio labouring class had marie absolutely no provision, or had even the -emotest .dea of such a contingency occur* i.'tg. Home of them, however, had purchased .-'mall sections of scrip land, and had plenty of Vegetables and wheat coming on and 6Ven these, many of them, were weeks and months without bread, and in some few cases had to dig out the late planted potato sets to eat to keep them from starving. I have said before that New Zealand was an ideal place to settle in. The woods were full of pigeons and kakas, the rivers and harbours were teeming with fish, and the whole country was full of wild pigs, and a good vegetable, of a species of rape, grew indigenously and in great abundance in places, and there was the fernroot to fall back upon h la Maori. Some'who had been in the employ of the New Zealand Company and had saved a little money departed for “ fresh woods and pastures new,” some to South America, and many to Sydney and Adelaide. Those who remained had for the want of money, to do a reciprocity business. The late employees of the New Zealand Company furnished posts, rails, sawntimber, shingles, labour &c., and in return received a cow, heifer, horse or land scrip to increase their small holding, and so they plodded j along to their mutual advantage e The i great drawback, for a time, was the want | of schools, but where all classes of the i community are imbued with the same idea j difficulties soon vanish, or at least become minimised. 11 was so in the early days of

the colony. People of all professions made it convenient to hold morning or evening * classes for the benefit of the more advanced pupils of the primary schools. This was a great boon to a great number of both sexes, and was duly appreciated not only by the beneficiaries immediately concerned, but by the Governor, Sir George Grey, who, as everyone knows, gave a great impetus to education throughout New Zealand. I remember having to interview Sir George in a representative capacity during his administration, and I also remember that he was very much moved when he came to know that I was one of the youths he used to address in the very early days; and that we had a long and interesting conversation on the early history of this colony goes without saying. When I shook hands with the dear old statesman at our parting he said, “ I am happy in the belief that my labours have not been in vain.” Had-the authorities in Downing Street held the same advanced and liberal views as Sir George Grey in the matter of colonisation there would have been no need for the directors of the New Zealand Company to have approached them a second time either for financial ai4 or to take oyer and

carry on the work ably initiated by them. It is almost incredible of belief that statesmen could be found in Great Britain entertaining such opinions as appears to have been held by them at this period of our history, witji of the United States of America; then green in their memories. . Happily the geiius “Little Englander” is last dying out and giving place to thos'e of more advanced ideas. In the end the British.. Government did, as we know, fake over the company’s liabilities, amounting to about ,£l6B 000. I must not forget to mention what I can only term the extreme fertility of the soil at that time; virgin though it was, it is all the more astonishing to me, as I have proved that the same results are not now attainable under, as appeared to me, precisely similar conditions. One might simply pull out the long fern stalks and sow turnip seed without digging the land, and in six or eight weeks a beautiful crop of turnips would result therefrom. All kinds of fruit 1 trees and bushes grew in a most astonishing manner, and in nine basbs out of ten all the branches had either to be tied up oh propped up to keep t-heni from breaking down by the weight of fruit. For a number of years we had no blights of any kind, and a small orchard in those days—whether in the early springtime of in the autumn, was in very truth “a thing of beauty, but, unfortunately, not a joy for ever.” The seasons were then perhaps more equable in the matter of rain than obtains at the present day; at any rate it was as providential for the early settlers as if it had been specially interposed. IJp to the year 1860 things in New Zealand, though not in a flourishing state —as we fidw understand the term—yet there was no poverty, everyone had plenty to eat and to drink, and the wherewithal! to be clothed. Elaboration iii dress was less studied then than now, and-1 believe people were quite as happy. Gold was discovered in California about this time, and baiised soirie little flutter of excitement throughout the Australasian Colonies. A fair sprinkling of adventurous spirits from each colony tried their luck at those distant fields with varied success. One gentleman, more speculative than the rest, built a vessel of most extraordinary design with a flat bottom and side wings, or fins, that could be raised or lowered when sLe was sailing on a Wind, her tonnage, I should say, was about 100 tons, a little more or less. I forget her name, but most people facetiously Called her the “ Town Acre.” She was built for the Californian trade, and duly despatched, but she never reached her destination, nor has she returned. So much for private enterprise and native genius. The volume of trade with the outer world was then of very small dimensions. This was before the days of ocean steamers. Sailing vessels of from 30 to 200 tons were then all sufficient for our intercolonial, and ranging up to 500 tons for trade with the Old Country; and as far as I remember, we congratulated ourselves on having made fairly good progress during the nine or 10 years the most of us had been living in thus fair and beautiful country. We lived frugally, but-our wants were small; no swaggers or unemployed in those days. We had no Trades and Labour Council. Eight hours was the recognised day when a man was employed at almost any kind of work, and those of us who worked for ourselves found the day all too short to accomplish all that we had set ourselves out to do.

