Timaru.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13803, 14 January 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

Timaru.

A DOUBLE TOWN. As soon as Messrs Rhodes had secured their run, and had ascertained where the best boat landings wore, Mr R. Rhodes purchased as a rural section (and was fortunate enough, it is said, to get it under Sir George Grey's proclamation at 10 shillings were acre) the land fronting on the beach where the landing places were, and the purchase included the gullies down which only bullock draya or even pack horses could be got down to the beach at or near the landing places. These gullies were of course used for that purpose, .•>nd the tracks down them to the beach became the future streets —Strathallan and George. Similarly, gullies elsewhere fixed the position of streets leading to the beach—Heaton, Mill, and Queen streets, and Wai-iti road.

The runs were taken up early in 1851. The section referred to must have been bought between March (when. Grey's proclamation was issued), and September 1854 for on the 25th oi' that month the chief surveyor wrote to the Commissioner of Crown Lands a letter in which he alludes to that purchase. The letter is worth reproducing in full:—

" Having just returned from making with yourself a personal inpection ;;? the southern part of the province, I beg to offer a few suggestions for your consideration. I think it will he expedient to immediately have a careful sur-

vey (trigonometrical and topographical) made of that portion of the country lying between the Rivers Rangitata and Makikilu before allotting the several lands purchaspd, as applications have been made for the purchase of portions of wooded land the.extent and position of which can only be determined by a regular survey. That previous to such allotting I would also recommend 6400 acres of land for a township should be reserved at Talbot Forest including portions of the Rakoapuke and Waihi woods, and the same quantity of land (6400 acres) at Timaru should be reserved for a similar purpose extending from the end of the ninety mile beach to point Tuawihi (Bloody Jack's Point) and back westerly about two miles. This .would include the landing places and sea frontage for about 5 miles. " 1 would further recommend after the trigonometrical survey is fairly commenced that a surveyor or surveyors should bo engaged to make, the topographical survey by contract, such a system having been, adopted with considerable success in the survey of the Christehurch and Mandeville district. .■.''.

"Applications having been made to yon for the purchase of small building sites near 'the landing places at Timaru for the .-purposes of storing wool, etc., the surveyor who is sent to contract the trigonometrical survey, might without much loss of time lay out a line of quarter acre sections commencing at Mr Rhodes's southern boundary, and continuing southerly towards Point Patiti for half a mile/having one chain frontage to the beach, the sections being ,100 feet above' liigh water mark, care being taken to. reserve cross "streets from east to west wherever easy access can be obtained to the beach by means of the gullies." It will be noted that the chief surveyor had large ideas about the size of" townships, and that the mentions ■" Talbot Forest " first. This was the earlier name of the Geraldine Bush. A reserve was provisionally made there, fully as extensive as Mr Cass's 10 square miles. The idea seems to have been entertained in those days that Geraldine should be the site of the principal inland town of South CanterU,J; PLANNING THE TOWNS. It appears that others than Messrs Rhodes recognised—it was indeed unavoidable—that the future port of South Canterbury must have as its immediate means of access gateways to the sea,' and there arose a. desire on the part of some. of them to possess sections of land in the vicinity of those avenues of trade. Mr K. H. Lough, subsequently town clerk for many years, who was then in the employ ot Messrs Rhodes, was is undoubtedly some splendid agrieulcoinniissioned to plan a township. I'lns was done as early as 1856, and he named most of the streets after the Christian names of .members and relatives of the Rhodes family. The '-Main" road had, so to speak, named itself, north and south. Tlie provincial government reserved, and its surveyor, Mr Hewlings, laid off another township, southward of and _ adjoining Rhodes town, and named nearly all the streets after lungs and Queens, Princes, Princesses, and Governors —as if, it may be suggested, to "go one better" than Captain Thomas and Mr Jollie had done in the case of Lyttelton, Sumner and Christchurch. The two townships were planned independently and on different principles, with the result that none of the north and soutli streets, except the Main road which had already been lixed by traffic, coincide where they reach their common boundary at the north street of "Government town." Mr Lough laid out a township for sale, and a source of regret for years was the omission to reserve any spaces for recreation purposes. Fortunately Nature has made" good this defect in a remarkable manner by a reclamation of many acres in Caroline Bay. Mr Hewlings did anticipate the needs of the .future population in the shape of free spaces. He therefore laid off a wide "Belt" along the southern and western sides of his square-mile town, and marked off one soace (Alexandra Square) " market reserve," another (the gaol reserve) "Botanical Gardens." Russell Square, Mr Fussell explains, owe? its reservation to its being, in its original state, a deep peat hole apparently unfit to build upon, and it was therefore surveyed off to reserve as a recreation ground. The Park was not reserved lor such a inn-pose at all. It was merely left unsurveyed into sections until it' should be required' for building purposes, and Mr Fussell suggested and recommended that the space so left should be permanently reserved for a public, recreation ground, and the Provincial Government accepted ine proposal. It was suggested a good many years ! ago, that the reason why the Commissioner of Lands and chief surveyor acquiesced in the sale of the northern foreshore to Rhodes Bros. —in other words, why Rhodes' town was not reserved from sale, seeing that the boating work was being done there —was the idea that some day an artificial harbour would be made, and that the site of this would be opposite the government township, the harbour works being founded on Patiti reef and starting from Patiti Point. If that was the case, experience of the seabed in that quarter showed that the idea was impracticable, owing to the area inside Patiti reef being strewn with lesser reefs. It was however a not unnatural mistake for landsmen to make. TIMARU STARTED. PLANTING POPULATION. Plans and upset prices will not make a. town, and according to an old letter ot 1861 which we find in an early number of the " Timaru Herald," the only buildings at Timaru till 1857 were a station cottage and a woolshed on the beach. In that year a public house

