EARLY WAIRARAPA

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11251, 1 July 1922, Page 12

EARLY WAIRARAPA

I Story of its Settlement I

(Special to the New Zealand Times),

'flu' full story of early Wairarapa settlement is as yet a ui’.e untold, and Mar In year creep s slo.vlv by without any di -finite sups being taken to piece together even such fragmentary records extant ns might receive correction anil revise at tltc hands of those whore •.second-generation" remembrance of such events are fast drawing to a close. Of its more primitive days, is therefore here reprinted some versions that are new, and many that are old. if only by way of stimulating—ere yet it comes too late to seem worth while—that flagging zeal in past events which such telling well deserves.

there being no land constitutionally available at tile time, Sir Georgo Grey could not just then put, his wishes into practice, and, despite continued agitation (which grew to fever-heat alter tne timely arrival of Mr Edward Gibbon U'akefield), it was some time before Mr McLean—his principal land purchase commissioner—succeeded in obtaining from the natives of Wairarapa an option over those tracts of land whose suitability Messrs Masters and Jackson were elected, by public, meetinfi, to report upon; a block of land at the Pnkuratalii having already been respectfully declined as a result of Mr Tocker’s glowing account of the Wairrrapa as being a more ideal area for future settlement.

Much as is, generally speaking, the desire of all good citizens to see full justice done to the memory of those first pioneer settlors of New Zealand, whose numbers have long reached vanishing point, such meagre records as are left to tell the tale of so entrancing an era in which they ‘'spoilt laborious nights and days”—and helped to lay so solidly the firm foundations of our present Empire greatness—grow harder to obtain. To posterity lias been handed down so few authentic accounts of Wairarapa in its infant days that all hope seems gone of bringing it into line with that historical prominence in which other districts—no higher famed for men of sterling worth —stand related, for all time, wherein is told the story of British colonisation in the Southern Seas. From that oblivion which is threatened it —at the hands of Time—let all who can contribute against such end such versions of that glorious “land of Wydrop,” in their father’s day, as will the tale unfold.

Bv March 4th, 1853, Sir George Grey had reduct'd the price of rural land from “Os to 10s per acre; but before such laud could be declared open for sale, however, the Constitution Act had been brought into operation, and Dr. Featherston gazetted superintendent of the province of Wellington (August Ist, 18-53), Mr Domett, civil reeretary, in September conveying to his notice that, by the direction of His Excellency (Sir George Grey), the boundaries of the recently-purchased blocks in the W’airarapa would be fixed ns soon as practicable, and requesting His Honour, meanwhile, to determine —in conjunction with the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr Dillon Bell) —what reserves for towns, villages and public purposes were required ’in such distract; at the same time informing him that those holders of native leases would be treated as tenants of the Crown and allowed to purchase their homesteads —in accordance with the new regulations then in force—to tho extent of 80 acres.

Having narrowly missed —according to report-—being settled by that section of emigrants who came to settle on the Canterbury Plains, and of whom Godley was the leading pilgrim. Wairarapa could but draw upon Wellington’s sparse but energetic band of pioneers in the founding of an inland settlement which this city claims its own. First trusting, for its sustenance, upon that narrow strip of land, the valley of the Hutt, the time arrived when all eyes were turned to where the ranges cut them off from the distant grassy plains. That mountain harrier brushed aside, the long, long trek began. To those of its agricultural population who had suffered by the flood, such journey meant the will to start again as moved they, by arduous stages, all that might assist them in more distant fields of enterprise which they might call their own. Its pastoralists eschewed the narrow, tortuous, upland track which winded o’er the hill, and came by way of Palliser, and, with their flocks ai.d herds, soon settled down. Bush each had learned to fell, and felled again; by lake and riverside wae heard that song of axe and saw which ever preceded them in their taming of the land; its fruitful, later increase, being but the toil of long, long years. How this man rose to affluence, or that man fared less well, is no criterion whereby to judge the service to mankind which each man rendered them. These were “the days when the world was wide,” and none took stock of what a man possessed; and, beyond the wish, in adversity, to lend a helping hand, he was free to rise or fall. That each in his own way helped to found such townships as they’ve left near-scattered on these rich and fertile plains, is perpetual monument to their fame.

