LIFE IN EARLY TARANAKI

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1929, Page 6

LIFE IN EARLY TARANAKI

QUAINT TALE OF SETTLER PENETRATING INTO WILD BUSH. FORTY-SIX YEARS AGO IN AUROA.

(By

E. Bateman.)

In 1883, my father having taken up a section on Native lease of 383 acres for a term of 31 years, I made my first trip to Anroa. We started from Normanby with a horse and a rustic cart, by way of Waihi Road, past the old redoubt tower and soldiers’ cemetery, over the Waingongoro River, past Manaia and Otakeho, and turned up the Taikatu Road. There were one or two settlers living along the Taikatu Road in the open. There were Mr. Lister and Mr. P. McCarthy; that is all, I think. Mr. Tom Kelland was getting his lines cut and making a start with ditching and bank fencing.. At the edge of the bush we came to a big Maori pa. The Maoris offered us food and were very friendly, though the young ones were timed. The day was cloudless and there was- not a breath of wind. Toil began. The road line had been felled but not burned. Besides treetops and limbs there was a solid mass of Scotch thistles six feet high from the edge of the bush to the Skcet Road. Luckily we had some tools with us. My father, being a carpenter, had a handsaw, my brother Bill had a slasher and I, much to tlie amusement of the pit-sawyers, had a seven and a half pound axe. The sun poured down hot and the bush was like a solid wall each side of the road, but we worked our way up by degrees. I was expecting to come to a pleasant farm with green fields for our section. So. I asked my father: “How much further to our section?” He took a plan from his pocket, looked up the towering pines and .ratas and said: "This is it.” I nearly dropped. I said: "Why ever didn’t you get a section with grass on it?” “If this section will grow great trees like this,” said my father, “what will it grow grass like?” Which was true. A few years later we had to climb the leaning ratas to look for the cows in the long cocksfoot grass. SETTLEMENT OF THE ROAD. We reached the Skect Road by 4 p.m., two miles taking us six hours’ travelling. At last we went along the Anroa Road. There was one settler camped about 10 chains below the Skeet Road, old Duncan Campbell, and there was another family on the left-hand side, Mr. and Mrs. Hills. We worked out of the bush by dusk and found a big Maori pa right in the centre of the road. After many more trips from Normanby we moved into our house in the Skeet Road in May, 1883. For some weeks we had camped in a tent pitched in the hollow of a giant rata. Other settlers began to drift in. Mr. and Airs. Sutton built on the corner of the Skeet and Anroa Rbads and the Blenne.rhassetts on the Taikatu Road. One of the finest , burns I have ever seen took place on the corner of the Anroa and Skeet Roads. Ou a block of 400 acres there, belonging to Tom Parsons, there was sueh a body of fire that it burnt up all small timber. Further along the Skeet Road , towards Pihama were other settlers. Among the very first were Mr. Mortleman, Mr. W. Le Fleming (now Sir William), Mr, Ted Green and, further along, the Schienkle brothers. Then, at the corner of the Patiki and Skeet Roads, were Mr. Jim Conaglen and Davy Herlihy. This last place was the one I used to think of all the week. They had a fine, big slab whare and an eight-foot fireplace. That "was our stadium where every Saturday evening we had boxing, music and step-dancing. And there the first All Blacks, the Lambies, Goods and Forsyths, used to train. With a number of settlers coming into the district in 1884 we began to talk about a school. There were several children of school age and a school was opened. It was just a 10 by 12 whare owned by Mr. John Rowell, across the road from our place. And the first schoolmaster was Mr. Sargent, a splendid teacher,: . FUN,IN THE EVENINGS. People were settling now up the Auroa Road past the Skeet Road. In spite of the hard work we had good times at night. Always. we had some laud of music, an accordeon or a fiddle. There was Air. Bob Henson with his brother musicians; there were Air. W. Ludlow and Air. D. Robertson, too, and some that I do not recollect. We used to walk out from the Skeet Road to the Afanaia sports and back. That was the time when there were some smart men about. I saw Jim Alinliinniek jump Gft l£in iu the high jump and Harry Laing win the 150 yards maiden race, the quarter-mile and the hurdles. In between the races he at-

tended to a boxing saloon he had on the ground and offered £2 to any man who could stand up to him for two roiinds. On day we had a meeting to give the place a name. The- meeting was held in a whare on Mr. Parson’s property, and Mr. W. Sutton, Mr. W. Henson, Mr. W. Ludlow, Mr. D. Robertson arid myself were present. A Maori named Kingi, said Mr. Sutton, had told him that once there had been a big pa there named Ratanui. So we called the place Ratanui—big tree —until it was discovered that a place near Wanganui had the name of Ratanui too. As the mail was going to the wrong place the settlers changed the name of our settlement to Auroa. The years rolled on, the bush slowly disappeared and cows took the place wild pigs. And the first factory'was opened at Auroa with a great concert. Talent came from Manaia, Opnhake'and Hawera. It was fun to see the race for places at the factory along the winter roads. Some were afraid of being shut out or else run short of skim milk or whey. One day, along thq Skeet Road, I saw a fine race from Taikatu to Auroa. Two milk carts were racing neck and neck up a gentle rise. A rope broke but the driver was too excited to notice When he pulled up at the factory he looked round and found his cans far down the road. _• • At last a hall was built, my father and Mr. C. Davies putting all their time and labour into it. And my father also stood bond for a piano.