(Sam Williams') and a store (Cain and LeCren's) were added. At the end of 'GS there were only two houses, and the permanent population numbered 10, most of them employed about the boating business. It was not till the beginning of 1059 that the town made a start, when, on January 16th and 17th, a first party of immigrants direct from London were landed, and though many of them at once found their way to employments in the country, on sheep stations or in the bush, a number of; them remaincu at Timaru, and by building homes and engaging in industrial occupations, gave a real start to the town. Other settlers for town and country arrived overland, from north and south, so tli.it by the end of '59/ the population of 'l.maru had increased from the sixteen of the previous December to about 2U), occupying forty or fifty houses, other parties of immigrants were landed from later vessels. ihe first four, including the pioneer ship were: — tahip. Date. Souls. Strathallan ......... 17- l-'SO 110 Echunga lu-12-'bJ l^i umeasmre Witch ... 10-10-'63 125 Victory 13-10.-'t>3 lib .v vessel named the (Jhoice made two trips from Melbourne in 18G2 and brought 17 passengers. These hundreds of people "planted" in tu«' tou n.ship, took rout and throve healthily. To quote the old letter abo\-e referred to: — "With true Anglo-Saxon goaheadism these people set to work and soon

built for themselves comfortable habitations, though some of them were bitterly disappointed in, thqir expeeta-

tions of what they would find in the colony. Houses now began to rise rapidly on all sides, jind in January, 1860, instead of but Three houses and sixteen souls, as in December, 1858, there were between forty and fifty houses with a population of about 200. Last January there vera over sixty houses, and I should think the population had increased to at least 300. Our church, commenced in April of last year, was opened for service in December, and consecrated by the Bishop of Christchurch last April; it is a pretty little edifice, capable of holding about 160 people, and reflects great credit on both the designer and the builders. It was built by subscription, with a.id from the Government, grant of £3OO. ..The.'total cost was about £l,lOO, and with the exception of a very small sum (I believe but £l9) every debt connected with the building is paid off, which I imagine is of somewhat rare occurrence in'.the'history of colonial churches. "About three-quarters of a mile from, shore there are lieavv moorings laid down, capable of holding vessels of 1,000 tons; nearer in shore there are moorings for lighter vessels. The anchorage in the. roadstead is very good, as was'proved last October when the Wellington was lying here in one i of the heaviest gales experienced off this coast for many years.

