The Conquerors

Southland Times, Issue 21794, 24 August 1932, Page 9

The Conquerors

Saga of the Stations

(By the

Wanderer.)

CLIFDEN. THE AITKEN FAMILY. 1860-1882. From the past and present fightingstrength Of that great company. Those who lived, and those who died, They were one In noble pride Of desperate endeavour and of duty nobly done, For their lives they risked and gave Our hardworking pioneers; They are Britons, every one! (Adapted from John Oxenham). Mr William Rodger seems to have placed sheep as well as cattle on Clifden and Mr Aitken purchased more stock. It must have been about 1850 that -Captain Horrell began importing the first sheep and cattle into Southland from Twofold Bay, New South Wales. The Australian sheep and cattle were not at all suitable for either soil or climatic conditions in Southland. The delicate Jersey cattle wandered afar in the bush and at mustering time they found the herds decreased instead of increasing. No doubt the wild cattle found at the Lillbum Valley, at Sunnyside and at the Longwoods are descended from the pioneer’s early herds. The Merinoes suffered very badly from footrot, so also did the Lincoln crossbreds. They were mountain sheep, used to dry, hilly country and quite unsuited for the heavy swampy soil. At that time between 1860 to 1870 stock brought a good price—sheep were about £2 apiece and cattle from £7 to £lO, and carthorses and horses of all kinds realized from £5O to £lOO. Wool was from 1/6 a pound. The diggings in Otago Central, Mataura Valley and Taylor’s Creek up at Sunnyside had been discovered and great stories of huge nuggets of gold were being told all over New Zealand and Australia, and “once a miner always a miner” proved a true saying. Thousands of Gold-diggers were landing with their tools and equipment at the Port of Bluff. Waggons and drays were being built and were sold at from £5O to £lOO each. Carthorses were in great request, so also were working bullocks. Great trains of waggons used to go past the stations and bring mutton, beef and potatoes and as niuch hay, oats and chaff as they could give them. Southland talked a lot about forming a Gold Escort and many gallant men volunteered for the dangerous but exciting task and with swift horses and loaded pistols the gallant troups left Invercargill. In a fortnight or three weeks, however, they returned emptyhanded, for the Otago Gold Escort had been before them and the gold returns which.were going to be such a wonderful asset to did not materialize. Owing to a great muddle and argument in the Provincial Council the Gold Escort had been a failure and Invercargill lost the great gold trade between 1860-1870. Mr Aitken engaged as head shepherd a worthy Highlander hailing from the Shetland Islands, called Malcolm Mowat as well as several shepherds, for with neither fences nor boundary lines, the herding of the stock was a big problem. One winter’s day about ten men with twelve to fourteen dogs returned to the station homestead. The shepherds asked the rabbiter, Frank Gotheridge, if he had any rabbits for the dogs as they were very hungry and when Frank said there were no rabbits for them, they replied: “What about killing a sheep for us?” and Frank replied, “I’ll not kill a sheep but I will take the gun along and kill a few wild pigs for they are coming in too near to the homestead,” and he went out. A few shots were heard then silence, for the snow had again started to fall. After tea the shepherds began to be anxious and a search party started out and hunted and coo-eed in vain. They organized a large search party, calling in all their neighbours, but no track of Frank Gotheridge was found until about two years ago when an oldfashioned gun almost in pieces after being exposed to the elements so long, was discovered near the Altonburn Creek. In spite of the prevailing footrot, and both cattle and sheep getting constantly bogged, between 1860 and 1870 were quite prosperous years for the country people. In 1872 Mr Aitken and Malcolm Mowat took a tour round to investigate the Princess Mountains and finding them high and dry, and covered with native grass, decided to put sheep and cattle on the heights until the autumn. However, in 1873 snow began to fall early in the year—one heavy fall after another, and the shepherds only succeeded in bringing in a few stray stragglers from the mountains, and betwec . 4000 and 5000 sheep were frozen or smothered to death. When the snow finally ceased and the spring came in, the shepherds again mustered the mountains and the Hump but only brought a few sheep and cattle home. No doubt the early pioneer’s sheep and cattle before the age of fences and boundary limits were the nucleus of the many wild sheep and cattle Sv commonly seen at Sunnyside, Blackmount and the Lillburn. Great stories are told both by musterers and shearers on these stations, how what they call the Old Men Sheep following up the station flock with their long, ragged, unshorn fleeces looking for all the world like a ragged Shetland shawl trailing on the ground. In 1874 a great tragedy happened to the Aitken family—their small son of four became very ill and in spite of careful nursing, became no better—a doctor was out of the question for at that time the nearest doctor was at Riverton and it was at least two days’ journey to get a message to doctor Monckton. The small boy gradually sank and died. Mr and Mrs John Cuthbertson proved great neighbours and did all in their power to help and comfort the stricken parents and it was a very sad little band of relations, neighbours and the station staff who followed little Edward Henry Aitken to his last resting place on the rise above the homestead overlooking the Waiau River. His grave is still there fenced in with a circle of big white boulders; a huge tree keeping guard at his head, and a tombstone still well-preserved with the following epitaph still readable; Sacred to the memory of Edward Henry Aitken, aged 4 years, February 8, 1874. In 1877 trouble again came to the Aitken family for on a cold, winter morning at four o’clock their home was burnt to the ground, the family and children only escaping in their nightclothes. The family had to make the best of a stockman’s hut, but Mrs John Cuthbertson again came to the rescue and helped in every way—took the younger children to her own home and fed and clothed them. Mrs Aitken had been through enough trouble to daunt the bravest heart, and also felt very sad and lonely when she knew that Mr and Mrs John Cuthbertson were leaving the Otahu Estate and going a trip to the Old Country. Mr Aitken had meanwhile purchased from Mr Mathew Scott the well-known estate then called “The Gap—now known as Redfern, a few miles north of Otautau. Here Mrs Aitken and her small family came whilst a new home was being built at Clifden and here another daughter whom she called Lucy Cilfden, was born. In 1873 Mr Aitken

