V. ARRIVAL OF EMIGRANTS.

Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14515, 19 September 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

V. ARRIVAL OF EMIGRANTS.

AN EARLY SETTLER'S WHARE

A PLAGUE OF NATIVE RATS

/Some five months after the "Whitby" and "Will Watch" left England four other ships were despatched by the company—"Tte Lloyds." "The Lord of Auckland," "The Fifeshire," and the "Mary Anne." The first took out the wives and children of the Expedition wen; and the three others .the first of the agricultural" and- otter settlers, rhe directors of the company and the principal friends of the enterprise took leave of the settlers at a public breakfast at Blackball, in sight of the Vessels in which they were about to embark, His Royal Highness the Duke lof Sussex and other distinguished I guests being present. The Lloyds was-the first to sail. The three others all left the Downs together on Saturday, 2nd October, 1841. In due time all four vessels arrived safely, and tte site of the future town of Nelson was soon a scene of livelyactivity. Tents and huts were scattered about in all directions. Buildtng operations were going on all around, but progressed slowly owing to the distance everything had to.be carried. Poles had to be brought from the Wood through the Maitai river on men's backs for tho' frames of buildings. The walls were mostly fern, until ttere was, time to substitutemud. Thatching was done with toi-toi supplied by the Maoris, who' took payment in any kind of spare clothing, A graphic description of a settler's hut in the earliest days is given by a I lady, writer. She says.:—"My father j went near the,.Maitai river. Our tousel was part clay-"and, part-manuka, and j some wore not so well off as that ! their houses we're just four, poles" stuck' in the ground with fern on top for a roof. That was a sad time for "fathers aiuLinothers. but we children did not naina so 'much. I remember one poor sick man was brought in and .laid- "in the mud floor of our hoiise because the rain streamed in-upon him in.his own.

. ... We had no fireplaco in the hou-so at first, and my mother and I set to work to make one. I brought some flat, sn-.ooth stones fr^m the rivor. nvt 1 we got some of 'my father's clay he Jiacl ready for tie walls of the house, and so my mother nnd I Ivv'lt it somp+binolike an oven round to the wall, and put what they called on board ship a boulli tin in for a flue and that was" our first chimney. There were many not so well off as '■'•? were. T+. was i">.tbnr a vet time after we landed, and there was much sickness."

Another writer this describes «hat jniy be -called plague of raf s": —■ The native rats-were nn intolerable •nuisance. They appeared • not to -hare

the slightest, fear of. man, but as soon' as'it was dark, fan" about the house in J swarms, walked deliberately over oun :feet, climbed.on the table, and would, drop liko flies/from the thatch.: At nfglt we vhad to' keen a stick in hand'to thrasli- them away from the candle,- but worst of. all, they ran over us all night and would come creeping up the blankets to smell our"ears and chin, so that we never felt sure1 they \voul3 not want to taste them too. They would devour our boots, or any possible edible tr.ing that was not suspended by a wire or small string. All the poison that ctjuld be procured was soon" given tp them, but without any apparent effect:» 1 had brought a cat from Wellington, but they would not allow her to stay in the' house, and, in spite of everything we could do, ttey continued to increase, until some rat-killing dogs were introduced, when they -suddenly disappeared, or so entirely altered their habits as to become almost as timid as civilised rats usually are. In no part of the world have I seen a plague of rats anything to be compared with that on the banks of the Maitai for a few weeks after the arrival of tre "Fifeshire."