Old Colonists. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 37

Old Colonists. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— l was graffied at reading the history of two old colonists in your columns recently. HaviDg arrived lny.elf early in the '40*, if you have bo objection I will give you a little of my experience. To begin at the beginning, I left England in November 1842, and after a yassige of 116 days without seem* land, wa arrived in Auckland oa the last day of March 1843. Aucklmd - was a very small place afthat time. I was me of 60 young man immigrants, there being 350 of us altogether, and the good ship Westminster, of 800 -tons, brought vi safe after a pleas int passage.The authorities who received ua conducted us to our new homes at Mechanics' Bay, a row of r*upo huts— a deplorable lojking place. You could go in what was supposed to be a dojr and out at either Bide without let or hindrance. But we were ashore — that was something. The first thing to be done wa* to look for something to do. Work was very Bcarce, with wages at 2a 6d per day, and bread 2s a loaf. Beef or mutton was not to ho seen or heard tell of. Pork, fish, ani potatoes — that was the fare. Myself and two others got a job to cut firewood for a lime-burner up tha Waitemat'v River. He took ' U3 up in his small vesael, and then in his dingey up a leng maiig ovo creek to what ho called a whirs, which consisted of a faw boughs thrown together. If it rained you might as well be outside as in. Ho left us gome provisions, with instructions how to make a damper. We were to make plenty of embers, which we did, and put in the damper. When we thought it was cooked we took it out of the ashas, and when it was cool enough we thought we would have a. feed ; but when we attempted to cut it with our knivea we found it out of the question, so we laid it on a block and cut it in two with our axei. Beiug young, aud having good teeth, we managed to get through it, but as our employer did not make his appearance when the provisions were done, I thought it best to leave and go to Auckland. I got ajob with five of my nhipmatei to go to the Great Birrier copper mm«, situated at the extreme north end of the island— the very spot whera the unfortunate Wairarapa was lost. The wag« was £19 for six months, with rations. We thought our fortunes were made, and we fini-hed our term very pleasantly. Thera was plenty of shooting on the island. Thence I went with Mr Peter AbercromMe to the Waihoke Island, and raised 600 tons of manganete ore co send to Sydney as ballast for wool ship". It was worth about £8 per ton at Homo. We then paid a visit to Auckland, but did not remiin long. All our single girls, 3b' in number, were married by this tim<», the feminine gender appeariug to be a good deal more valuable than the sterner Hex. I soon got a job to go dov/n to Kawau Inland to assiitt in opening the Kawau" copper mine, balonging at that time to an Aberdeen company ; but after losing about £30,000 in the venture thsy gave it up, and afte. wards sold the island to Sir George Grey. This was about the time the fi>»fc trouble commenced with the Maoris. Hone Heke at the Bay of Islands took it into his sagacious head that the Biitish flag had no business flying there, so ho dealt summarily with the matter and cut down the fUgataff. A small sloop of war, the Hazird, wai on the station at the tinia inquiring into the affair. The sailors were sent ashore and put upthj fl*K again, bub it only remained about a fortnight before it was cut down once more, and then the trouble commenced in real earnest. Hone Heke, to hi 3 credit be it caid, sent the women aud children oa board the Government brig, CapUin Richardson, as the writer of the fketehes No*. 1 and 2 "Old Colonist' justly remarked, and they were brought to Auckland. The Maori* then saoked and burnt the principal buildings, after looting thorn The Haz»rd shelling and firing round shot, the Maoris soon cleared, carrying with thsm their ili-goltsn plunder, 'lhafc was but the precursor of further trouble. They retired to a small pa, about six miles from the b iy. At this time there were only t<vo companies of soldiers iv Now Zealand — one of the 96th and one of the 99th, the rennining portion of their regiments do'ng duly in Sydney, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island looking after prisoner*. The two companies, with the crew of the Hazard, attended, to take thin pa. Captain Robinson was shot «nd wounded in the legs and thighs by nine different balls, but was not killed. Firfat Lieutenant* Philpot, gon to the Bishop 'of Exeter, Jhen took command. l Iheir guns' were not sufficiently heavy to knock down the palisades, and they attempted to tak« -the pa hy escalade. Lieutenant Philpot was first up the Udders. H« was shot, falliug inside, and the Maoris ate him. We lost 137 men in k1 ed and wounded in soven minutes, without inflicting any serious loss on the enemy. So much for the first attempt. About this time Governor Fitzroy took his departure. lie could do nothing with Nbw Zealand, and Sir George Grey was sent from S <uth Australia to take the hfllm. He was the right man in the risht place. The Maoris now became emboldened. Heke joined i an old chief named Te vVhiti, who had a good many followers and a very large and very strong pa about 30 miles from the Bay of Islands, 12 miles up the river through bush country, followed

