AUCKLAND NOTES

Patea Mail, Volume XLVI, 5 September 1923, Page 2

AUCKLAND NOTES

(Our Auckland Correspondent.)

It has been very noticeable lately how a large number of the old residents have passed away, and it has come forcibly home to my mind how two of Fatea’s oldest residents have been counted in the number, viz., Mrs Akehison and Mr James i’airweather. We like to think of them going to their long rest full of years, irith their life’s work well done, but 1 can recall them when they were in their prime, not 40 years of age. Mrs AitcEison, 45 years ago, was a very line-looking woman, and was very devoted to her home. She was an exceptionally good cook, and .1 can remember very well the first tea meeting which was held to celebrate the opening of the now Presbyterian Church, iu the latter end of 1878 or beginning of ’79. Tea meetings in those clays were of the old-fashioned kind, whore people sat down to set tables loaded with choice food. It was a great day for us boys, and we saw to it that wo had our tables looked out beforehand. There wore about eight tables altogether, and I can remember as though it were only yesterday that Mrs Aitchison’s table and Mrs Paterson’s and Airs Schultze’s were the favourite tables. The first-named was noted for her shortbread, the second for her pastry, and the third for her jellies. Some of the more daring of us managed to get a scat at each of the throe tables in turn. Yvc tried lo leave Airs Schuitzc's table till the last, because when wo were almost as full as we could hold, the jolly slipped down very easily! There are those who said, when I was last in Patca, that the church was only 30 years old, but, take it for me, that it is 45 years old, and it is about time the prosperous Presbyterians put up a good stone or concrete dhnrch that would last for all time, and I hope when the opening takes place the proscnt-clay boys will have as good a ‘ ‘ blow-out ’ ’as the boys did when the present church was opened. It was a great day for Patca. Air Fairwcathor’s death brings back to our minds the old days in the Patea district when grain-growing was one of the chief occupations of the farmer. All the paddocks of Air Fairwcather’s farm, mid-way ■ between Patea and Kakaramoa, have grown grain. The Fairwcathcrs’ came from Canterbury, rhe great grain-growing province in the Dominion, and when the young fanner and his wife came north and took up land they started farming on the Southern principle and worked hard at developing their homestead. Dairying is a more sombre life than graingrowing, and the rattle of the milkcans is a poor substitute for the buzz of the reaping machine and threshing machine, and I can remember Fairweathers’ reaping machines cutting the golden grain and the threshing machines at work separating the husk from the corn. Those wore the days when grain was cheap and when nearly every district had its own flourmill. Payne’s mill at Kakaramoa, in charge of Air Clover, did a big business, and it was a well-managed concern. There was never a better miller iu New Zealand than Air Clover, and before coming to Kakaramoa ho was in charge of Vavasour’s .mill, midway between New Plymouth and Stony Elver, situated on a picturesque spot near the sea coast. The passing of these old stone mills, I often think, was a great loss to the people of the district, and, although sometimes the flour was inclined to be dark, it was good and wholesome. Mr Clover will be remembered by many as a keen horticulturalist and a man who took a great interest in educational matters, being chairman of the Kakaramca School Committee for many years. The first thing the early settlers in Patca did was to plant an orchard, and Fairwcathcrs ’ apple and peach grove, in the gully behind their house, I suppose is still iu existence. Airs Fairweather, who helped her husband so much in their early days on the farm, was a kindly-hearted woman, and no one ever went to their house in the fruit season without carrying away a basket of fruit. Many a farmer in Patea in the early clays had his heart nearly broken trying to grow fruit, because of the strong winds. The Patersons and Williamsons, at Kakarumca, overcame the disability very largely by growing great belts of trees, but as time went on even the shelter trees suffered, and the orchards declined accordingly. A visit to the Patersons’ orchard at Kakaramoa, when all the fruit was ripe, was a thing to be remembered for ever. How many old boys in Patca can remember some of those flue old orchards when they were in their prime? It makes one’s teeth water even yet! Wo grow a little fruit up here iu Auckland, but what would we give if we had the Patea soil! I guess there is not much locally-grown fruit in Southern Taranaki now, but a lot used to be grown. When Alton district was first opened up it was called Woodville then. Many of the early settlers planted orchards in the now bush clearings under the shelter of the natural bush trees, and Alton plums used to come into Patea by the bushel and were sold at a low price. Some that old Air Scown grew year after year would have taken a prize at any show in the world. The orchards faded away as the bush got felled, and now I suppose Alton mag- 1 nates import their fruit, like the people in many other places, from Hawke’s Bay. Afany will remember the hundredweights of quinces which used to come from up the Wanganui Eivcr and wore sold at the low price of -Jd per lb.