The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1889.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8435, 1 April 1889, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1889.

The anniversary of the first settlement of Taranaki has once more come round, and brought us within two years of the " Jubilee" of the peopling of the district with Europeans. The abolition of the provinces has ttaded somewhat to nullify these natal anniversaries of original settlements in JNew Zealand ; but it will be many years in this holiday-making era before they will be thoroughly obliterated from the calendar. Taranaki was the second settlement established by a British colonisation company. In January, 1840, the "Plymouth Company of New Zealand" waß formed under very distinguished patronage, the Earl of Devon being the President, and gentlemen of high standing forming the directorate. It was connected partly with the New Zealand Company, an Association which had for its object the settlement of New Zealand. Arrangements were entered into by the directors of the Plymouth Company with the New Zealand Company for the latter to get its agents in New Zealand to select a site for the emigrants to come to, and acting on these instructions, Colonel Wakefield, on the recommendation of Mr. J?. A. Carrington, the Company's chief surveyor, fixed upon the present district for the new settlement. The first vessel with emigrants that left the old Plymouth in England for the New Plymouth in New Zealand was the William Bryant, whiob, after many delays, sailed on the afternoon of November 19th, 1840. There were 148 passengers on board, of whom seven — the leaders of this embryo colony— were in the cabin. This vessel sighted New Zealand on Maroh ISth, 1841, when about 120 miles j from land, but being detained in the , Straits for three days with head winds and calms was unable to reaoh Port Underwood, where all the vessels were told to make for, till, the 20th. As the William Bryant was entering Port Underwood, the survey vessel Brougham was just leaving for Wellington, and the immigrants then learnt for the first time the position in the northern island , of their land. The William Bryant remained at Port Underwood a week, sailing for New Plymouth on Sunday, March 28th. On the following Tuesday the Sugarloaves were sighted, and the vessel in the evening was brought to an anohor to the eastward of the outer Sugarloaf, and about a mile and a half from the shore, On the following morning the passengers were landed, as well as all the live stook that had been brought from England. Tents were erected for the immigrants on the beach, bat several took refuge in some Maori whares. No one can realise at the present time the desolate feeling that came over the immigrants — especially the women— after leaving the ship, and as the shades of evening gradually hid everything from view, the feeling of desolation must have been quite appalling. Huddled together in tents and raupo whares — " rough," as Mr. Cutfifeld; who had charge of the party; wrote to the direotors of the Company, '* but better than being out of doors " — was the way the " pilgrim " fathers and their families passed the first night in the new and strange land. The weather was fine at the time, and mild, but the life was so strange, so different to what they all had been used to in England, or even on board the vessel thoy had only a few hours previously left, that many of the women shed tears, and expressions to the effeot that death would be a happy release from their sufferings were no doubt uttered. Daylight was most welcome to the party ; and so the days passed and weeks went on till at least these people became accustomed to their new life and its associations. But what a ohange has taken plaoe during the past forty-eight years I The district, whioh was then covered with timber, fern, and aorub— vegetation extending down to the very beach — is fast being cleared, and the land placed under cultivation. A railway now runs through the country which was then a terra incognita, and connects the distriot with Wellington. Towns with Europeans have replaced the Maori settlements of old; and the features of this fair land have been completely, changed. Tne Maoris are gradually passing away, and the pukehas are taking their place. For three hundred years the Maoris had undisturbed possession of these islands, and when Captain Cook, on January 13, 1770, saw for a few minutes the summit of the peak towering above the olouds and covered with snow, whioh he called Mount Egmont, this distriot was covered with verdure and wood. It was unchanged seventy years ! afterwaid. But sinee 3 then—in less than fifty years — the oivilizing influence of the pakeha has, as it were by magic, completely altered the aspect of the plaoe. We have now thousands of aores of land in cultivation. We have cattle, sheep, and horses, in large numbers ; and many thousand pounds worth «f produce is every year sent away to England and other countries. We have the railway connecting us with other places, the telegraph wire puts us in communication with all parts of the world ; we have large steamers trading at our port, where only small schooners onoe called. The white man has brought about this ohange, civilization carrying everything before it. Looking at what has been done in New Zealand in fifty years, it affords food for thought when we ask what will be the position of the colony and this distriot in particular, when another half century has passed away. Looking back then at what has been accomplished in the past, we must say that the Anniversary Day is certainly one for rejoicing. There is, however, plenty of room for further work to be done in this distriot, and when future generations read of the congratulations we now offer to ourselves on our present advancement, they will, we can imagine, smile to think with how little we were satisfied.