sold the Gap property to Richard Williams, son of Dr. Robert Williams, of Dunedin. Mr Williams brought his bride to her first home and Mrs Aitken and her small family returned to their newly-built house at Clifden. Misfortunes never seem to come singly for the years of depression for farmers had started. Prices had begun to drop for all farm products. There was now no market for sheep, cattle nor horses for there was very little money in the country. The diggings had petered out, and easy money was a dream of the past. Already heavier and more suitable sheep were being imported into Southland from Home and from the well-known breeders in Otago and Canterbury came Cheviot and Border Leicester sheep—far more suitable breeds than the Merino and Crossbred Lincoln for standing up and enduring the marshy riverlands and the cold Winter. Holstein, Ayrshire. Shorthorns and other sturdy breech oi cattle were replacing the delicate fawn-like Jersey cattle, and throve in the rich pastures. There were no freezing works then and many sad stories are told of the station people taking about a week driving down their sheep, only realizing from 1/- to 1/6 per head for the Boiling Down Works. Jersey cattle also were not wanted, and there was very little demand, for the farmers would be offered from 5/- to 15/- for calves and from £1 to 30/- for Steers or cows. The rabbits which were going to be such a godsend and help to the settlers —the promoters who introduced rabbits had said, "When these rabbits are thoroughly established no settler, however poor, need ever go hungary because he will always be able to go out and shoot a rabbit to cook for his dinner.” Had these misguided _ men only seen through the veil that hid the future years and realized that the rabbits, instead of being eaten by settlers, were going to eat the settlers out of house and home, perhaps they would have acted differently, but no doubt at that time they acted as they thought for the best when they liberated about a dozen or so Scotch rabbits on the Bluff hills. It was a jolly little ceremony with much clapping of hands and champagne drunk to the health of the new arrivals—one old Scotchman made himself most objectionable and a real spoil-sport for he stood up on the side of the hill and declared that the Superintendent, the Mayor and the Provincial Council were all making a huge mistake in the introduction of rabbits, which with abundant pastures, and no natural enemies would soon prove a terrible curse to the country. Of course he was howled down, and hissed at, and nobody agreed with his ideas for he was considered to have a “bee in his bonnet” and a man who desired a grievance. In the late seventies, especially in the Western district, there were great droves of rabbits wherever pastures abounded, and they swept all before them as they went along, leaving only barren ground for the sheep and the cattle to feed from. Clifden being mostly bushland, was most unsuitable for cropping, so in spite of hard work and every care Mr Aitken and other squatters were surely but slowly going back instead of forward and losing money on their runs. Then in 1878 came the record snowstorm when thousands of sheep were either smothered or frozen to death, and in the spring the warm winds melted the snow off the mountains and Southland had its record flood which just about exterminated the Merino flocks. Mr Aitken made a great fight till 1882, neither sparing himself nor his money, but at last he was overwhelmed by adverse circumstances, for in that year Clifden was sold by public auction in Invercargill to Dr. Grigor and Mi- T. McPherson—the price realized being £13,200. Mr Aitken had lost his battle, and his money, but may his epitaph be written on this country’s mind: “He helped old Southland, and loved his kind.”