by opan country for about 15 miles ; than caras belta of timber, aad the last two miles wore impen.trable forest. The pa stood on the point of » terrace, with a long ' clearing behind ib I have given a long/ description as I shall have occasion to speak of this pa further on. By thU time troop 3 begin to arrive. The sSbh Regiment, part of tbe 65th, with the two" companies, making altogether about a thousand men, the whole commanded by Colonel Despard, Thun we had four men-of-we.r— viz, tho Caster (frigate), tbe Calliope, the Rucehorße, and the Elphinatone (sloop or war), belonging to the East India Company, and the Hazard before-uamed. Governor Grey called for 40 volunteers. I happened' to be one of the last-named, aud a pretty rough time of it we had. Our wages were to be lOi por week, and a grant of an acre of land In Auckland or 40 acres In the country. Being young and foolish, after the campaign was over I went to tha Adelaide ooppei* mines, staying there for. two years, and then came back to Now Zealand and got married to a young girl who oame out in 1840 to Port Nicholson. Neglecting tho land grant was a grave mistake. I have a petition now lying before the House of Representatives, endorsed.by Mtjor Koddell, R.M. and warden for Oamaru, prayiDg that they will award me some monetary recompense, as I am too old now to go on the land being 73 last birthday, and still digging in a very hard claim, washiag about Jew tto the load. Ido not think there is any fear of my becoming a millionaire. . Tim war of Heko's, at the Bay of Islands, commenced in 1815 and ended in February 1816. The troops and volunteers were taken down from A\Vckland to the Bay by the troopship Skainet Castle, and lauded at the Bjy. Wo were then taken up the river 12 miles by the ship's boats. There we formed our firat encampment, the guna (six 32-p-)uuders), a 24-pound rocket, Borne snorters, and any amount of shot. and shell, together with all the provisions, not forgetting the man-of-war's rum. All this g?ar had to be drawn and carried up by baud, entailing no small amount of labour, tho volunteer* cutting tha bush and making the road. On Christmas Day 1845 we had reached a pUca about 12 miles on, called- Waiev>nie. It poured all day, and as the volunteers had no tents they^lvere'rather uncomfort *blo. We encamped here for a day or two tilt all the war materinl had ar. ived. Then our work commenced in earnest, cutting through the belts of timber until we re»ched within two miks of the pa. Then we had the forest to couteud with. One of our men was shot by a party in ambush. After pushing <-n'for about three quarters of a mile we reached a small eminence about 30 acres in extent. There we formed a permanent camp. Governor Grey joined us here and took tha whole responsibility upon h'm3elf, directing everything. He was full of energy and work. This site commanded the Maori pa: We got the guns into positio , and were very soon shelling them with now and then a rocket ssnt blazing into theit pa ; but they stood it manfully for a month. The Governor was getting anxious, He said it was costing the old country £4000, and wa should have to get nearer. We cut roKis through the bush- foiled timber, and built a stockade that would hold 400 men, and then placed twu 32-pound suns to make the breach for the assault. The frieudly natives, under Tituati Waka, did the scouting in the bush 'for us. Governor Grey was always on the spot, superintending everything. -H« would come to unfel« ■ lowj every day and thank vi for working bo well, > gavo ur from the fii&t double returns and doubla allowance of grog, which we could sell if we liked for 2-3 a tot. We had to work on Sundays, and be up three or four times every night through faUe aUrms. I never had my clothes off for six weeks. When we opened fire upon the pa we very sooa msdo a breach, the timber being cut into by the shot. Then we built another small stuckads 90yds from the pa, more to the right, placed in it two 3^-pDut'ders, the thot playing upon the breach obliqudkr, so as to knock the timborer 'on one side. The Maoris became impatient and opened, fire, shooting onr old sergaant Munroe through the arm, aud one ball penetrating round th j ribs. We then finished a email wing as a shelter for the storming party. Wo soon had a breach big enough to drive a waggon through. We were commanded by Ctptain Atkinson, a very sm*rt offi.er. Four hundred men w«re brought up for the assault. This was on a Saturday afternoon. :. Tiiniati Waka persuaded Governor Grey to pub off the asaault until Moaday moruinjr, which he did. the men remaining in the two stockades to guard the guns. On Sunday the natives went behind their pa to have prayers, and soren of the friendly Maoris stole iuto ths pi and hoisted a red jacket. Then there was a shout and a rush, and the pa was ours The euemy tried to retika it, but their efforts were . resultlssi. Then commenced the fighting outiido. It lasted about seven hours. On tha Sunday we had 14 killed aud 28 wounded, two of our men among the crowd The Maoris vrent over to the other coAst. Governor Grey gay» orders for the pa to bo burnt, and then xront down and remained ouboird the Castor until the troops cam* down. In about a week we were all on board the Stains Castle bound for Auckland*. All seamen and marines had three days' liberty, aud the troops the same. They drank the whole oi tha publicans dry- by that time. Thou tin; G >verno* gave orJers for all houses to b: closed and ths troop 3to go to their barracks and sailors to theit ships; It was a sight to rem amber to see 1503 men enjoying them3elve3 to the top of their bant in a small place like AuckUnd, and with not a single fight the whole time. No* you have a true and faithful account oi the first native war in New Zealand. I always consider the very old colonists had a certain amount of responsibility about them, for they had by steady industry and perseverance to develop the resources of the young colony, their adopted home, and to take up arms and fight if it W»» necessary.— l am, 4c , Richard Gray Bell (Old Colonist No. 3). Maerewhenua, April 25.