DAYS FULL OF ADVENTURE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

DAYS FULL OF ADVENTURE

SENTRY 00 OVER TE WHITE

iQUEER LOT OF AX EARLY SETTLER

EXPERIENCES OF MR. W. J. CORKiI'N.

. Life in a mud hut in The swamp at Papanui, Christchurch, sentry-go over Te Whiti near Pari'ha'ka, and queer experiences all through his manhood days have been the lot o'f Mr. William James Corkin, Hawera, aged 7o years, Who gave an outline of his life to a News reporter in New Plymouth yesterd£Mr. Gorkin’s parents came from Ireland in one of the first four ships to New Zealand. They landed at Wanganui, where Mr. Corkin was born in 18<x>. Mr. Corkin’s father took part in the (Maori War. The family left Wanganui and went to Christchurch. Papanui, now a thriving suburb, was then a swamp. Mr. iCorkin’s father took- up land at the Papanui swamp. The family had no house, so he built a place. The walls were made of mud and straw, the roof was of thatch, and the floor was of .clay. “My life at this time became miserable,” 'said Mr..- Corkin. “I remember one evening when my parents went out and left us. A pig came into the hut and nosed at the family’s milk, .which •was in a billy on • the floor. The handle of the billy slipped over its head, it to squeal and we hid our heads iiinder the blankets with fright. _ Owing to family trouble young Corkm at the age o'f ten decided to run away. (Crossing the paddock, he met his father near the gate. He spent the rest of the evening with his head tied almost '■between his legs, until his mother rose in the night and released him. ■ When he .was sent to Sunday School, he had a chance to run away, and he joined two men “swagging it” up country beyond Dunean'del, 25 miles south of Christchurch. After a few. days tramping they told him to turn back. ,He took a different road and found

.work at Sir John Hall’s station at iHororata. There he milked cows, and cleaned knives and boots'for 5s a week. Thrashed with a walking stick for an offence for which he had not 'been responsible, Corkin left the station and found work tending pigs and sheep. ißut his mischievous nature came out, and with two other boys he set fire ;to the tussock and the whole countryside was in flames. He was dismissed. WORK WITHOUT WAGES. “Next I bound myself to a road contractor,” said Mr. Corkin. “The agreement tied me to him without wages, and I soon wearied of it. I wrote a letter to myself and posted it, saying ;that my sister was dying. I showed it to the road contractor. He let me go. and I never went back.” From Lyttelton he shipped to Wellington as a cabin-boy, and arrived so seasick that he was discharged. For a time he became a barman and a butcher. Then the call came for recruits .for the- constabulary, and Mr. Corkin joined ,in 1881. He left Wellington for Opunake and stayed there a day before being sent on to iPungarehu. He remembers the arrest of the prophet To Whiti by hie friend, the late Mr. Thomas Hickman, at Parihaka. “Te •Wdiiti was brought to the constabulary camp and I had to do sentry-go over jhim,” said Mr. Corkin. “He was a quiet, very friendly Maori. Another Maori in our charge, Tahu, was not so friendly. One evening the sentry heard him say in Maori: ‘Kapai, we kill the pakeha!’ to the other Maoris. Luckily the sentry understood, and turned out the guard immediately.” Mr. Corkin remembers how tae constabulary men were sent out to pull up the potatoes and Indian corn at Rari'haka to prevent the Maoris from gathering there. He remembers, too, that once men went into the Maoris’ rwhares and stole money and greenstone, but the culprits could not be found. At Parihaka he was taken ill with measles and was brought in to the barracks on' Marsland Hill, where he ■was looked after by Mr. Layard. Upon recovery he was sent to the Waikato, iwhere the constabulary was put to work making roads. He applied for ■leave, and in ISB2 he was married at New Plymouth to Miss Annie Brewery, daughter of William and Sarah Anne Brewery, Fitzroy. CHILD’S BODY IN BOX. “My next position was in charge of the quarantine station at Auckland,” said Mr. Corkin, “and I was there 15 •months. One of my duties was to take charge of all the letters for fumigation. ■One day a ship called the Ladybird came into quarantine. Besides the letters was a little box, on which was written. ‘Preserved Carrots.’ In the course of my duties I opened the box •and inside found the body of a small child which had evidently died at sea. I found another coffin for it and the child was properly buried.” Later he was sent back to Cambridge and then on to Wellington to join the artillery. He asked for his discharge and came to Taranaki, his father and he riding overland on horseback. First he took a farm at Tariki and then accepted a billet from Mr. H. Okey at [Tataraimaka.

“Air. Hickman helped me once in those days.” «aid Mr. Corkin. “I wanted ti

.buy a cow, so I gave a young man I knew £7 or £8 to get one for me. Next day he came back and said: “ Corkin, I’ve lost the money.’ ” “ ‘The deuce you have,’ ” I said. “ ‘Yes.’ ” ‘?So I said we had better go and look for it. I then got hold of Mr. Hickman, of the police service, and arranged with him. to ask me if I had the number of 'the notes. I would pretend that I had and hand him over a slip of paper. iWe did this before the young man as we had planned. The young man thought a little and then said: “I say, Mr. Corkin, we will go and have another hunt.” “This time,” . said Mr. Corkin, “the young man found the notes immediately on a tussock.” Mr. Corkin left Tataraimaka and rented a house at Okato for a time. Then he was advised to apply for a bus'll section at Rahotu. He was granted the section, but found there was no place to put his wife and family. He took a whare the size of a motor-§hed and got a Maori to fell the bush, while he himself worked for wages. Often after coming home from work he would cut blocks in the 'bush to make shingles for his house, working from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. and going to work again ,a few hours later.

“For 21 years I struggled on the Kafrui Road at Rahotu,” said Mr. Corkin. .“Finally I sold the place to Mr. Tom Fleming and took a property at Egmont 'Street, Hawera, where I have been for the last 15 years.” Mr. Oorkin for many years has been an ardent worker for the Salvation Army.