ROUND the WORLD

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11293, 19 August 1922, Page 9

ROUND the WORLD

(By

R.A.L.)

“REMINISCENCES." (ARCHBISHOP RF.DWOCD.) At the desire of friends, His Grace the Archbishop has written theso reminiscences of his childhood, youth, and early experiences. As he was a small boy of three when he landed with his family in Port Nicholson in the year 18-12, the reminiscences are, of course, largely of the pioneer days. They begin on board “the good ship George Fyfe, making a long but fair passage of five months. A vessel of 600 tons, she carried a number of emigrants brought out under the auspices of the lately-formed New Zealand Company, whose noble purpose was to bring to New Zealand a selected lot of emigrants of all classes, to occupy the land just purchased, or to be purchased, from the Maoris, and thus found a model colony.” This realisation of the “noble purpose” comes well from the pen of one who lived with, and was brought up by, pioneers in that great venture and witnessed their early efforts. Moreover, it shows us the spirit in rvhich they made their plunge into the wild. A PIONEER START IN LIFE. Whatever they may have lost, theso pioneens, it is certain that they never lost time. Arrived m Port Nicholson, the family started at once for Nelson, and on arrival there headed for a fiftyacre section bought by its .head in London before leaving on the voyage. The section—it turned out, as expected, to be very good land—was in the Waimea, some miles from Nelson. The Waimea was a wild wilderness, and the family went very soon to the section by boat most of the way, on foot the rest. They had sent forward materials for a shelter to live in while they built a house and cleared the fifty acres. The shelter was built of canvas and timber, the last consisting of the fittings of their quarters on the ship, bought by the head of the family, together with a lot of canvas. In this shelter, a tent 60ft long, divided into compartments by boarded partitions and fastened by ropes to stakes sunk in the ground, the family found comfort during the building of their house and the clearing of their land. HOW THEY BUILDED. The first work was the sinking of a well, and they got water at 17ft, “excellent, clear, gravel-filtered” water. For the house they wanted stones, bricks, lime, timber. Where were these to be found? There was no Government to bully with a deputation; no newspaper to write to, “Pro bono pnblico”; no time to make clamour. The family just helped itself as best it could. Somebody who-knew about lime and had built a kiln was found; somebody else of the assorted emigration could make enough bricks for a chimney ; somebody knew what to do with the trees of the forest. Therefore, the house presently went up. “A comfortable two-story house, for a number of yearn the best house in the Nelson district, and one which stood without a crack through the violent earthquakes of 1848 and 1855.” It was built of “peasy, that i 3, a mixture of clay and gravel, and finished inside and out by a Coating of white plaster,” and named “Stafford Place.” There we see how these pioneers started their battle with the wilderness. It was the way they all went, in every district of the colony. It was how the “noble purpose” was fulfilled. Such was the foundation of this Dominion. THE GROWTH OF COLONISATION. The story thus begun is told in these “Reminiscences” m a style simple, and clear, and vigorous, with a directness almost quaint, the salient points prominent, the details illuminating, in' spite, of the teise treatment, the interest maintained with the calm flow of the style. One learns later that the boy, growing np in that wilderness (the future Archbishop) read much, and this style, reminiscent as it is of Defoe’s simplicity and directness and power to interest, suggests that he must have become well acquainted with “Robinson Crusoe.” As we read, we mark the progress which comes as the fruit of well-directed industry; we see the daily life of this family, its deep, religious feeling and constant practice. We realise the scenes of its work and the growth of colonisation round about it, with its harvests and its plantations, and the gradual change in the climate of the district, together with the education under great difficulties of the young. A deeper note brings out the growth of the Church through many difficulties, and we have glimpses of saintly pastors, strenuously working. The deepest note touches the vocation which brought the boy to the Church and his elevation therein. “My extraordinary vocation,” the author calls it, “the first of the kind in New" Zealand.” It is a touching and edifying story of leaving home and friends in obedience to the supreme call. Briefly, and in their simple, easy, vivid style, the “Reminiscences” tell how the boy took his schooling; how he interrupted it to do his work on the farm and harvest field; how he left all in a small ship for Sydney; how he sailed to London, and reached his college in Franco. His notes, by tho way, are original and interesting; the college life is of surpassing interest in a sotting remarkable for its modesty and piety. College finished, the “Reminiscences” end : for the rent of the story, of how tho boy came hack in twenty years Bishop of Wellington, is too well known to require telling, as is the distinguished life story that followed that return. All this fnrnishes for tho Archbishop’s flock and his friends tho main interest. The ordinary reader will find his “Reminiscences” of the pioneer days exceedingly attractive, for the light they throw on thoso times as well as for the manner of th© telling.

