PROWESS OF A PIONEER

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1932, Page 12

PROWESS OF A PIONEER

REMARKABLE STRENGTH SHOWN. FEATS OF MR. WILLIAM ALLEN. The grit and resourcefulness of the pioneers in Taranaki was referred to recently by Mr. R. C. Hughes in a letter published in the Taranaki Daily News. He mentioned, in particular, the great personal strength and stamina of the late Mr. William Allen, who with his wife and his two eldest sons arrived at New Plymouth in the ship Amelia Thompson in 1841. ' Further details of herculean feats by Mr. Allen have been related to a reporter by Mr. W., Allen, Vogeltown, the youngest son of the pioneer. Mr. Hughes in his letter mentioned that Mr. Allen,, senr.,' had taken up land on the Old Hospital Road, near Puketotara. Haying no plough' he constructed a substitute consisting of a beam sharpened at one end like a plough. With the butt end suspended from'his shoulder and resting against hiS chest he' tore furrows in the soil and {here'he deposited seeds for a crop of’ wheat. This he ' harvested, threshed and winnowed and the resulting grain he brought in a wheelbarrow to Oliver’s Mill, on the Carrington Road; He waited there until it was ground. The flour', pollard and bran produced was then taken home in the wheelbarrow. ’ The son interviewed by the reporter was hot born at the time of this primitive ntethod of cultivation, but he wellremembered seeing the old plough lying beside a fence after the family came into town. “I often think that we should have kept it,” he said, “but one. does not think of such things till afterwards.” The implement had handles and a running wheel,' but the motive power was supplied from the chest. It turned quite a good furrow.’

PARRAKBBTS THE ONLY- PEST.

The wheat 'in question was - grown amongst the gtumpS of a 10-acre clearing Gt What is now know as Upper Mangorei. It was part of a property of 100 acres bought by Mr. Allen for his son John and later known as Mitchell’s farm. There the seed was broadcast, and so well did the soil’ respond that a crop of 60 bushels to the acre' was obtained among the Idgs and stumps, ' only the tops of which could be seen above the waving ears. There were ■nd pests' or blights in those days, except one. The wheat was hand-reaped with sickles and tied in shucks, and then—green parrakeets in 'their hundreds came to take their' share of the harvest; ....... It was from this clearing'that Mr..:Allen would wheel his laden barrow eight and a-half miles io’ the mill on the Huatoki River,' down- the rough 'Puketotara Road (now known as Mangorei Road), across the Henui bridge, and so into the town to wait until-the grain had been ground and loaded for the long walk back to the homestead,' which was about half a mile beyond Petrie’s corner. Mr. Allen, who died at the age of .82, was over' six feet high and proportionately broad. His physical. develbpment enabled him to do things that were impossible to another man. It was about 1850, when' he was growing wheat on the site of .Te Henui cemetery, - that a machine used, for . .threshing became stuck in the deep creek that then ran near the 'entrance to the.present,cemetery. Those in charge tried fruitlessly to move it until Mr, Allen placed his shoulder under it and liited. it out. It wap after that hat he acquired the homestead near Petrie’s Corner and subsequently purchased 100 acres at Upper Mangorei and another 100 acres at the back of the. site.of the Mangorei factory, the properties, being intended for his two oldest sons. '

In those days the. bush in that district was very heavy and-the work of-clear-ing it was arduous indeed, but not so for Mr. Allen. He delighted in any task that gave play to his enormous muscles. He was assisted in-his labours by Messrs. Thomas and Johp Allen, both- now dead. They were' both strong men and experts with an axe, but they were no match-for their •father,-' who could : never-.get an axe big. enough for himself. He would drive his heavy axe at the timber with powerful, swinging blows and. have his tree down before anyone else. He never tired. ...... . . . ; '.'

•! ' MOWING WITH A SCYTHE. He . was an expert at cutting grain, with the sickle and at mowing with the scythe. In those days there were no reaping machines, so that the mowing had to be done with a scythe. Fiye t 6 ten of them would, spread themselves across a field of wheat, with a leader, to set the pace, each man having a definite width to mow. Movirig. across the field in line with deft they would soon have the crop levelled. Mr. Allen was noted for the tremendous swathe he took with each movement of the scythe, and for his stamina. On one occasion he was one of a gang Whose leader was somewhat egotistical concerning his own prowess. Knowing that he was a champion, the men persuaded Mr. Allen to take the place next the leader, with the object of testing out his pace. All the morning the mowers worked, the leader being hard put to keep up with his doughty companion. In the afternoon the ■ race entinued, but the leader had to give up, vanquished. So severed had been’ the test upon his physique that he had to spend three months in bed. No doubt Mr.- Alien’s strength was partly due to the fact that he had had to work for his living from a very early age. He was only seven years old when ha was apprenticed to a farmer in Devonshire and had to submit to all the strains of Englirh farm life and the rigours of the climate. .. . ■’ Arriving at New Plymouth with his wife and'two infant sons in 1841, he first lived in a'.whare at Devonport, near the Terminus Hotel. A third son was. born soon afterwards. .' Mr. Allen obtained work at Waitara cutting lines for the surveyors. In those days there was no road, only the roughest track, and no bridges. Nevertheless, for: the small wage of 5s a day he walked daily to; and. fro- from Waitara, fording the rivers en route.

While the family were at Mangorei, or Puketotara, war broke out, ip March, 1860, and they came into town to live. Mr. Allen himself never went back: to the country. First the family lived in Moon’s , house in Brougham Street, still standing next to Smarts’ plumbers’ establishment; then they moved into. Cunningham’s house behind the site of the theatre. Afterwards Mr. Allen built a house behind the shop occupied by the New Plymouth Hardware Company. It was this dwelling that was subsequently moved by bullocks to four quarter-acre sections in York Terrace, opposite Mr. W. H. Skinner's place. There Mr. Allen cultivated vegetables and fruit.