OLDER NEW PLYMOUTH

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1932, Page 7

OLDER NEW PLYMOUTH

DAYS BEFORE MAORI WAR STREAMS, PONDS AND HOTELS. RADIO BROADCAST DY MR. R. COOKOld New Plymouth in-the days before the Maori War was the subject of a brief address by R. Cock,~a member of a party of “old time- entertainers” who gave an interestingra&i/ainusing broadcast from station 2YB, New Plymouth, last night. Unfortunately Mr, Cocks time was cut comparatively, short owing to the'programme having/already exceeded its allotted time, and his. description of the town between Mt. Eliot and the Henui Riv.er, as it was at the time of the Maori War, was postponed to a future date. . New Plymouth was founded in 1841, said Mr. Cock. His mother and father arrived that year, and were married in New Plymouth. He was born ten years later, but could not remember much before about 1858. He could, however, recall many incidents of those days. New Plymouth in 1858 was only a small community, and perhaps because of that the people were very happy. Part of the town in those days was called Devonport, but Devonport as th© name of a suburb had now disappeared. His father and mother lived in’ one ot the only two houses on Mt. Eliot, near where the railway station now stands. Between 1850 and 1860 New Plymouth mad© big strides in its development, but this was cheeked by the outbreak of the Maori \ War. People from th© surrounding districts were compelled to flee into the town, and were accommodated in the houses of the residents. Most of Hie country homes were burnt by the {Maoris. The Government provided accommodation for th© refugees at St. Germam Square, where the Agricultural Hall nowstands, and subsequently many of them were removed to Nelson for- safety. ' The two original houses on Mt. Eliot were augmented by many others, and. socta the area was covered with houses. The residents were a very happy family. There were very large numbers of Maoris in the districts surrounding New Plymouth, and several hundred were congregated in a pa at Moturoa. New Plymouth was literally much wetter in those days than it was today, continued Mr. Cock, There was a big pond of water where the present entrance to the- Roman Catholic Church is located and it, was frequently used for swimming. The water from it crossed Devon Street and then drove the water wheel of the brewery. There was another pond in the vicinity of-the present Ridd Company’s premises, from which the water- flowed that drove the mill wheel, a third pond of about two acres in the vicinity of St. Germain Square, and a fourth by the Recreation Grounds. In fact the town was full of ponds and streams that did not exist to-day. He remembered going up a stream flowing where the New Plymouth Savings Bank now stands to get watercress. The town was also full of hotels which had since gone out of existence. There were the Ship Hotel, the Marsland Hotel, the Star Hotel, the Masonic Hotel and a hotel on South Road. It seemed that not only in ponds had New Plymouth gone comparatively dry.