"The present town is-built entirely on Messrs Rhodes' laud, there being but a couple of buildings in the Government township, but if the Government had taken the trouble to siiik a few wells on their own land a couple of years since, I know for certain that many people would much sooner have purchased their sections there than in the adjoining land. The Government was told of it at the time but notlung was done. "Since the early part of ]SS9 there have been 3550 acres sold in the neighbourhood, 1520 acres of which were taken near the ' Aroiyhenna .bush, eleven miles distant, from which bush we wt our supplies of. sawn timber tural land. With respect/to our downs as agricultural land, I once heard an experienced farmer say that he believed they would produce as fine wheat as any land in the province. A mill is about to be erected "hear to the Arowhemia, which will be a great boon to the district, as everyone is grumbling at the enormous price of flour fully 50 per cent, over Christchurch prices.

"It may bo as well to mention, for the information of any intending settler, that we find in Timnrfi every tradesman he is likely to require; for we boast of a couple of blacksmiths, a good Cabinetmaker, a painter, two or three good carpenters, a tailor, a couple of shoemakers, and a butcher and a baker of course. We can also readily procure labourers, whose wages- per man are 8s a day. There are a couple of hotels in the town —the Roval and the Timaru Hotel.

"Some time ago a petition, most numerously signed by the inhabitants of this district, "was forwarded to His Excellency the Governor! to get this port made a port of entry. 1 have been led to believe that the Customhouse officer at Lyttelton has reported favourably on the matter, and if so, in all probability ere many weeks are. over, we shall have this little boon granted us, which will be of great advantage to the district." The first trade directory of Timaru, published 18C2, was as follows:—Baker and confectioner, Webster; butcher, Walden; blacksmiths, Reid and Duncan at Timouka ; Kirby, Arowhemia ; hotels, W.' Allen, Royal, S. Williams, Timaru, G. W. T. Mason, Washdyke; storekeepers, John Beswick, 11. LeCren and Samuels; surgeons, Dr Butler, Timaru, and Dr Rayner, Arowhemia.

The second directory of the same year' was equally brief:—Bidtor, R. Simpson; Bank agency, New Zealand; blacksmith, B. Wilson ; bootmakers, Nicholas Suckling and Tomson; butcher, Walden; hotels. Royal and Timaru; saddler. H. Durand; storekeeper, J. Beswick, H. J. LeCren, Popperell, Cashel house; stable-keepers, Stubbs, Scarff; tailor, Weaver.

In 18G3 the business directory of Tiniaru had increased, and included the following new names: —.Accountant. J. Melton ; auctioneer, -.John fieswiek; bakers, F. Cnllmau; blacksmiths, .1?. Reid, Wilcox and Winter; brewer, 'W. Harrison; butcher, W. Scarf; boarding houses, W. G. Allen, T. MeKenaie; briekmakers, Ellis and Evley, N. Fisher; beach waster, 'll. Woolleombe; carter, Wyldes; clerk of Court, W., Massey; Collector of Customs, Mr D. Buddie; contractors and builders, Jas. Lumsden, T. Perriman, Smith and Blythe, Frank Wilson; druggist, J. Tucker; district engineer, W. Williamson; nurseryman, T. French; police inspector, W H. Revell ; slaughterhouse inspector, W. Glonnie; hotelkeepers, Chas. Green, Royal, T. J. Faiers, Club, fl. Simpson; medical, H. Butler, Jos. Levy; merchants and importers; J. Beswick, LeCren and Co.; painter, T. \V. Fyfe; poundkeeper, J. Melton; pilot. Strong Work Morrison; magistrate, B. Woolleombe; solicitor, R. D'Oyly; storekeepers, Greenfield and Lowenthal; Wakefield bouse, Padgct and Co.; Melbourne house, Solomon Bros.; National School, F. Stanley, master; tailors, W. Padget; undertaker, R. Taylor. A FTFTY-FIVER. Mr Charles Rippingale, of Pearson Street, Timaru, is one of the "old identities." Though for the past nine years of the seventy-four he lias seen he has. had one arm paralysed from the elbow downwards, he is otherwise hale and hearty, and still possessed of that pluck and spirit which characterised so many of the early immiirrants. Mr Rippingale came to South Canterbury in 1855, coming out hero -from Essex in the Sir Edward Paget, which made a long passage of 140 days. Landing at Port Cooper, he secured

