Storm-Tossed Pioneers Who Started Bombay

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 615, 18 March 1929, Page 1

Storm-Tossed Pioneers Who Started Bombay

Historic Settlement Recalls Its History SIXTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY Torn by a howling gale and smashed by tremendous seas, a sailing ship tossed and plunged 400 miles off the coast of New Zealand. Foremast and bowsprit want by the board, mizzen topmast v.r.s carried away and, later, the mainmast crashed in a tangle of rigging. Four hundred souls who sheltered below were givirtg up hope, but the skipper. Captain Sellars, held his own. and when the wind had blown itself out. he superintended the rigging ui' a jury mast. Under way once more the vessel lhnped through the still heavy seas tilt it was met by the barque Constance. which took her in t o w. H e r troubles, for that voyage, were over. Thus it was that the good ship .Bombay arrived in A u c k la n d on March IS. 186:*. after leaving London on November of the previous year. And thus it was that the historic little settlement of Bombay came into being. RECORDS REFRESHED To-day the records of that fearful trip and its happier New Zealand sequel are being refreshed by the descendants of the men and women who braved four oceans to win it home, for to-day is the 64th anniversary of the Bombay landing. Every year the residents of Bombay meet and recall their history. At a sports gathering on Saturday old folk and young turned back the years and spoke of the pioneer days which began on that exciting occasion when the immigrants found their feet on Auckland’s solid soil and journeyed to the pretty spot where they were destined to carve their heritage. Dangers and thrills had been the lot of the 400 at sea. Hard work, though tinged with an attractive colour of romance, was theirs on land. There was romance in the trek to the site of the settlement. After H.M.S. Curacoa had put out from Whangaroa Harbour and assisted in bringing the ship safely to its destination, the pioneers were taken by dray to Onehunga. thence to Drury by boats. Some of the boats took three days to complete the trip, for sandbunks were common, and there were many commands to “get out and push.” AT THE REDOUBT From Drury to Williamson's Clearing drays wore again the means of transport. and on their arrival a number of the travellers were housed in the Redoubt. Married people were given accommodation in a little clearing to the south of the Redoubt. At that time the district was covered with dense bush, with the exception of a strip a few chains in width on either side of the Great South Road along which a. clearing had been made to facilitate the movement of troops during the war. A formidable task lay ahead of the pioneers, but each man. 18 years of age or over, received a grant of 10 acres of bush land. The first work was the felling of the bush and the making of roads—at os a day. The officer in charge of the roading work was the late Mr. James Mellsop. The new settlement had not been, named, so the settlers held a meeting.. There was little discussion, for one name it was their duty to honour and perpetuate. Thus Bombay was born. To-day it is a place of memories, but of progress, too. The district Is changing and changing rapidly, and the eqming of the new St. Stephen’s Anglican Maori College, which is to be situated near the settlement, will add a modern., lively touch to a beautiful and historic 1 But the memories of the four hundred. of the gale, the trek, and the battle with the bush will live as they live to-day—an indispensable page in New Zealand’s book of early struggles.