EARLY REMINIBCENCES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13791, 26 October 1908, Page 7

EARLY REMINIBCENCES.

| Related by the late Mr W. K. Hulke

to Mr. W. H. Skinner.]

(Continued from Saturday)

The surveyors were camped at the Putiki pa, of which Hori Kingi was the chief. We also received a hearty welcome from these people to stay hero a few days. Then we crossed over to the north bank of the river where it was understood the new town would be laid out. Here, on the site of the present town of Wanganui, were two large raupo whares, or more properly, houses, which had been built by a Native called Rangi Taura. This man lived a short distance up the river, where the railway bridge now crosses, and had been induced to build these! houses upon the recommendation of Colonel Wakefield in expectation of the arrival of pakeha settlers and the prospect of their sale at his own figure. We, that is, Mr. Dorset, myself, and two others were fortunate enough to secure one of the raupo buildings, which stood close to Churton's Creek, near the sand hills, and of course near to the river bank. We offered Rangi in trade for the place, but he insisted on having mom koura (money gold), and nothing else would satisfy Kirn. He asked two sovereigns for the whare, which we readily gave. At the end of a week Rangi returned, looking very downcast, and told us he had been porangi, or mad to ask for the gold, which he quickly spent, and now requested that we go back to our original offer of £40 in trade. We could not agree to this, but as we got a bargain we decided to give him £20 worth of trade, for which Rangi was profoundly thankful, and from that time until I finally left Wanganui he was one of the best friends I had there. He never forgot our liberal dealing with him and always did me a good turn if it Jay in his power. In this building was opened the first store in Wanganui. Messrs. Dorset, Keith, Barley Bros, (of Bristol), and myself each put or were supposed to £100 into the business. Soon after these events the schooner Elizabeth

and the cutter Harriett brought a number of settlers and their effects, amongst whom were Messrs. Nixon, Wicksteed, Popham King, and Churton. Mr. Hulke did not remain long in Wanganui, but returned to Wellington by the schooner Harriett. He found life too fast in the embryo settlement for his taste, and an attempt having been made to burn down the store by the rowdy and drinking element of the place, because he would not join in the nightly debauch, he sold out his interest in the store to his partners for £30, thus losing heavily on his first business venture in New Zealand. A fortnight after returning to Wellington he was again on the move. This time he /went to Sydney; at the stance of Mr, Revans, proprietor of the New Zealand Gazette, the first newspaper published 'in the colony, Mid Captain Smith) Surveyor-General. His business was to purchase a herd of dairy cows, which he did, selecting the animals from the Cow Pass district of New South Wales and paying £7 per head all round. He also purchased three or four horses, about 100 sheep, and six working bullocks. With great good luck and management, this cargo was landed in New Zealand without i the loss ofc a single head, except one bullock which perished in the attempt; to swim ashore from the ship, which s discharged near to Oriental Bay.. It was one of the first shipments of stock > to Wellington, and at this time and for some time afterwards all stock was landed on the harbour foreshore near the junction of Kent and Cambridge Terraces with Courtney Place. Near by, the deep sluggish swampy outlet to the large morass, or bog, now known as the Basin Reserve, ran into > the harbour. This creek and bog claimed a large number of victims amongst the stock of the early Wellington settlers. Quite 150, to Mr. Hulke's knowledge, must have perished in this death trap. The earthquake of 1853 changed the contour of this part of Wellington, the land rising bodily some feet_ above sea level. The commotion in the bog during the time of the great shock was terrifying, hundreds of tons jq£- liquid mud being hurled bodily out of the morass on to the adjoining slopes. The dairy cows brought over by Mr. Hulke were run on the land at the head of Evan's Bay, near to the present suburb of Kilbirnie, and partly on the Miramar Peninsula. Here Mr. Hulke started a small dairy farm and market garden, taking his produce into the town by means of a light cart drawn by a bull in shafts. On one occasion Mr Hulke had taken in a load of vegetables on market day — Saturday •—andf, having disposed of his w,ares, drove iiis steed to Barrett's Hotel, -where it was his intention to dine. Leaving the bull and cart outside he had onfy just entered when the twelve o'clock, gunHboomed out close at hand. This so startled the bull that it rushed straight ahead into the harbour — near the site of the present Government Railway passenger station — which at this part ran out shallow for some distance. The animal turned neither to the right nor to the left, but kept straight on, and getting into deep water at last essayed to swinr, But being harnessed- t*o the cart it was greatly and eventually drowned. The carcass was secured by aid of a boat and brought ashore and sold for £10 to an enterprising butcher. Beef in those days was scarce and dear, so the tradesman secured a bargain and doubtless made a big profit out of the drowned bull.

In the latter part of 1842 Mr Hulke returned to Wanganui, and turned his attention to milling, erecting a flour mill — windmill — with p"art of the machinery he had recently imported from England. This mill was destroyed by the natives on the outbreak of the war of 1845.

(To be continued.)