WE SOUTHERN

Southland Times, Issue 22969, 15 August 1936, Page 15

WE SOUTHERN

GLENHAM

(Specially Written for The Southland Times)

(By

H. BEATTIE)

(No. 8.)

The late numbering (No. 74) of this run is surprising in view of the date when Mr Mieville inspected it, that date being November 1853. In 1851 Frederick Louis Mieville went as a cadet to Mr Suisted’s sheep run at Otepopo to learn the business of sheepfarming. With the idea of launching out for himself, he went down to Dunedin in 1853 to consult Mr W. B. Mantell, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and he describes the interview thus: —“He said he was very anxious to open up the country down south, in particular the land about the Mataura River, which he had only heard of as yet, and if I would go down and explore he in return would grant me the lease of any run I might choose, and also one to Dr. Richardson, my father-in-law. I closed at once with the offer, and then began to find out the best way of getting down there.”

It so happened that John Topi, of Ruapuke Island, was up at Dunedin and on his return southward, Mr Mieville arranged to go with him. The bdht left Otago Harbour on October 8, 1853, and at evening put in to Taieri Mouth, where the party camped. Next night was spent at sea and the following day they landed on Ruapuke Island where Mr Mieville spent almost six weeks before the Maoris ran him across to the mouth of the Mataura.

Journeyings Oft. Arriving at Mataura Mouth, the first night was spent in a shelter of sticks and flax and then Mr Mieville and his guide Pipopo set out for Tuturau. The vegetation was an amazing accumulation of flax, fern and debris that had been collecting for centuries, grown up and decayed again and again, while what was living was rank and high. The growth was as high as their heads and impeded progress so much that the white man put a match to it and as there was a stiff breeze a tremendous “burn” was the result, the smoke being seen from Inchclutha The Maori was a poor pedestrian and travel was slow but he was good, at building shelters each' evening and catching eels. The pair went sauntering on, Maori fashion, and crossed the Waimahaka, Titiroa, Kuriwao, Mokoruta, Tutaiwiwi and Mimihau rivers, all tributaries of the Mataura, and they arrived at Tuturau after four days’ journeying. Here the Maoris made them very welcome and they stayed two or three days and then resumed their travels toward Dunedin, sleeping the first night at Otaraia, the next at Popotunoa Gorge and the next at Moa Hill where they parted, the Maori returning to Tuturau while the pakeha reached Dunedin in three days. From this itinerary it appears that Mr Mieville arrived back in Dunedin on December 4, 1853. He continues the narrative:—“Then I saw Mr Mantell and gave him all the particulars I could, and in return he granted me the lease of the run which I had chosen. This run was between the Kuriwao and the Mokoruta streams, with the Mataura River for a base, and I called this place Glenham. He also granted Dr. Richardson the lease of the run next to mine and which I had also chosen. It was further south than Glenham and lay between the Kuriwao and Titiroa streams.” It will be noticed that the applicant spells Mokoreta in its correct Maori form, the pronunciation being Mo-ko-ru-ta, not stressing the “mo” and “ru” syllables as the English tongue is inclined, but rather accenting the “ko” and “ta.”

The Needful Preliminaries. If Mr Mieville saw the commissioner in December 1853, why are not the two runs defined with earlier numbers than runs which were not applied for until two or three months of 1854 had elapsed? Perhaps the commissioner forgot to enter them at the time, or kept them back until some definite movements towards occupation had been made? We can suggest this and pass on. The young applicant says he at once proceeded to get everything ready to go south and bought every requisite for the station that he could think of or could purchase in those benighted times. He managed to buy flour, sugar, tea, salt, and the chief mainstays of living and then he went to Otepopo and made arrangements for the droving of 800 sheep from there to Glenham. “What a job,” he writes, “it was to get them across the Taieri and the Molyneux in small dinghys. There was only one boat at each ferry and they held about ten sheep at the most, so it is a simple arithmetical process to calculate the number of trips to and fro ere accomplishing our task. Next* I chartered the schooner Endeavour, 15 tons burthen, under the command of Captain Antone Joseph, and after loading her with everything I could think of despatched her down to the mouth of the Mataura. Accompanied by four men whom I had engaged as station hands, I started to walk down to Glenham. We drove before us six splendid bullocks which I had bought off Mr Suisted Leaving the bullocks at the station, we trudged on toward the mouth of the river, as we were all agog to see if the schooner was there or not. There she lay, the first ship tfftit every entered the Mataura. We camped on the beach and I can tell you we took two or three days much-re-quired rest after our long and monotonous tramp. Carrying a swag so far is very trying and I must have had at least 301bs. on my back—blankets, etc.” Mr Meiville kept a diary during his early days in southern New Zealand and twenty years ago the collector tried to get it to store in one of Otago’s reference libraries, but without result. It would be a valuable record from a historical standpoint. Getting There.