In reply, Hr. Featherston recommended that for the time being all land in the W’airarapa which extended from Burling’s, at the foot of the Rimutakas, to tho Waingawa river should be reserved as a hundred (one hundred rural sections of 40 acres each, and one hundred township acres) in order to give the promoters of tbe small farm scheme an opportunity of carrying .it out; also recommending that the pre-emptive right of the holders of native leases in the Wairarapa should he extended from 80 to 640 acres.

It was arranged, however, that the block, or blocks, reserved for the Small Farm Association should not, in the first instance, be proclaimed Hundreds, but should be sold to the members of the association in 40-acre sections (as rural land) at 10s an acre; these blocks the association might set aside for township sites to be treated in the same manner, the association buying the land as rural land and then surveying it off into town acres; after which had been done both settlements were to be declared Hundreds, and have all the rights, powers, privileges and revenues which the 1 ‘Hundred Ordinance” would confer upon them. Unfortunately, before the town sites had been purchased from the Crown, Sir George Grey had left the colony, and the “Hundred Ordinance,” in Wairarapa's case, was never brought into operation, thus minimising those larger local “powers, privileges and revenues” aforesaid—through elected boards of wardens—which the settlers generally looked forward to having conferred upon them at the outset of their new enterprise. (To be continued.)

Here followeth the genesis of that settlement in the “Valley of Wydrop,” which abler pens have striven to record, that we might read, and—as they wished—record again: “IN THE BEGINNING.” So long ago as September, 1843, at & meeting held at Wellington, it was resolved : “That the settlers of Port Nicholson require immediately an extensive district in which to depasture their increasing flocks and herds; and that the New Zealand Company’s principal agent (Colonel William Wakefield) be requested to adopt forthwith the measures necessary to render approachable, and to open for sale, the district of the "Wydrop.” In transmitting the above resolution to the Court of Directors (in London), Colonel Wakefield wrote: “I have before brought under your notice the importance of opening the iWairarapa Valley by means of a road up that of tho Hutt. A very respectable deputation from tbe settlers have again urged upon me the want of room for depasturing flocks and herds in this wooded district, and the great advantage to the settlement to be ensured by laying open for sale a largo block of land in the above-mentioned open, grassy plains. Numerous applications for the purchase of land, and for licenses for depasturing cattle there, have been made to me, and I have no doubt that, either by means of an inland settlement formed upon a similar system as this, with a small town, or by selling the land here and in England simultaneously, tho resources of tho company might be very sensibly increased. Nothing, however, can be effected towards this end unless a communication to Tub district be made.’’

In a lecture on “Peasant Proprietorship,” delivered in the Athenaeum Buildings some time prior to this, Mr Justice Chapman had expressed the hope that the Valley or Wairarapa would soon be dotted over with tho smiling homesteads of a numerous body of hardy peasant proprietors, incidentally referring to the success attianed by a section of those settlers already oitf.up.ying small farm allotments at ivurori and tho Hutt—Mr Joseph Masters also advocating in tho Press, some time later, for the setting aside of a block of land for settlement by men of -mall means—but it was not until an agitation was got up by tho said #uC lore in tho Hurt—whereby compensation in land might be granted them for losses sustained through certain remissnesses on fhe part of tho New Zealand company—that public opinion began to make any further move in the direction of carrying into effect tho resolution already forwarder! Home b.v Colonel Wakefield in 1843, as meanwhile a number of settlers—despite repeated proclamations warning them against so doing—had already occupied extensive portions of tho Wairarapa, with their flocks and herds, under native leases, and in open defiance of tho law.

At tins further meeting, a deputation consisting of Messrs Ludlain, TorIter, Scott, Renal! and Jackson waited uoon Sir Georgo Grey, tho Governor, who promised to afford the settlers every a sea stance i n the matter; but,