FIRST SETTLERS LAND

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1926, Page 3 (Supplement)

FIRST SETTLERS LAND

HISTORIC EVENT IN 1841. ’ FIRST FEW DAYS ASHORE I How strange it seems, as in the year I 1926 we emerge from the doors of our I comfortable homes somewhere in Taranaki ■ and gaze around us, whether it be in town ; or country, that only 85 years ago. within • the memory of some of those still with J

1 us, the first British pioneer*! landed at ■ ■ j Moturoa. many of them finding nowhere ; even to lay their heads, and began to; | carve our their homes in a country covered ; : with bush and fern and peopled only with' i Maoris. It was certainly a historic occa-; -I sion on March 31, 1841, when the first ( i pioneers disembarked from the William: . Bryan to found the settlement of Tara-; : naki, and the story of their succeenful j '■ struggles against great privation during the I early days of their life in New Plymouth [ is an inspiring one. What an ordeal it was for these first I settlers in a strange land! How trying it must have been for Mr. Cutfield, the first • immigration agent, for some months after ‘ he had landed with. his party, for more 1 than half of it consisted of women and | 5 children! ‘ No one can describe the desolate feel- | I I ing that came over the women portion of , l i the little community after leaving the; r ship,” said a writer of the time. ‘ There • 4 they were, huddled up altogether in the j ■ little raupo whares belonging to Mr. Dicky j ‘ Barrett, or in the large tents erected by the men.” “Rough,” remarked' Mr. Cut field in a let- | j ter to the directors of the company, “but ! better than being out of doors,” was the j J way the ‘pilgrim fathers’ w'ith their famil- ’ I ies passed the first night in this new and t ’! strange land. The worst of it was (lull want of privacy, the women having to. u j lie down en masse on the bare floors of | * I their makeshift homes. From the time of | ! our lauding until April 6 we were coa.’i stantly employed unloading the vessel and ■ J landing the goods on the bank, just above ' J the high water mark, having fortunately i [. I during the whole time the most beautiful j J weather. I have had to move the stores and • t I baggage along the land and over the Hua- | I; j toki, which is about 50 feet across to th? j r j storehouse of the town. In order to do ! ! | this, I have had to construct a bridge over i , I the river. You will be fully aware of the p : great difficulty we have had in the transit | j of these with the small means at our - I disposal, which consist of but one timber : i dray, two hand carts, and six wheel- - ■■ barrows. The traction had tn Be entirely | l I manual, and a pair of bullocks or a horse j 4 ! would be of invaluable service • us ana I ( ! a great saving of expense to the country. | . j “On the 6th, the ship left Port • j Hardy, to take in ballast, .and on her j | leaving I commenced with the storehouse i » • and bridge- The former took all the ; ■ carpenters three weeks, and so mu *h pf » > the timber wax lost by hoisting it hr and ! .tout of the ship, and l y rafting, that I : ’ feared I should not be able to get thfc

’ building up in a respectable way. I think I the bridge is strong enough for a horse I and well loaded cart. Rats are nunier- ; ous, and we require arsenic and a good ; breed of terrier, or I fear that our ©tore© I and produce will suffer. Few natives have I been living here since the war with the j Waikato tribes about seven years since, | and consequently pigs and potatoes are | scarce.” i The work of laying out the town was j carried out .under the supervision of Mr. j F. A. Carrington, who commenced operai tions by cutting a base line for his sur- ! vey from the great Sugarloaf (Paritutu) I towards the mountain. Owing to the i dense vegetation which clothed the face of ! the country, it was found impossible to i survey any large portion of the land with-

out first cutting lines through the high fern and the scrub and forest. Mr. Carrington recounted a rather alarming experience he had while carrying out this work. “Some time prior to March 8, 1841,’’ he said, “while engaged in cutting lines on the banks of the Huatoki, I went to the bend of the river with a man named Enoka, and another man by the name of Whiti, a pelty chief. These two men were the farthest in the bush with me, and-I made signs, not being able at that

time to .‘peak a word of the language, for them to go to work. They looked at nie very curiously, and I recollect that they uttered the words E koe tito which mean ‘You are a liar.' I did not know what this meant at all. After looking at me a moment they threw off their mats and stood stark naked, and began clapping their hams. I thought that my doom was fixed. In less than a minute, however, they were at work most vigorously, and all ended very well." “A few days later, however, they were joined by some natives from the interior, who said that we should not cut any more. They flourished their tomahawks and danced and yelled, and I thought we should all be massacred; however, it all became quiet. We went to see Mr. Barrett, and got him to send for a man of the name of Joseph Davis, as an interpreter. The next day, after some little explanation, and my drawing on the ground some squares, showing them that this was the land of the natives, and this the land of the Europeans, and that the land had all been bought, they admitted that the land had been sold, and everything went on again peaceably. It appeared afterwards, when the next misunderstanding arose, that they supposed I meant only that piece of land which I had marked was sold.”

Huts built in the native manner, of rushes and sedges, served as temporary dwellings for the pioneers. Rations were served out to all hands from the company's store on Devon Street, which was in after years the courthouse, and later still the police station. Near this building Mr. Cutfield sowed thu first English garden seeds. At a meeting of settlers witli tlie company’s agent, wages were fixed at 7s a day for mechanics and Cs a day for labourers. A smithy and carpenter's shop were erected, and sawyers and boat-builders set to work. The boys were employed cutting fern preparatory to the sowing of wheat. On .June 27 the “Speculator” arrived in the roadstead with the news that a charter had been granted the company, and that Britain had not quite ignored her adventurous sons in New Zealand; also that the company had dispatched the “Amelia Thompson” from Plymouth. In the middle of July a fresh supply of provisions was obtained from the schooner Lapwing, and all the spare hands were employed cutting lines for the town. Tlie little settlement struggled along during the ensuing months, but provisions began to run short, and it was only the timely arrival on September 3 of the Amelia Thompson, the second of the emigrant ships for New Plymouth, that saved the pioneers from a very awkward predicament. One can imaging with what warmth the new arrivals from England were welcomed into the little settlement, and the joy with which the pioneers greeted the people who so lately had left their beloved homeland.

. Later, pioneers arrived by the Oriental and Slaines Castle, and these, together with some of the original batch in the William Bryan, located themselves in whares in that part of the town at tlie junction of Queen Street and St. Aubyn Street, which in the early days was called Devonport. By November 4, 1841, the survey of the town had been completed, and the sections were ready to be given out to the purchasers. The promise made of the gift of a town .‘section to each of the heads of the . families of the pioneers who came out in the William Bryan was never fulfilled. After pressing their claims for a considerable period they were allowed the privilege of selecting sections in St. Michael’s Square at £5 each. This concession was accepted by many of the poorer settlers, and thus the quarter lost its original name for that of Poverty Square, its popular designation for many a day. In Decemlier, 1841, a party of Waikatos visited the town causing considerable alarm to the unsophisticated settlers by their warlike bearing, but the ' affair ended satisfactorily. •