SETTLEMENT EVENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

SETTLEMENT EVENTS

THE FIRST STRIKE

(By

T.C.L.)

In his diary Mr. Chiiman goes on to relate the incidents attending the arrival of the barque Amelia Thompson, the captain of which seems to have been a particularly cautious man. Mr. Chiiman says:—

“On Thursday (September 9) we had a breeze from the north. It was a very dull day with a great deal of rain. The ship was not seen all the morning, but beat up during the afternoon, when the captain sent, off a boat from the ship with some of the cabin passengers, which towed the long boat, in which were a number of the immigrants with their bedding, etc., and as it was half-past five o’clock in the evening, and the ship’s distance about eight miles from the landing, it was quite dark when the boat reached the shore. As might have been expected, the boats struck on the rock. Fortunately assistance was at hand and the sea smooth, otherwise all might have been destroyed; as it was, the bedding was' all thoroughly saturated, and the people soaked through. On Friday morning there was a good deal of rain with the wind rather fresh from the north, when the ship again beat up opposite the town. We now fully expected she was at last going to anchor, there being no wind to speak of. Presently, however, the captain fired a gun and prepared to start again southward, with a fair wind. Mr. Barrett, however, went off to the vessel and told the captain that there would not be bad weather and that he had better not stand away, but this advice the captain disregarded, for nothing afterwards was seen of the ship until the middle of Saturday (September 11) when she was discovered standing ,in from the northward. She, however, made very slow progress, it being nearly a calm and the sea quite smooth.” . On Saturday evening she came to an anchor off the town, when Mr. Cutfield sent a boat to her for some flour, as the people had nothing to eat, the biscuits and potatoes being all gone.. The diary goes on to relate:—“For some reason or other the captain refused to attend to the request, so that if he should go again to sea I do not know what we shall do. A week has been entirely lost, as the vessel could have been at anchor and unloading all the time with perfect safety. Sunday and Monday were tolerably fine, and the ship remained at anchor, all on board busily engaged in landing the passengers, their luggage, and some of the cargo. On Sunday we got some flour on shore and it was at once served out to the people who had been without adj for five weeks. A northerly gale springing up on Tuesday night, the ship weighed anchor and then bore away towards the south." ■ ,

The subsequent history of the Amelia Thompson demonstrates the truth of . the old saying regarding ignorance and bliss. On one occasion when beached at Batavia to have her bottom cleaned, Captain Dawson was amazed to find that the Amelia Thompson’s back was broken. When he returned to London he acquainted the insurance agent with it, and that gentleman coolly remarked: “Oh, yes, we knew that; her back was broken when she was being launched.” For. a time the Amelia, Thompson ' was engaged as a transport during Chinese war, and later she was wrecked on the coast of India., hear Madras, one '• life being lost. ■ Within .a. few. months of, the establishment of . the settlement in New Plymouth there was a strike.. Owing to the growing scarcity of foodstuffs prices rose and, the workmen struck for higher wages. This must have been the first strike in New Zealand. Mr. Chiiman appealed to the settlers, who agreed to do the work themselves rather than, as he puts it in his diary, “submit to such an uncalled for and disgraceful demand.” Soon afterwards the men returned and intimated their readiness to resume work on the old terms. Mr. Cutfield told them that the company could not afford to pay even the old rate, and said that unless the men were prepared to do an extra hour’s work a day they could not be employed. After considering the offer the men agreed and work was re-started on the new basis of 10 hours a day! The first winter seems to have been a pretty wet one. Writing at the end of July, Mr. Chiiman says: “It has been wet for about four or five days a week; the other days have been pleasant and warm in the middle of the day but cold at night.”' > ;■ The Maoris were very busy at this time planting potatoes, which they said would be required by, the, new settlers. They wanted blankets and. tools and nails, and potatoes appeared to offer the best and readiest means (of payment. Of the Maoris Mr. Cutfield wrote to the directors at Home: “We are on very good terms with them. They are quick in understanding, but very dirty and lazy. Finer men I have never seen, but the women are, by no. means prepossessing. There has been much talk of late of the Waikatos coming. Should they do so I shall be prepared for them. However, I hope they know better than to molest the writes.”

By July 29 the carpenters had finished the erection of a flagstaff on Mt. Eliot, and the company’s flag was thereupon hoisted. The workmen had given as an excuse for their delay in starting work that they did not know the hour, and so a cannon was' fired each morning at 7 o’clock. The old settlers relate how the local natives became possessed of their first grindstone. Dickey Barrett’s dusky father-in-law took a fancy to the stone as it lay on the deck of a schooner off Moturoa. The captain told him he could have it if he Could roll it to the shore. The chief and his followers took him at his word and promptly lifted the stone overboard, diving after it, each in turn rolling the stone on the bed of the ocean until they reached the beach! The captain lost the grindstone but declared he got full compensation for it from seeing the efforts of the Maoris diving and bobbing up after their strenuous endeavours.

The new settlers soon had an experience of earthquakes. “We had not been in bed an hour or two,” writes Mr. Chiiman, “before we were awakened by a regular jerking and the rattling of the plates and dishes. At the moment ■ I could not imagine the cause, being in a state of great fright, but the cause soon struck me. The bed rocked about and produced the sensation of being in a ship with a head sea on and pitching about. The Maoris say earthquakes are of common occurrence here. I have heard of no damage being done with the exception that two chimneys constructed of stones had their seams cracked.”