i Some twelve or eighteen months after ■ gold had been found in California it was also found in New South Wales, ; and a little later in Victoria. The , excitement consequent on these dis- , coveries can be easier imagined than described. Sensational reports were constantly received from different places, always exaggerated, but at all times with a large percentage of truth in them, as I afterwards astertained, Lawyers, doctors, parsons, "aii'd' in short all the professions - were well represented. I caught the gold fever among the rest, and having secured two trustworthy mates, one, an articled lawyer’s clerk, and the other, an accountant in a merchant’s office whom I shall name Jim and George respectively, both good men and true, we took passage to Sydney in a brigantine of a hundred tons burthen, for which we paid .£3O for a saloon pus-sage, and had a good send-off by our friends and acquaintances, the night proceeding our departure, for be it known, a trip to Sydney in those days—especially as in this case it meant also a trip of several hundred miles into the then dreaded “Australian Bush” ( —was not then to be thought ns lightly of j as similar trips now-a-days. Nevertheless i crowds of would-be passengers rushed the | tiny ships as they left for Australia, and I our ship was not singular in this respect. The Custom-house boat was alongside and the officers inspecting the ship’s papers and passenger list, and not content with „ this, searched the ship through. They failed, however, to discover more than the number alio wed by law, owing perhaps to the fact of its being night, for immediately after we had squared away and stood on our course such a caterwauling and cockcrowing thatjthen struck up, I never heard before nor since. This was owing to the fact that twenty-eight fellows in excess of the proper number had managed to stow themselves away over the bow and in the foretop of this small vessel (the Captain was fined heavily for this on his return to New Zealand). We arrived in Sydney after a passage of eleven days. The allurements of Sydney after the hum drum life of New Zealand proved too strong for my mates and I, for we spent many weeks there before we finally took our departure for the diggings, which we did one fina morning in December, 1852, after enjoying ourselves to satiety. At this time there was not one mile of railway constructed in the Southern Hemisphere. I mention the fact to show the immense strides in railway construction that have taken place during the past

