THE EARLY DAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 211, 6 March 1914, Page 7

THE EARLY DAYS.

AX IMPORTAXT CHAPTER. AN ADVENTUROUS STORY. Monday, fifty vein's ago marked an important chapter in the adventurous i story of white settlement in the North laland (says the l.yttelton Times). It witnessed one of the liual stages in the conquest of the Waikato Valley from , .the Maoris, a task that cost more ' than three millions of money, and placed in the hands of the Xew Zealand Government an area of over four million acres of land. .March 1. 1804, was the day on which the lirst steamers, ascended the upper part of the Waikato River, the portion above XgaruawhUi, generally known in those days as Horotiu, a name which lias reference to the swiftness of the current. This mime has now fallen into disuse, and the whole of the river, nearly two hundred miles in length from hake Taupo to the sea, is known as the Waikato. Prior to 18113 no steamer had lloated on any part of the Waikato, but the war and the presence of ten thousand troops quickly made things very lively on this great waterway, and war steamboats as well as the ordinary class of river craft were constantly passing up ami down, taking soldiers and munitions of war and food supplies to the front. The first steamers to venture up against the powerful current of the Upper Waikato from Xgaruawahia were the Koheroa and the Pioneer, with Commodore Sir William Wiseman and a detachment of the (i.")th Regiment on board. A Royal Xavv officer, Lieutenant Coddington, was in charge of the .Kolieroa, which was a stern-wheeler, built of iron. The Pioneer was a remarkable craft, also built of iron, and propelled by an overhanging stern wheel with feathering lloats. She was specially designed for warlike work and for running the blockade of the Maori musketeers. She had been built at Sydney for the Xew Zealand Clovcrnmcnt, and although she only drew two feet six inches of water she behaved better on the voyage across the Tasraan Sea than did the convoying ship, H.MX Eclipse. She was 141) feet in length, witli 20 feet beam, and on her decks were two iron cupolas, each of seven feet diameter, pierced for rifle fire, the communication being from below,' To prevent the vessel from being boarded by the Maoris in the event of her going aground, a three-inch pipe ran fore and aft, flush with the gunwale iind connected with one of the boilers. This .pipe was pierced with a series of holes, So that continuous jets of boiling water could he thrown on any enemy rash enough to attempt to 'cam- lier by ■boarding. The two reconnoitring rirer-craft steamed up the strong Waikato as far as Kirikiriroa, (he first day and anchored there, at a spot where the town of Hamilton now stands, twelve miles about Ngaruawahia. The next day the naval and military party went on in the. lvoJuToa ami #ot as far as the Narrows a place where the river runs swiftly through a gorge. Here two military surveyors landed with their instruments, but while they were at work they were sighted by the Maoris, with whom this part of the country was swarming, and they lmrried]v retreated to the steamer, which immediately i got under way for the return trip. The ! party had nil exciting time in getting ; clear of tile Xarrows, where they expected to be fired on every moment. The

Maoris lighted signal-fires and great columns of dense black smoke were seen rising up from near the spot where the steamer had anchored. The object of the expedition was successful, good soundings of from eight to twenty feet being found all the way up. This excursion up an unknown river through an unknown country led to the pioneer steam service being extended to where Cambridge now stands. The service was continued with different and larger steamers, carrying passengers as well as cargo, until the completion of the railway made it no longer profitable.