THE FIRST SETTLEMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1932, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT

SOME EXCITING INCIDENTS HOSTILITY SHOWN BY MAORIS. s SETTLERS ARMED AND DRILLED. KIMBELL BENT THE RENEGADE. Among the first setters in the Whakamara district (which had been confiscated because of the Maori owners’ participation in the rebellion against the pakeha authority, and opened to European settlement) was the late Mr. F. A. Bremer and his young wife, who is now living in retirement at Mission Hill, New Plymouth. A News’ reporter, in an interview, found Mrs. Bremer as alert in mind as a young woman, with a courage and hopefulness unaffected by physical disability. Unable to use her right arm as the result of a stroke a year or two age she promptly taught herself to write with her left hand; unable to use her right foot she had supports affixed that enable her to walk about her house and her well ordered and pretty flower garden. To her life in its autumn is as ■full nf interest and joy as it was in those exciting and vigorous pioneering days of the seventies when she as a bride of a pioneer went into the Whakamara to assist in literally carving out a home. In those days, she told the reporter, the Whakamara was practically in its virgin state. The Maoris had cleared a few places for their crops, but the rest was in light scrub, bush and high fem. There was only a track to the land they had purchased,: and the river was unbridged. These conditions remained for some years. The timber.for,their house was pit sawn at the back of the section and plank by Plank was carried up a steep hill to .‘the site of the house, whilst the bricks for the chimneys were carried in ■ sacks oyer the river, and sledged in. There was ho school in the district in those days, and it was too far and difficult for the settlers to send their children to Manutahi, the nearest school, so Mrs.. Bremer,, who . was . a trained teacher and had previously conducted a school at Kohi, near Wayerley, arranged to teach the local children'at her own home. She carried bn her good work for two years, when Miss Duirs (now Mrs. McNab) relieved , her and the school was moved to her people’s house. Later a proper school was built and has continued, with alterations and additions, to do service ever since.

Mrs., Bremer grew ; reminiscent,, and told of her ’ experiences in those infant days of the settlement. She met Kimbell Bent, regarded as a renegade,'. upon whose head the Government had placed £lOOO. After Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu, where Von Tempsky, Captain Buck and other gaitant, officers and men fell, Bent disappeared with the natives, and hid in fastnesses inland of Patea, but later he used to come into Carlyle, as the township /of Patea whs then called. He ! was always accompanied by a bodyguard when he ventured out into the open, for though the reward was withdrawn, Bent was afraid and distrustful of the whites, and acted and lived as a Maori more than as a European. There were further Maori - troubles just after Whakamara was opened for settlement. Te Whiti and Tohu, .the Parihaka prophets, vigorously protested’ against the action; of the Government in confiscating the. Maori lands, holding that the, pakehas, not the Maoris, .were the cause of the conflicts. They . accordingly preached hostility—passive resistance .it is true—to the settlers who had taken up the confiscated. sections. . Their followers began to harry the settlers. They took ’away gates; drove off surveyors, and turned or pulled out the survey pegs. They even took ploughs and cut up the lawns, etc., and generally carried on obstructive tactics. , Thh settlers were ordered to arm and train in the various redoubts, end to keep their loaded rifles handy in case of a sudden uprising. In going to and from Manutahi for drill the settlers had to hide their weapons, as they did not desire to provoke the -Maoris. •^TOEifUpUS-DAYS/ON SHEEP FARM. ' “Whakamara-soil was very, rich, and we always had quantities of vegetables and fruit. We even tired of strawberries attimes, and sb did our -shearers, unless they' were stemmed for them! We boarded them (being mostly sons " of friends), and supplied them with three hot meat meals a day and 'two light ones, the . latter taken to the shed. So there were no idle hours. The < shearers brought, their blankets Sd ’slTpt on the bales of wool in the shed. ‘ In later years ’ we employed Maoris—-morning and afternoon tea, and a good solid dinner, with plenty of plumduff, and gallons ■ of batmeal and ginger between times’. “Te Whiti prohibited all’ his followers from drawing their, rents from the tenants of the, land taken as compensation. The. Native Trustee every six months' notified. Maoris to attend the Court Bouse and receive their money, and / although the town would be crowded with them, all wearing Te Whiti’s badge of a white feather in hair, hat or-ear, .not one would go for his money. ' , j “A Maori shearer one day seemed very out of sorts. His mates said he had to appear before the others because he had been tempted more than once to draw a portion of his rent. The P.T. lodged their individual shares at call", so that at any time they could, on producing their authority, get their share. His hapu had someway found it out. The people had. an all-night sitting" and harangued and ostracised him He came- next day to work, but became so ill with worry and tne treatment meted out to him by his. mates that they had to obtain a dray and take him to the pa, and he died that night He was a fine, strapping man, only 30 years of age. Superstition and fear had proved too strong for the native mind. . , . , ■“Another thing over which I bungled

