The Conquerors

Southland Times, Issue 22491, 28 January 1935, Page 12

The Conquerors

N ■ ■ J ® ’ Saga of the Stations ! J s

the Wanderer.)

| ■ (By

AKDLUSSA. CAPTAIN ALEXANDER McNEILL. (1869-1879.) Air Lussa aralsliach nan stae’s nan curartag. .. Bhlodh Bradian thirr-gheal nam neambhbhall ruadh-bhreaa, Gu bes’-bhrisg siubhlach, le surd rl luth-chleas ’Na culslibh die-ghorm gun ghriud ruidhan. —English.— Where Lussa’s stream through the pools comes whirling, .... , , Or o’er the clear pebbly shallows swirlThe silvery salmon is there seen playing. And in the sunbeams his hues displaying. —(Gaelic songs by Dugald Macphail). Captain Alexander McNeill and his brother, Malcolm, acquired Ardlussa, a station situated on the banks of the Mataura river, very shortly after the Maori Wars had died down. They were both soldiers who hailed from a family of distinguished warriors whose daring deeds and adventures are ofttimes mentioned in Highland history and legends. Their brother, Sir John McNeill, V.C., was at that period equerry to her Majesty Queen Victoria, and before coming to New Zealand, Captain McNeill had belonged to the Royal Engineers. He and his brothers had fought through the tragic Indian Mutiny. He had a large family which are now married and settled throughout New Zealand, and he was one of the pioneer-squatters who fought and failed in early Southland. He became a runholder when the Great Slump and the Old Man flood were ahead of him, and when scab, pluer, and the “Doze” were killing off the sheep by the thousands. Then came the reign of the rabbits and with all these evils to contend with Ardlussa did not prove a paying proposition. Captain McNeill was a big man in every way—in stature and in mind, and he was rightly proud of his illustrious family and his Highland blood. Oft-times he would be seen striding along over his vast property, or mounted on a horse, dressed in Highland costume fashioned from the McNeill plaid, and many a queer story is told concerning him; how a man going to work at Benmore station had a great difficulty in finding his way there, and on being asked why he had not made enquiries at the other stations replied: “Well, I did go up to one house a long way back, but I saw a huge woman on the verandah with a very short skirt and bared knees, and she was actually smoking. Will, I did not like the look of her, so I came away.” This so-called woman was Captain McNeill in his kilts. The Invercargill Land Office supplies the following information concerning Ardlussa and the transfer from Captain McNeill to Robert Chapman, who held the homestead block until Ardlussa run was transformed into the Ardlussa settlement:

Ardlussa—acquired in 1867 by Robert Wilson deceased, and acquired in 1869 by Alexander and Malcolm McNeill. Acquired by Australian Mortgage, Land and Finance Company in 1879 and acquired by Chapman in 1884. Run 394—area 22,500 acres.

Captain McNeill, like other squatters, imported rabbits and bred them as a hobby, and it is a fact that he sacked a man he employed for the great crime of shooting one of his pets. When the Old Man flood came down and swept over the land, Captain McNeill was heard to remark that there was no doubt what-so-ever that this flood would cause a great deal of havoc but he added: “If it will drown some of these damned rabbits, it will do more good than harm.” In an old hotel called the Fyramid many men were sitting on the raised verandah watching the many waters swirl past, and with rakes and sticks were hauling in rabbits by the score as they were swept by in the raging flood. Every time they succeeded in making a good haul, it was drinks all round, shouted for by the lucky angler. The old Pyramid Hotel has long since gone from the land, but there still remain a few of the men who remember and repeat the great times and merry meetings which would take place there. Amongst the men who knew Ardlussa and the surrounding district in the old days _ is Mr S. Stevens, of Mossburn, one-time shepherd at Ardlussa, who relates the following narrative:

“I left England for New Zealand in 1874, and arrived at Lyttelton at the end of that year. I first of all settled up near Lake Coleridge, and worked there, but afterwards, hearing about Southland, I decided to come down and see this new province. I arrived here in 1877, and obtained work at Ardlussa. I remember that the old residents of Southland were still talking about the Old Man flood of 1863, and telling me that there had never been anything to equal it. But I saw the 1878 Old Man flood, and that was enough for me. Ardlussa was a beautiful place. The house was situated on a spur above the Mataura river; below they had a boat. Captain McNeill would have two gardeners working to beautify his home, and they put in plantations of trees for shelter-belts, orchard and strawberry beds and flower garden. Captain McNeill was a fine upstanding man who had been through the Indian Mutiny, and he and his family were all great riders. He had a splendid horse named Tasman. “At the station when I was there, was a certain Sergeant McPherson who had been through the Indian Mutiny with Captain McNeill, and on one occasion, when quelling an attack, they had been very hard pressed and had stood back to back to protect each other from the enemy. Sergeant McPherson afterwards became the first schoolteacher in Lumsden. On Ardlussa there were about 20,000 half-bred Merino sheep, and many cattle; but many of the cattle had gone wild. I will remember the great Old Man flood of 1878. The snow started falling in early July, and the thaw did not set in until September. It was really a series of floods from then until well on into October. I used to go for the mail once a week, and the snow was breast-high, but before the thaw set in, one of the McNeill children was born, and I had to go all the way to Waikaia for the doctor. A slow journey it was, and when I got there the doctor wondered if we could manage to return to Ardlussa, and we did, though the snow was breast-high on the horses. There were wonderful animals bred in the old days, and they plunged and plodded on, and we eventually arrived at the station in good time. The thaw started with a warm nor’-wester one afternoon in early September, and I remember an old rabbiter telling Captain McNeill that if the wind continued they would have a bigger flood than they had in 1863 by next morning. Captain McNeill said: ‘Good luck if it’s from terrace to terrace, so long as it plays havoc with the rabbits.’ Next morning from the heights of the Ardlussa homestead all around was a huge inland sea. People reported great catches of rabbits, especially from the verandah of the old Pyramid Hotel,

where armed with hooked sticks and rakes and forks, they were scooping up rabbits by the score as the flood waters rushed by. Shortly after this flood went down, we had. another flood, and still more, and there was absolutely no hope whatever of saving the sheep. “In 1879 Captain McNeill disposed of Ardlussa to the Australian Mortgage Land and Finance Company, and he and his family went down to Invercargill, where they resided for a while at Kenilworth, the old home of the well-known McKellar family. The McNeills afterwards went up north to the Wanganui district, where they remained until the death of both Mrs and Captain McNeill, and now the large family who were at the Ardlussa Station, are scattered all over New Zeland. After I left Ardlussa I went up to the Lakes District and, with others, did much exploring of this great scenic reserve. It was whilst travelling along Freeman’s Valley that I was the first white man to behold the beautiful falls which I discovered. These were named the Steven’s Falls, and they retain that title to this day.” AUSTRALIAN LAND AND FINANCE CO. (1879-1884). * This company surveyed and subdivided Ardlussa into separate holdings and broke up much virgin soil. It advertised for contractors to plough and drain and fence the land, and then began vast agricultural schemes. The company engaged Messrs Pagan and Dickson to put in one thousand acres of wheat, and then Pagan and Dickson eventually acquired the homestead block and eight hundred acres, and began to put in wheat for themselves, in fact all the new settlers went in for wheat-growing, and were all ruined and forced to leave their farms. The wheat grew all right, but just as it was ripening very severe frosts set in, and all the wheat grown in the district was frosted. The settlers did not quite realize what havoc the frost had caused until the threshing mill came in and began operations, then they found that the grain was quite valueless, and that the crops were fit only for straw-chaff. Mr and Mrs Pagan, who now reside at Mossbum, .say that the Ardlussa house and grounds were about as good as could be found anywhere in Southland, when they went there—the McNeills had kept two gardeners, and had, as well as other fruits, splendid Kentish cherries and a whole hill of strawberries. However, the Pagans and Dicksons and the other first Ardlussa settlers, though they had been put on their farms on extremely easy terms, were obliged to go out after the failure of all the wheat crops, and the Pagans retired to Lumsden, where Mr Pagan again started taking contracts for team work and waggoning at Five Rivers run. He remained working at Five Rivers for fifteen years. The Pagans now reside in Mossburn, where Mr and Mrs Pagan retired from active life some time ago to spend their declining days.