The first thing to do, decided the young runholder, was to get a boat and take all his goods and chattels up the Titiroa stream to a good landing place. The second thing was to land them and cover them with a tarpaulin while a sledge was being built and the bullocks were fetched from Glenham to pull the sledge up to the station. To procure a boat a visit was paid to Harry McCoy, owner of the Otara station, and he willingly agreed to lend his whaleboat. After a long tramp to see the Waikawa River, Mi’ Mieville and party embarked at Otara, but met with misfortune at the bar of the Mataura, the boat overturning; but after an exciting time, the boat and all hands safely came to land. The goods were boated up the Titiroa about ten miles and stacked under a tarpaulin what time a sledge for two bullocks was being constructed. The other four bullocks were missing and a diligent search failed to find them, but word reached Glenham three months later that they had turned up at their old quarters at Otepopo almost 200 miles away, having found their way back, swimming all the intervening rivers. They were eventually returned to Glenham.

It would take too long to detail the adventures and misadventures of the first trip with the sledge, but Mr Mieville continues: “Well, at last we arrived at my beautiful bush where I intended to put up my house. We soon had a good lean-to hut rigged up so that four or five men could get plenty of

shelter under it. The next morning Harper and I looked about and picked a nice site for my ferntree cottage, 12ft. by 24ft, two rooms. When we had chosen a nice position and a good aspect, we set to work to clear the bush on each side, so as to have a good natural shelter at the back and sides, with a beautiful commanding view of the country in front, and the lovely warm sun shining into the ‘dining-room windows’.”

A Tight Little House. Mr Mieville proceeds:—“There was no sort of architecture about it—perfectly plain sailing—an oblong box with a good tight roof and a good thick solid clay fireplace that you could walk into if you had any inclination that way. There was no sawn timber in the house except the windows; they were made in Dunedin and brought down in the Endeavour. Four men went into the bush to cut mapau posts for the upright framework. These trees seem to have grown on purpose, as straight as a dart and about 25 feet high. They were about lOin. in diameter in general, perfectly straight and of very hard wood. The men cut them into 12ft. lengths—4ft. in the ground and Bft. out of it to the wall-plate. They were placed in the ground 4ft. apart, the intervening spaces were filled up with ferntrees nicely faced square with an adze, and held in position by battens fastened to the mapau posts. These were afterwards painted white, and made quite a pretty contrast with the rich brown colour of the ferntree. These were cut into 9ft. lengths, just 1 foot in the ground to keep them steady and shaped a bit with the adze to make them lie close. The hairy clinging bark of the ferntree was a splendid surface to hold the clay with which the house was lined Then came the wall-plates, the ridge-pole, tha rafters and the thatch, all got close at hand. Rafters by the hundred and beautifully straight; they wanted nothing to be done to them except just to fix them to the wallplates and ridge-pole. Old Mainai, the Maori, thatched the roof of the house splendidly. The house looked very snug and comfortable, and took three months to finish. Such a chimney! It took up one end of the house, 12ft. broad and ’ t. deep and 6ft. high, with walls three feet thick. The house had no floor except the natural one of earth, but that soon got trodden down and hard. The house was now finished—about the middle of March 1854—and looked most inviting, and the dark chocolate colour of the ferntrees gave it a very warm appearance. Well, now I had nothing to do but to go to town and get married and bring back my bride to her future home, as everything was ready: so I set to and walked to Dunedin, leaving the station in the care of James Wvbrow, most useful and trustworthy man.”