badly during our stay at Whakamara happened ..this way. My husband had fattened two large pigs (fed often on milk straight from the cow), it not paying to make butter. When the pigs were cured he built into a bank a shelter for smoking them, and as he was to be away all day he gave me instructions as to when and how I was to replenish the fire from the firewood he had laid ready. I went back and forth every now and again, and always found smoke and fire right. So I did not go so often in; the afternoon, but when I opened the door of the cave I was met by flames, and had to pour buckets of water over the bran before I could see the damage, which was considerable. The fire had been too hot, and the bacon had begun to drip, of course, fanning the flames, this heating the wire hooks, and they pulled through, letting most of the bacon on to the embers. Some hams and sides were roasted beyond use. The best I boiled. You may imagine how tired we got of ‘Piggie.’ The portions that did not fall kept all right. PEACHES PLENTIFUL. “Whilst in Whakamara, before blight and curl attacked the peach trees, we actually were tired of peaches. The native habit was to clear spaces in the light scrub or bush for their gardens, digging pits for storage for the winter use of kumaras, potatoes, pumpkin and the jam and sweet kumi. Around these spaces they planted peach stones, and oh! what a sight the trees were, laden to the ground with luscious fruit, but I am ashamed to own now how very tired we got at the sight of one. In the grove nearest us I counted 30 wellgrown healthy trees, and these groves were scattered right through the block. I preserved them in every conceivable way, but for want of jars I was not able to do so in syrup. I tried splitting them and threading them on white knitting cotton, and hanging them on rows of nails to dry in the sun for winter puddings, but they were more usable fresh than pt eserved.” “There was an old war track at the back of Whakamara running from the Patea River through the bush, which had been used by the Maoris in some earlier wars. This led right into their stronghold, and it was feared it might be used by them in the early dawn, their usual hour of attack. One’s dwellings were so far apart that if. these tactics were adopted the whole block could be wiped out} and the attackers' escape. We had a sheep dip and pens below, out of sight of the house, and it did not conduce to sound sleep to hear the menfolk discussing the feasibility of tunnelling from our large fireplace to this out-of-sight spot. By keeping horses in the pens one had a chance of a get-away. MAORI CHIEF WALKS IN. "I had strict orders .that if any Maoris came I was to lock up the arms and accoutrements and pocket the keys. One day our men fold me that they were going to repair a culvert, but would not be out of sight of the house. Well, this day, an old chief (who had had permission to short-cut through our paddocks) stalked in. (The Maoris never knocked). He put a live cinder in his pipe, as so many pipe smokers love to do, and asked, ‘Where’s ti boss?’ I fold him to go to them. He strongly objected, and said that I was to go. ‘Too busy, you go.’ ‘No. But I will call them. You come too,’ I replied. I coo-00-ed, but neither replied. I coo-oo-ed again, but with no result. So I said, ‘lf I go, you must come too.’ We settled it . that way, and away we set. I in front and he in the'rear (Maoris usually walk single-file. I wonder if this is caused through breaking a way through the very high , and thick bracken fem until it has become a habit?) “Mawhiti was carrying a tomahawk which he 'always took with him to his garden, but I found it necessary to talk so as to keep my eyes more towards him. The men had been finishing their job, so temporarily had been stooping. When they caught sight of me they came quickly, as they thought I was being chased—Mawhiti only • asked if the boss wanted to buy potatoes. But I still incline to the belief tnat the Maoris had sent him as,a spy, but our casualness allayed his suspicions. I re- , member ' what, comfort I took in the fact that the old fellow was wearing a white blanket shirt-wise in lieu of pants, white being a flag of truce! The poor old chap died whilst travelling by train. If he wanted to be extra nice he showed it by bringing me oysters or a couple of eggs for my breakfast. “To revert to the need of drill and the Maori scare. Orders were given that in the event of an uprising of the natives all women and children were to go into the block-house at Manutahi, and the men could go on with farming and stock-feeding, but they were always to sleep in one bouse. There were two roads into the block, owing to the broken nature of the land. They were some distance apart. The men decided that it would be better to sleep turn about on each road. Wellington was in a ferment, and viewed the unrest with more alarm than those on the spot, and they worried over the much exaggerated rumours. My mother implored me to go to her m Wellington. I considered it my duty to stay, but father and I rode to Patea to send my young sister home. FEARS OF MAORI RAIDS. “One night my husband’s partner made up his bed on the sitting-room floor. During the night two dogs started a fight under the house, which was raised on blocks. Their thunfomg awakened him, aria the pakeha thougnt the Maoris had got him at last. In telling me of it all, he vowed that every hair stood stiff and that he felt his scalp rising! When I returned after three nights there was no immediate need to go into the block-house, but only one other woman returned home, and she lived oh the other road. . “A man named Hiroki Quarrelled with and killed a surveyor’s cook and escaped through a track leading from the Patea River to Parihaka, incidentally at the back of Whakamara, where we had fears of a Maori raid. This track was cut and used by the natives during the Te Kooti fighting. Hiroki took refuge at Parihaka, and when there were white people present at the prophets harangue he would go amongst them putting out his tongue in derision. But his reckoning was to come. At tne same time the chiefs were called on to surrender Hiroki was handcuffed. He boldly demanded to be taken m the lorry. He was told that he had killed a man, which the chiefs had not, and he would have to walk behind and not ride in it. Hiroki later was hanged in Auckland. ■, “Whilst the mothers and children were' in the block-house, the Maori chiefs having ’ submitted quietly and troops having gone back to their homes they were at liberty to return to their homes. All but one woman were, however, too frightened to go so soon, and I did not go at all. “A very rainy Monday to unci my clothes’ lines pegged with a much larger wash than usual. In the expectation of having to pack them away indefinitely I collected all, I could. A neighbouring farmer happened to see