BEN RUDD, THE FLAGSTAFF HERMIT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20988, 29 March 1930, Page 19

BEN RUDD, THE FLAGSTAFF HERMIT.

Many kindly references have been made to the late Mr Ben Rudd. From boyhood I knew him well, as he often worked for my father and. hardly ever mounted the hill before he had called in to say “ goodnight.” Pbe late Mr Peter Duncan, of Maori Hill, was a good friend to Ben, and I can yet hear the old man say to me, “Johnnie. Mrs Duncan has filled me up to the chin.” Ben ceased to come down to work, and e ? week-ends Mr Duncan would make the long climb to see how the old man was faring. My father often did the same, taking me with him. What a worker was Ben! In a dip of the hills he picked a spot ful] of stones as big as a house. How he shifted these and built them into a wall passes one’s comprehension. \ou understand the ancients and their toils when you see what this old man did single-handed. The location of his section caused trouble, for when you go to the dip the top lay right in front of you, but intervening was the Rudd estate. And estate it was, for he bought up over 100 acres. The natural road was across Ben’s property, and the barbed wire fence was so close that a rabbit could hardly go through, nete was the temptation. Climbers got oyer the top or, worse still, strained the wires to let their lady friends through. God help you if you were caught. One day I wag up visiting Ben and we were strolling round when suddenly a great tall roan and his daughter or daughters 1 forget which—were seen coming through the fence. There was a roar and a rush for the first available weapon which happened to be a pitchfork. Away X tore to warn the invaders and discovered to my horror it was my college singing master the late Mr A. M. Braik, The girls got off the land, but Mr Braik and 1 had to appease the tiger. After a keen struggle the Braiks escaped, but I wasdn disgrace. For more than a year he passed me without a word. His words still coma to me as he turned his back, « Oh, Johnnie 1 did not expect that from you.” borne months afterwards I bearded the hls , den, taking a good stock of delicacies. I found the old man very weak and so by gentle ministry I atoned tor what he considered a great wrong. JfA e g ?f a * Ben had built were his pride. But many a man found them too 3 H mptatloa - They presented such a viantage-grouud from which to sur'ey the landscape. If you were caught once, you did not go again. Ben suffered for his virtue. He loved the beautiful in Nature, and all through his little glen ho had left choice natiVe trees. A creek babbled its wav through his land close to the house, and many a choice corner he had made with native trees, clematis, and ferns. He was away all da.v working in the Kaikorai Valley or up in Roslyn. Often when he went home Jus animals had been let out, and were straying miles away. The little groves were burned. Picnickers made their fire, and then thought nothing oi firing some clump dear to Ben’s heart. One day he found 12 ducks dead—■ poisoned. Why are men so devilish to the queer, to those who seem odd? I have seen the old man almost in tears when he surveyed the ruins. Finally, he could etand it no longer, and stayed at home, living on very little. the thoughtless and the intentionally destructive will never know how Ben suffered through their actions. Mr Duncan got Ben to surrender his gun, so that he would not be tempted to use it. Many a more polished man would have used it more. Ido not wonder at what Rudd did, but at what he retrained from doing. Dear old Kit, his old mare, was pensioned off and cared for till she died. I can see him yet; clothed in corduroy to a fixed pattern, made by the late Mr A. Anderson, of Rattray street, he presented a queer spectacle.

Often did he run into Kaikorai School with a lump of meat under hie arm. Without invitation he entered our rooms after some youth who had dared to call out to him. The teacher generally had trouble to pacify him. Ben loved children. Birds and flowers and trees were dear to his heart. Beneath that rough exterior there was a very human heart, but the actions of men soured him. and he fled from men to Nature. Peace to Een’a ashes! He has left the imprints of his skilled labour iu the mountain-side.