JOHN WILLIAM TAYLOR CHAPMAN. —Manager for Syndicate.— After the departure of the first settlers the farms surveyed and subdivided by the Australian Land and Finance Company hung fire, and that association disposed of its interest in Ardlussa to the Scottish Investment Company, which in ftum disposed of the property to a syndicate of well-known Southland men who put in Mr Chapman to manage for them. Regarding Mr Chapman and his tenure the following account comes from his daughter, Mrs Anderson, of Otautau: “John William Taylor Chapman was born at Alford Forest in the Ashburton district in 1869, where his father had a farm. His father was a typical Englishman. At an early age young John Chapman went to the local school in the district, and after he had completed his education he went in for pastoral pursuits. Being of an enterprising nature he went all over the country and even to Australia, for he was a most capable shearer, and could break in horses at an early age. After much travel both in Australia and New Zealand, and after seeing all sorts and conditions of land, Mr Chapman decided to settle down, and hearing that Southland offered golden opportunities to men of small capital, he applied for and acquired a farm at the Morton Mains Settlement. Morton Mains Estate had been purchased by a syndicate which included Messrs Freidlander, of Ashburton, and it was through hearing about the wonderful fertility of the Southland land from Mr Freidlander that Mr Chapman was induced to purchase a dairy farm of three hundred acres, where he kept between seventy and eighty cows, which he milked with the machines. The Morton Mains Estate had been surveyed and subdivided by the syndicate into small farms, and as the new settlers had a very favourable season and fertile land, they at first went in for agriculture and grew great crops of turnips and oats, out of which that year they made a good profit. There was a great drought raging in Oamaru, in that year and the Morton Mains settlers sent up by the railway truck loads of turnips and oats and chaff, and in many cases were asked to take goods in exchange instead of money. Mr Chapman in that way acquired seventy-two cows as payment for his truck loads of chaff and turnips, and thus he determined to become a dairy farmer. He was one of the first in the district to make use of the milking machines. Whilst at Morton Mains he met and married Miss Ann, daughter of Mr David Sheddan, of Tapanui. “After he had been a few years at Morton Mains, Mr Chapman was appointed to take charge of Ardlussa Station, which had been purchased by a syndicate. He took his wife and young family to the picturesque old Ardlussa homestead, which, however, was very much out of repair. After nine months the old house was pulled down and the sound timber in the old building was utilized for a new woolshed. A new residence was built on the old site. The Chapmans, especially the children, became most attached to the homestead, for they found a beautiful garden and orchard with a large number of Kentish cherries and English trees and shrubs, and then they never tired of the splendid situation on top of the high hill, and at the foot flowed the Mataura river. It was a steep road up, however, with steps and a wire rope when we walked, and quite a long detour for the buggy to drive up. In 1913 Ardlussa was taken over by the government and was again surveyed and subdivided into farms, and when at length these farms were disposed of, Mr Chapman left Ardlussa and acquired a run of 6000 acres from Mr Walter Mary Hailes. This run was named Riverslea, and Mr Chapman ment in for both stock and agriculture. He also went in for horse-breeding, for all his life he had been a great lover of horses and a splendid judge of horseflesh. He bred both harness and racehorses, and among the most outstanding horses he bred at Riverslea was Achilleus, a noted winner in his day, gaining honours at Dunedin, Invercargill, Gore, Winton and many provincial race meetings. Always keen on sport was Mr Chapman, for his mother had been Irish and his father English, and right up to the end of his life he took a lively interest in football, racing, wrestling and boxing. He was indeed a thorough man’s man. The Chapmans were always loyal and generous adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, and Mr Chapman was much missed when he passed on in 1922, leaving a widow and five children to mourn their great loss.

Messrs John, William and Eric carry on the run, Mrs W. Anderson resides in Otautau, and Miss Evelyn Chapman still resides at Riverslea. Lord, give us men— Large issues are at stake, such men mus. face Vast problems that affect the coming race; In such proportion as they stand for Thee. Our children's children will be strong and (From Fred P. Morus, Australian Poet).