The Newly-Weds Journey South. On April 18, 1854 in the Courthouse, Dunedin, Frederick Louis Mieville of Glenham Station, Mataura river, was joined in the bonds of matrimony to Fanny Stokes Richardson, only daughter of F. FI. Richardson, M.D. of Dunedin, New Zealand, and formerly of Cheltenham, England, the officiating clergyman being the Rev. J. A. Fenton, M.A. On May 3, the honeymoon pair set out for their new home at Glenham about 130 miles from Dunedin. Mrs Mieville was riding a beautiful little mare named Folly and carried no extra weight except a pair of saddlebags and one blanket. Mr Mieville was riding a fine upstanding mare and in addition to the rider, she carried a small calico tent rolled up in red blankets in front of the saddle, a pair of crammed saddlebags and another blanket rolled at the rear of the saddle, in addition to a tin kettle, a pannikin, etc, etc. The first day’s journey was to Milne’s (now Henley), the next to Harold’s at Taieri Ferry, the next to Dewey’s at Tokomairiro and the next to McNeil’s at Clutha Ferry, where the travellers stayed two or three days. On May 9, the tent was pitched near Poptunoa (now Clinton) and here a really bad spell of weather overtook the travellers, but they were fortunate enough to get shelter at a small shepherd’s hut where they were stormstayed for a fortnight. Leaving this humble but welcome refuge on May 24, Mr and Mrs Mieville proceeded through the Kuriwao Gorge and camped in damp miserable surroundings in the Otaraia district. Next day they arrived at Reko’s whare at Tuturau and received a warm and hospitable welcome. Here they remained a few days as the weather was still wet and stormy, with flooded rivers and creeks on all sides. At last after many adventures the journey was continued, the Tutaewiwi, the Mimihau and the Mokoreta streams were successfully crossed and the bride stood on the threshold of her new home. Alas! the earthen floor was not quite beaten down and was very damp, so for about a week the newly-wedded pair occupied a rude hut nearby. It was open in front but was well thatched and dry. Then a shift was made to the home expressly built for the purpose of housing a woman in reasonable comfort. The Woman’s Side of It.

' In later years Mrs Mieville penned a description of early Glenham which was published by the collector, who now culls a few extracts to let the present generation know something of the lives of the first lot of settlers. The lady writes:—“No country has so few drawbacks as New Zealand. The trouble of pioneers is the bluebottle fly, which is to be met with only in new country, where its ravages are beyond belief. All blankets or clothes must be securely packed away after use. The usual plan is to tie them up in sacks. Even during the night the flies are busy ai.d by dawn the blankets in which you may be sleeping are alive with maggots. Gun barrels when greased are attractive and it is not unusual to find them full of maggots. A coat or dress hung up for a few hour's will be unwearable till thoroughly cleansed. Nothing is safe, and I know of no remedy except civilization, which always brings the common house-fly, before which the bluebottle for some reason retires . . . One of our first wants was soap, as our stock was exhausted, and except that the chief components are fat and alkali, I had no idea about making it, but thought I would try. The camp-oven was filled with wood ashes and then as much water added as it would hold. This was slowly boiled for some time, allowed to cool, and the lye poured, off and boiled with mutton-fat. The result was ‘soft soap,’ most cleaning but far too powerful for ordinary purposes at it simply skinned one’s hands . . . After a time we discovered cleansing properties in the stream running just below our house, and it became our custom to put the coarser things into this creek for the night, weighted with stones, and after being rinsed and dried in the sun they would put to shame the best efforts of a laundress.” Mrs Mieville mentions that leather formed the hinges of the doors, that a table and chairs were improvized from logs, that it was months before the clay

walls ceased requiring patching, that queer shifts were resorted to in the case of clothes and boots that would wear out, that food shortages occurred etc. Through it all runs the persevering and indomitable spirit of the pioneer woman. A Tussle With a Wild Dog.

Mr Mieville has left on record the following interesting account of an encounter with a wild dog:—“I had an exciting chase once upon a time down near the Titiroa River. We were just turning out in the morning, thinking about breakfast, when I heard the barking of dogs in the bush. After making sure my dogs were all at home, I felt certain it could be nothing but the barking of wild dogs. Forgetting all about breakfast, I called together our dogs—foui - splendid fellows, staunch as rocks and game for anything—and away we went, Harper, Sam Perkins and myself and the four dogs into the bush. We soon came upon two large dogs and our pack was speedily engaged in a fine pitched battle. Although the wild dogs had no chance with ours, yet we could not get our dogs to kill them and after about a quarter of an hour’s mauling them about, our animals lay down and would have nothing more to do with their wild friends. No doubt this was because they were dogs. A fox would have soon had his quietus. But although they were tired of the game I was not. When the quarry saw a chance they bolted, and I saw them disappearing in the bush. I could not bear to lose them altogether so, telling my mates to wait till I came back, I dashed after the bigger of the two, a long-haired brute as big as a wolf. In a few minutes we came to the Titiroa and there I saw them taking to the water and swimming across. I took a flying leap in the river and very nearly landed on top of the white dog. I was up to my shoulders in the water but what with shouting, floundering and swimming, I just managed to catch him by the tail and hind leg. Of course he was now in my power, and I kept him head down stream so that he could not turn round and bite me. After giving him one or two good headers and keeping him under water I drowned him, and dragged him ashore and got his head off somehow with my pocket knife, stuck it on a stake and carried it in triumph to the shanty, where I finished getting the breakfast ready.” From a description he gives of the wild dogs it would appear that they were a nondescript lot largely mixed with dogs that had run away from the whalers, whereas further inland the wild dog was the kuri, the real oldtime Maori dog run wild. Birds Innumerable.

