RECOLLECTIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 19 (Supplement)

RECOLLECTIONS

TRAVELLING 40 YEARS AGO VISITS MADE UNDER DIFFICULTIES. RECOLLECTIONS OF A SCIENTIST. “Forty-one years have elapsed since I first visited Taranaki,” writes Dr. J. A. Gilruth, whom many older residents of Taranaki will remember as Chief Government Veterinarian, and who is now Director of the Animal Health Division of the Australian Council. for Scientific and Industrial Research, Melbourne. “Dairying was then relatively in its infancy and quite a number of properties that later on became devotee! to milk production, carried sheep. The railway journey from Wellington was slow and tedious. Starting at 6.30 a.m. three times a week only did the through train reach New Plymouth, and then at about 9.30 p.m. On other days it stopped at Wanganui. The roads throughout the province were far from good.

“My first trip was to a farm somewhere between Eltham and Stratford. Stock Inspector Monro, stationed at Hawera, was guide and manager of the expedition. The vehicle was a buggy, far from comfortable to me. Underneath the seat I observed, though at first with but little interest, a riding saddle. The two horses of the team were sturdy but shaggy. The harness was scant, to my new-chum ideas. On the main road the going was fairly good, but when we turned off, the track was unformed. Gradually it became rutty. As we proceeded it got worse. Finally the gait was reduced to a walk. Eventually the track became impossible for the vehicle. At least, so Monro asserted. Horses 'were unyoked. Collars and traces were removed. The saddle was placed on one—for Monro—a sack was put on the other for me! The reins were adjusted so that each horse was available as a mount. And so the journey was resumed. Successfully, too! “The farm had been but recently taken up. The homestead consisted of a tworoomed dwelling/with skillion kitchen, a yard, and a few cow bails. Gaunt black trunks reared their broken branched heads, accusingly it seemed to me, fresh from the tidy and trim lands of Britain. The ground was littered with felled timber partially burned, and the day was gloomy, with frequent cold showers. “One bright feature was the luxuriant clovers and grasses forming a heavysward between the /alien timber. Another was the cheery hospitality of the farmer and his wife. A bright fire and excellent chops with tea were welcome. Notwithstanding the isolation and the obvious drawbacks, these pioneers exuded optimism. And this even though the wife admitted she had not been off the farm for six months!. While we talked later the three children, two boys and a girl, returned from school all riding the one pony, happy and ruddycheeked. Forthwith they proceeded to ■milk. .

“The optimism, which seemed rather unwarranted, was justified. Over 30 years later I again visited the same farm. What a change! In half an hour from Hawera a car on a beautiful bitumen road landed me at the door. A handsome, commodious dwelling surrounded by a beautiful hedge-sheltered garden had replaced the shack. The farmer, prosperous looking as befitted his surroundings, greeted us. I recalled him last as a boy on the pony. All the appliances of refined civilisation were there —telephone, radio, electric light, electric cooker. The cow-shed was a model, with milking machine electrically driven. The good lady and daughters explained to me how lucky and how happy they were. Three towns with shops and picture shows within easy reach by car; prices good; and stock healthy. What more could one want? And what more, indeed?

“Gone was the ugliness I remembered presented decades before by a harassed Nature. Only here and there a mighty stump served to remind one that the dense, primeval bush had been conquered. Luscious pasture, bordered by shelter plantations, now held sway nourishing the sleek, rug-coated aristocrats of the dairy cattle breed. ‘“During those far-off days when I saw most of Taranaki, the dairying industry was just developing. The value of the whole produce exported by New Zealand reached barely £500,000. Timid souls thought that any increase would swamp the market. But other valiant souls laughed them to scorn. Men like the late Newton King and his colleagues scoured the country, cheering, encouraging, helping the settlers—and, of course, themselves. There were many veterans of the Maori war still' alive. Livingstone, Good, Lysaght, are names that occur to one.

The pioneers had many natural difficulties to contend with, even after Maori and pakeha had learned to live in amity. Other difficulties were introduced, along with stock. Tuberculosis, abortion, mammitis, blackleg, swine fever, all came to harass the dairyman. Even anthrax arrived, imported, as we were able to determine, with the bone fertilisers used to improve the productivity of the lands, show how such troubles may be lessened, and often eliminated. “The progressive dairy farmer has ever been anxious to avail himself of new knowledge. And, on the whole, from what I was able to observe during my last visit some years ago, nowhere is greater keenness displayed than in Taranaki.. Nature has always been kind to Taranaki. With the genial climate and regular rainfall it merits the stouthearted people she has attracted and she has bred. In spite of the dark days of the depression, I feel confident that the energy and the enterprise of the people will in the future as in the past surmount all difficulties.