The Conquerors

Southland Times, Issue 21817, 21 September 1932, Page 9

The Conquerors

I < ; ! Saga of the Stations ;

" (By the Wanderer.) J

L J OTAHU. 1860—1883. CUTHBERTSON BROTHERS. Full fifty year ago, we rode this way, Together in young manhood’s flush and pride. Ere all the forest had been felled, and wide The swamp stretched eastward in a circling bay • "While o’er the pastures new, with leisured stride, A prize herd fattens. (From J. H. Haslem.) The older residents have described Mr R. F. Cuthbertson thus—Behind a somewhat brusque manner lay a kind heart and a great sense of humour. Austere he was, and he held steadfastly to the ideals and ideas which made him a man of most scrupulous honour and integrity, but he also had geniality and a broad interest in human affairs, as few failed to realize when they heard one of his lucid, effective speeches he could make on occasions which brought these qualities into play. Born at Parkstick, a suburb of Glasgow in 1840—Robert Ferguson, son of John Cuthbertson, was educated at Glasgow Academy, of which his father was one of the founders, afterwards at Edinborough University. He received his commercial training in Liverpool, but for health reasons resolved to emigrate and sailed via Melbourne in s.s. Victory and arrived at Bluff in February 1860. The Victory was afterwards wrecked in February 1861. There was no wharf at the Bluff and the passengers were put ashore in boats on to the sandy beach where stalwart Maoris carried them on their backs and landed their passengers on to the shore at the site where now the Freezing Works stand. There were very few buildings at the Bluff and the only store was kept by Mr Louis Longuet, father of Mr C. S. Longuet of Invercargill. Mr Cuthbertson started for Invercargill on foot with Mr O’Toole, son-in-law of Mr Longuet. They skirted the harbour till they reached the Heads, not far from Greenhills, and then crossed the narrow neck of land which separates Bluff Harbour from New River Estuary. Breakfast was taken at West’s accommodation house ;.t Moko Moko, and Mr West took the travellers up in his boat to Invercargill, landing them at the Puni Creek, which was the usual place —just at the back of the site of the present Bank of New Zealand. The whole town north of Tay street was virgin bush and just two hotels—one the original Albion kept by Lind, and the Royal managed by Hughes. The Oriental Bank conducted its affairs in the private parlour of the Albion Hotel and was then managed by Mr Thomas Watson—afterwards there was a Bank of New South Wales and Mr Watson was created manager. On the site of the present Bank of New South Wales stood White’s Store and Mr White lived in Gladstone in what was afterwards the property of Mrs Thomas Quinn. At the site of the Colonial Bank Building, stood the very primitive Post Office and Land Office. Captain Ellis was Collector of Customs and receiver of land revenue. There were two doctors •—one Dr Martin—father of E. F. Martin late of National Mortgage Agency, Christchurch. Further on was another store run by Calder, Blacklock and Company, and Mr Calder’s residence was where the Anglican vicarge afterwards stood. Further north in Tay street was a store making the third shop in Invercargill, which was owned by David Mitchell, who was afterwards joined in business by his brother J. W. Mitchell, who afterwards retired. The two Sky Pilots—the reverend Mr Bethune and Mr Stobo—preached in a fair-sized building which stood in the present site of the Education Office. Regarding roads there were only two tracks and only bullock-tracks at that ■ —one leading to Mataura and one to Riverton. There was a footbridge over the Waihopai and then the track to Riverton branched off at the left near the present turn and then entered fairly dense bush, emerging after about three miles at a spot not far from where New River ferry road crosses the Waikiwi stream, which had a footbridge across. After crossing the Waikiwi the Oreti or New River was reached. This had to be negotiated in a boat—the horses or cattle swimming behind—the ferryman being John Mitchell who had an accommodation house for tired travellers on the other side of the river. Mr Mitchell afterwards built the Carriers Arms Hotel which he ran for many years. From the ferry the track to Riverton was very much the same as it is to-day. Mr Cuthbertson journeyed on to Otautau and stayed overnight with Mr Mathew Scott at the Gap, and from there were two cattle-tracks up to the Waiau Valley—one following the route of the Aparima, then called the Jacobs after Captain Howell. Our pioneer at length reached the cattle run called Wrey’s Bush, then owned by Captain Howell, on past Beaumont run, owned by Captain Stephens, up to the Dunrobin run, then occupied by Christopher Basstian. The other track followed somewhere in the direction of the present Railway line, through the Waicola run, at that time in the hands of Mr A. M. Clarke, more recently of Mount Linton; then on till nearly opposite the “White Ranges,” following up the valley between these ridges on the north and south of Twinlaw. On south, till the head of the valley was reached and there on the hill stood the old Birchwood homestead, then owned by Mr Freeman Jackson, latterly of Wanagamr Although most travellers made for the Birchwood homestead because the Freeman Jacksons were so very kind and openhanded, the main track did not pass within two miles of it. Thence it skirted along under Twinlaw to the Orawia, across which was a ford a little lower than the junction, with the Morley Creek, and then along the Manuka Ridges at the foot of Sharpridge till the Wairaki terrace was reached and along the Wairaki Flat round the edge of Lonnaker’s Bush and down the Waiau Valley till what is now known as Clifden was reached. The original Otahu homestead was a two-roomed slab hut with a shingle roof and a mud floor and a wooden chimney. Mr R. F. Cuthbertson’s brother, John, was with his wife, one of the first settlers in early Southland, and John Cuthbertson drained the Otahu swamps. Mrs John Cuthbertson was a beautiful and distinguished looking gentlewoman and before her marriage was a Montcreiff. Like the other pioneer women she never grumbled at hardships and demanded very little. She and her husband rode up to Otahu with packhorses and because the weather was adverse, and the Aparima or Jacobs of that day was flooded, they took about a week or more to ride from the town of Invercargill to their new home at Otahu. They stayed at Otautau, crossed flooded rivers, bogs and swamps, for when they came up in the sixties shortly after the Aitkens came to Clifden, there were only cattle tracks over which to travel. In the Waiau valley the early settlers seem to have imported most of their stock from Victoria, Tasmania cr Adelaide and neither cattle nor sheep were so suited to Southland conditions as the cattle