WHEAT. Wheat-growing depends on Government help in Now Zealand. It was not always so. Nearly fifty years ago it was discovered that wheat can be easily and safely carried oversea. The ancients knew that, for corn used to bo carried by sea from Egypt to Rome, but that did not prevent our people thinking it a wonderful discovery. Anyhow, it sent up wheat-growing greatly in the ’7o’s and ’Bo’s. The pioneers before that time had found wheat profitable. For example, Mr Redwood, senr.—as told by his son the Archbishop in his reminiscences—in one seaeon reaped 6000 bushels of first-class wheat, and got ten shillings a bushel for it. The money ho invested at once in land. That was how these pioneers got on. Among his harvesters was his whole family, amongst them the future Archbishop, who left school —as was tho custom for all schoolboys in harvest time—for the paternal fields, and there reaped with a sickle his halfacre a day with the best of them. That was how these pioneers brought their young people up. THE BUDGET. Wo have had the Budget. Nobody hoped for much, and nobody has been much disappointed. After all, nobody can command a magio wand for doing wizardries of finance. Worlds ruined by war, with currencies ruining commerce, don’t groi£ the trees out of which magic wands are made. The Budget was dull. What else, when it presented an array of departmental businesses, which are not ideal food for Grimaldis and George Robeys, or even Gilberts. Without the magio wand, Mr Massey pulled through, with a prumng-knife in one hand and a surplus accumulation—left over from former years and made into a financial weapon—in the other. As he read, one could think of him as a political deputation found him one day long ago, forking stuff on to a stack. Doggedly he “stuck it.” He faced the mountain of difficulties m the spirit the pioneers took with them into the wilderness. He even was cheery. And he went so far as to dream a dream of paying off the national debt. Two Hundred millions sterling! To be sent up by sheaves, as it were, by those mighty shoulders to the high level where debts disappear into the empyrean, home of wizards of finance holding high revel. Pray, sir, don’t overdo it, oven if the House and galleries were too sleepy to cheer your new stunt. I LORD NORTHCLIFFE. Death has claimed him, as we all feared last week it would. A great personality has passed away. All the world bows respectfully over the grave of the greatest of journalists, who reaped the greatest of journalistic rewards. Nearly all the world is paying him tribute as a great Empire-builder, and some few are remembering that he was an Irishman, born in Dublin. Detractors he had in his time. They cultivated all the virtueVexcept generosity when they dealt with him and his affairs in life. In death they have turned to the generosity of silence. Good economists! they have saved the apology. MR GRIFFITH. The King’s condolence—the King always does tho right thing at the right moment—to Mr Griffith’s people j 3 a proof of the passing of the old Irish situation. It does what the best Englishmen are doing; it acknowledges that Mr Griffith was a great Irishman. Ireland mourns him not only for the loss of his leadership so bravely taken at the inward turn, but for his absence from the constructive work within the Empire which no one will ever do better than 'he would. It is a comfort, at least, to them'that over his honoured grave friends once parted are growing single-hearted. The pity of his death is that he did not live tc see the peace which his patriotic, service had brought so near.