Sketcher.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 32, 13 November 1897, Page 3

Sketcher.

(By Rambler).

CHAT WITH AW OLD IDENTITY. Rambled out Rimu way one day last week. A formidable - looking object, in the shape of a “ converted ” steam roller, was rumbling townwards. It was voted a boon and a blessing, for its broad wheels left bicycle tracks that robbed the East Road of more than half its terrors. At One Tree Point some of the forges in Messrs Irving Bros’, works were in full blast, and the clinking of hammers made cheerful music. A little way further one had a glimpse of Matheson and Co.’s fellmongery and wool-scouring establishment, and then a turn to the right revealed a crowd of school children pouring out of Mr Gray’s modest temple of learning, all delighted to get into the sunshine. Passing Mr Coupland’s beautifully kept holding, a run of a little over a mile brought us to the home of Mr Alex. McLennan, who had promised to relate some of his early experiences. W"as it Mrs Glasse whose recipe for hare soup laid down as an essential — “ First catch your hare ?” Well, it was a case of first catch the Old identity. He was soon found, however. Less from necessity than from inclination, for despite his seventy-five years Mr McLennan is still hale, hearty, and active, he had been at work in one of the farm paddocks. He has been a worker all his life, and those who know him best declare that he will work to the end of the chapter. He was one of a company of four hundred who came out from Glasgow to Dunedin in the ship Thiee Bells. The voyage occupied 120 days, the immigrants landing in the future capital of Otago on the 16th of July, 1858. Gangs of men were then busy at the cutting in Bell Hill, Princes street, and here the new arrivals found their first work. Earlier comers had been getting 6s a day, but the addition to the ranks of the workers in the little settlement caused a reduction to ss. The eight hours’ system, for which so many thousands of toilers at Home are now struggling, was in force, with two short intervals for “ smoke ho!” There was no First Offenders’ Probation Act in those days, but justice was tempered with mercy, and the runaway sailors, of whom there were a good many in durance vile, used to be let out half a day on Saturdays to earn tobacco money. Four months later Mr McLennan, with eleven other heads of households and their families, came to Invercargill in the steamer Queen. Firewood was the fuel used, and the trip occupied seven days. Now it is done in as many hours, and people grumble at the time it takes. The passengers were put into boats at the Lower Pool. Some Maoris volunteered to carry the women and, children ashore from the boats, but they were unaccustomed to the natives, and declined their friendly aid. There were comparatively few people here, and things were done in a homely fashion. The butchers, Messrs Grieve and Winton, went round for orders before killing so as to know how much beef would be required. Messrs Calder and Blacklock each had stores in the place, and so had Mr J. Macandrew. Sailing vessels sometimes took months to get round from Dunedin, and provisions frequently ran short — now flour, now sugar, now salt. The Albion Hotel, instead of the handsome pile owned by Mr Searle, was then a small building thatched with tussocks ; and the Prince of Wales, then called “The Robbie Burns,” consisted of what is known in Scotland as a “ Hut and ben,” although it boasted of a shingle roof. For sometime after his arrival Mr McLennan was engaged under the late Mr J. Frisken in road-making, helping in the formation of Tay street and the East Road as far as the cemetery. The burial place was very swampy, and in some cases the inflow of water was so great that the coffins had to be held down by one man while the

other threw in the earth. In 18fil the news of the rich finds in Gabriel’s Gully, Tuapeka tempted Mr McLennan to try his luck, and with four others he set off on foot. At first the ideas as tothe boundaries were very vague —one could pretty well start in where he liked. If a miner were asked how far bis claim extended he would stretch his arms out in a comprehensive way, and say 44 All that belongs to me ” —indicating a big stretch of country. At the diggings Mr McLennan met Mr G. Munroe, whom he bad formerly known, and heard how, shortly after Gabriel Read’s discoveries, Mrs Munroe on goingtoagully near her husband’s hutto get clay to white-wash her fireplace, saw specsofgold glittering in the soil. Reference is made to the incident in Vincent Pyke’s work, “ History of Early Gold Discoveries in Otago,” published in 1887. Mr Munroe, who was then living in the Tuapeka district, furnished the author with an account of Gabriel Read’s first appearance on the scene, and added — “ I went down to Tobomairiro with a flock of sheep, and during the time I was away my wife discovered payable gold in Munroe’s, where I took up a prospecting claim, which did not pay very much.” Mr McLennan did not make the proverbial pile, and after once more seeking his fortune on the West Coast, he settled down on the farm where he has since lived with a married son. He is full of reminiscences of the old days—of the difficulties of locomotion of the ante-bridges period, when people were boated across the Waihopai and had to depend on a tub worked by means of flax ropes to cross the Waikiwi, and when sledges and bullocks were in constant requisition. He has also something to say about one of Invercargill’s early mysteries —the disappearance of 41 Yankee Clarke,” for whom he helped to search, but we must cry a halt, and take leave of our pioneer with the information that he has thirty-six grand - children and three great-grand-children. If they are all as sturdy as the trio that Rambler saw, McLennan’s descendants will be long in the land.