years, which in very great measure arb attributable to the discoveries of gold in Australasia. My rilates ahd I, however, were qriite satisfied to be on top of one of Joneg’ coachec; drawn by four thoroiighbred< New South Wdles was then noted for the excellence of her horses, both for speed and endurance, and mobs of iinbrokefl colts could then be purchased on the run 6 at from 40s to 50s per head for export purposes. Therefore, perhaps, drivers were less cdrefiil than they otherwise might might have been. Be that as it may, we travelled along on splendid roads —that had been previously cut out of the solid sandstone or granite rock by convict labour —at a furious pace, a pace I should not care to travel at nowadays, but we in our youth enjoyed it immensely, as did the driver when he narrowly shaved a projecting piece of rock in rounding some of the numerous points of the road. The stages, in point of distance, were regulated according to the character of the country, but I speed was the great object then, as now, I without, any consideration for the poor fyrtites that had to draw Us. My rilates and I, having at length parted with our coach ahd driver, struck into the btisb, carrying oUr swags. This was (puite a new experience for tis, arid being near Christmas Day, we found the weather extremely hot, but towards evening our hearts were gladdened by the sight of a very decent hostlery, which we immediately went for, and as they gave us the use of their best private room, containing a piano, &c., we decided to remain a couple of days and recuperate our wasted energies. The good people tried to persuade us to remain over Christmas) which I readily assented to, but on putting the question to the vote, “ the rioes had it/’ sO we sWagged it again. We were induced to take a short cut and were to have found ourselves on the diggings the same night, consequently we only took with us sufficient food for a scanty meal. We lost our way,, and in digging parlance were 1 ‘ bushed.” We should perhaps have made light of this, the first night, if' we had found water, but as we had neither food nor water, the seriousness of our position was too plainly apparent. Fortunately for youth, it always looks upon the bright side of things, and we talked ourselves into the belief that we should find a track, if not the track, early on the following morning, and consequently we slept weir and started early and wandered all day without finding either a track or water. George related with solemn pathos the great number of people that at different times had been lost in the Australian bush, and had never been found. This had the effect of keeping us very quiet, and several hours would pass without either of us exchanging a word. We were suffering intensely from thirst, but for a long time I found relief to some extent by keeping a quartz pebble in my mouth, and to that fact alone do I attribute my superior condition on the second night of our misfortune. I was very much alarmed for my mates, who in the early evening of the second day showed unmistakeable symptoms of delirium, but as thanight advanced I induced them to lie down and. rest their heads on their swags, when they shortly after fell asleep. I can now, in my mind’s eye, see them as plainly as I saw them in the flesh on that memorable Christmas Eve, 1852. The awfulness of our situation at this time I can never forget, nor the retrospect I took of my then short life. I picture to myself the preparations that were being made by the dear ones in the far off New Zealand. I knew that my health and prosperity would be drunk by them while perhaps I might be stiff and hard in the much dreaded Australian bush. While thus cogitating, I saw a streak of light in the eastern sky, and was trying to think out the direction we ought to steer, and while thus thinking I heard at a great distance the noisy chatting of the laughing jackasses. There seemed to be a great number of them, and it seemed as if they were enjoying their laugh at our expense, but when I came to consider that they belonged to the kingfisher family, I knew there was water in their immediate neighbourhood. The thing for me to do then was to locate the chattering and this I proceeded to do as soon as it was light enough. I then called to my mates and told them I had found water. This induced them to follow me, and I, fully believing my theory of the water being near the birds, kept on as fast as I could before the sun became too powerful for us in our weakened condition, and was rewarded by finding water after about two hours travell ng, which seemed to me a lifetime. We aim’st cried for joy, and made up our m uds that if we had to die if. should not be for the want of water. We followed this stream down and soon came upon a well-trodden track, and after another hour or so we discovered a well defined track leading down to the stream, or rather chain of water-holes, and looking up we discovered a good slab hut on a terrace hard by. There did not happen to be anyone in, but on examination we found it well provisioned, so we immediately set to work and refreshed the inner man. When we had so done and rested, we cooked a more dainty meal and made ourselves thoroughly at home and before leaving we helped ourselves to provisions for one day, but that same night we arrived at our destination. We should never have known who our benefactors were only that my mate “ Jim ” was a bit of a poet and in the early afternoon he wrote a full description of our late misfortune in very good prose, and tacked it up over the rough mantelpiece of the hut.. A few weeks after this there was news of a great rush in Victoria, some seven hundred miles from where we were then digging, and of course we set out for it, and on arrival we found about fifty thousand diggers, but where we commenced to work our flat contained about 18,000, some exceedingly rough customers. Others, again, were very decent fellows,

two of them vised frequently to spend their evenings in our hut. One of them recounted this adventure of our being lost, &e., and after giving us their opinion that the said three* . raiist have been “ real decent fellows/’ 1 introduced him to “ Jim/ 4 and mutual congratulations of course followed, but alas for my dear old mates, they ( both hsLnded id their eheOks years ago, but I still love their memories as good men aiid true. (To be continued.)