and sheep afterwards imported by Hon. Holmes, Mr Barnhill, Mr Hare and many of our public-spirited pioneers. The first sheep we hear about seem to have been crossbred Lincolns and Merinos, and the Merinos coming from a hot climate and hard ground suffered from all manner of footrot and other ailments when transferred to wet, swampy land, and died off like flies when the winter set in and heavy snow covered the ground—tales are told of musterers going out to bring in thousands and coming back with only a few hundred. Beyond Sunnyside and on the Takitimos the settlers come across wild sheep and wild cattle which are no doubt descended from the original herds and flocks of the pioneers. It seemed mostly Jersey cattle they had, and they were also unsuited for swampy soil, and a cold climate, and Southland gained no fame for sheep or cattle until the country began to breed Romneys, Border-Leicesters, Lincolns and Cheviots, and imported Ayrshires, Holsteins, and other suitable breeds of cattle. In spite of all these handicaps between 1860 and 1870 were good years for the country people, for wool was a good price and oats and chaff were in great demand for the railway construction camps and the livery stables—also contractors _ and waggoners who were kept busy in the early days. Flourmills had started and wheat was a very good price and in

great demand," for the gold diggings were in full swing on the West Coast and in the Lakes District at Shotover, Cadrona and Arrowtown. It is a strange fact but true that in the early days from English seed the pioneers grew better wheat in Southland and more of it than is now produced. Perhaps it was because they had neither rabbits nor other imported pests and weeds to contend with, but still the fact remains. Another great factor in these early days was the loyality and strong bond of affection between the employer and employed—wages were low and hours were long, and the work was hard, but they both worked and suffered together. Maybe it was because only to the highest, the bravest and the best, the lure of adventure, danger and hardship appeals, we have the great advantage that our pioneers came from old British families with character and tradition behind, who had been taught for generations to give deference to dependents and to honour all men. Mr and Mrs John Cuthbertson endeared themselves to all around—her children were bom at Otahu—in after years, when she was over eighty, she often talked about the good old times and often deplored the discontented spirit of the age. “In my early married life at Otahu’’ she used to say, “we had neither doctor nor nurse when sickness came, but I was very fortunate for I had a very

splendid woman in the shepherd’s wife and kind neighbours.” No easy hopes or lies shall bring us to our goal But iron sacrifice of body, will and soul There’s but one task for all—for each one life to give Who stands if freedom fall? who dies if others live. (Adapted from Kipling.) (To be continued.)