Mr Mieville was a sportsman and penned some of his early memories as follows:—“The shooting in New Zealand was the ‘piece de resistance’; in fact, as long as you had gunpowder and shot, you could never starve, never mind where you were. I bought a large sealing boat off the Maoris at Jacob’s River, so I determined to take a trip up the Mataura just for the sake of exploring. And so we invaded the unknown mysteries of the Mataura River, being, I suppose, the first boat that ever went up that stream. The ducks and other birds were a perfect sight!—one continual flight of such splendid pigeons, parrots and parrakeets streaming from one side of the river to the other. There was dense bush on each side. There was one parrot, the kaka, as large as a cockatoo but brown in colour and splendid eating. We used to put half a dozen or a dozen into a large pot and make kaka stew —very good indeed. The ducks were in hundreds and very tame, except the grey duck which seemed very wary and shy. There were the grey duck, the blue duck, shovellers, Paradise and mountain ducks, teals of all descriptions, pintails, widgeon, shags and divers of all sorts. Of course we had soon shot more than we could eat for oui - dinner and supper, so I had to sit still and look on, as I did not care to murder the poor birds just for the fv . of shooting them. The men who were not rowing were soon busily employed in plucking the birds. In the middle of the day we landed and made a glc rio s fire, spitchcocked the ducks and pigeons and ate them.

“Quail shooting was delightful sport. They were round my station in thousands; the moment my dog made a point at one and the bird was shot, he turned round and pointed again. One time a friend of mine came to Glenham for a few days . . . After I had killed a brace or two my friend got quite excited and begged me to let him have a shot. What followed was delightful. He killed ten or twelve brace, hardly missing a bird, and handing me the gun back again he said he had never enjoyed an hour's shooting so much, not even among the partridges of Old England.” Space prevents Mr Mieville's further remarks about game being given here, but all the old runholders unite in describing the native birds as multitudinous.

The Remaining Notes. The first-born and only child of the Mieville family to be born' at Glenham was a boy, Amadee F. Mieville, and he appeared on the scene in December 1855. As far as the present writer knows this was the first European birth in the Mataura Valley, but he must admit he knows little of the career of the boy who filled the first cradle in this extensive region. One item is that A. F. Mieville was at the Otago Boys’ High School at Dunedin in 1867-68, and another is that he was living in London in 1916 when he had three sons holding commissions in the army and one in the navy. The latter, Geoffrey Francois Mieville, was the fourth son of A. F. Mieville and was only 20 years of age when he lost his life in the sinking of the Queen Mary. To revert to the pioneer of Glenham run, the collector is unable to say when Mr Mieville relinquished it to live in Dunedin, nor when he returned Home to live. In an advertisement dated December 4, 1858, Walter Day, of Dunedin, General Merchant, notifies that he has taken Frederic Louis Mieville into partnership and that the business will henceforth be conducted under the style of “Day and Mieville.” Notwithstanding this, Mr Mieville continued in ownership of the Glenham run for some years after this according to the collector’s rather fragmentary notes. In 1866 the owners are recorded as being Messrs Douglas and Blyth. Then one of the collector’s correspondents, since gone to his rest, distinctly states that Messrs Cargill and Anderson bought Glenham in 1876, but he does not state from whom, nor give any other particulars.

The only other allusion the collector has to this run is that its last owner as a run was Robert de Little, and that subsequently it was subdivided for settlement. As Mr De Little is given as running 1305 sheep on Glenham in 1870, it is quite evident that he preceded Cargill and Anderson in occupation of the run. The history of this run requires more investigation to constitute a complete record.