an engagement with Mr Hewlings, Government surveyor, and eame down with him to Geraldine (Uauknpnka as it was then called) and helped to finish the old bark hut in which the surveyor and his wife , lived. This was the first "house" erected in Geraldine. On finishing with Mr Hewlings, he made for Arowhemia, having heard that Mr W. Hornbrook (who was managing the station for his brother. Major Hornbrook) wanted a man. Between Geraldine and Arowhemia he lost his way, and not knowing what) else lie could do, ho made himself as comfortable as he could in a flax bush, somewhere between Winchester and Temuka. The night was dark and foggy, ajfd in the early morning he heard a noise which sounded like music 'in his ears. It was the cracking of a whip. He could sec no one, however, for the fog, but he followed the direction of the sound, and presently espied a man with a bullock' team, and found that the driver was the very man he was seeking, Mr W. Hornbrook, who was on his way across to Geraldine for a load of stakes < and posts. Mr l{ippingale asked for and was given a job, starting there and then, at. .CI a week and found. The station homestead was where Mr McCallum's house now stands, near the ' bank of the river, and there were then ' 5700 sheep on the run. Mr I?ippin-. ' gale was the only white man besides i Mr Hornbrook then on the station. • Five, natives were employed there, and * a native woman used to rook for them. A He tells how on one occasion one of ' the natives lost some food from his I t hut, and seeing him come out of the ' i

bush the native followed him in great anger and threatened to kill him, because he thought the white man was the thief. 'As a matter of fact he bad not been near the hut, but the native went up to the station house and demanded " Charlie.!"- The lady of the house brought out a gun and this quietened him in an instant, the Maori having a great horror of the death dealing " poo-poo" as he called it. Mr Rippingale brought ilio first load of woolfrom the Arowhonua station in to Timaru, and he says it was a • pretty rough job, picking the way over the-country in its then rough and roadless state. The wool was to go away in a schooner which had; been at Timaru for sonic time, but just-as he sighted the harbour with his load, he saw the- schooner leaving. Sam Williams Was living on the beach, so he loft the wool in his charge and it was got away at the next opportunity, Mr Rippiiigale remained on the Arowhenua station for about five months, and ho then went to Major Hornbrook at Port Cooper, after which he helped to form the Tiihcoln road - between the Royal .hotel and the Asylum. From tin's occupation he went to Ready-reoney-Robinson of Cheviot .Hills, and after working there for a time he went over r to the Nelson diggings but had no hick. From Nelson he returned to Cbristchnre'h and in 1862 he returned to Teniuka, where he worked for the late Mr J. Hayhurst and others. After 1862 he continued to work between Temuka and Waimate, but is now living and working in Timaru. He has six children living, and he takes just pride in the fact that he sent three of his "boys" in one Contingent to the South African "War. Better than all his early experiences; Mr Rippingale places the services which his boys were able to render their country and it is a constant source of pride and pleasure to him to look up over the mantelpiece' by his fireside a"d see there the. enlarged photograph of the "boys," all of whom returned from the war unharmed in any material" degree. The veteran settler believes it to be an Australasian record which he established in sending three sons all in the same Contingent. In his old age he possesses a trait' which might be envied by many, in that in spite of his years, he can never be idle. He must, he says, he doing something. In a letter which he received lately, from Mrs Hornbrook, the writer mentions the fact that he on one occasion helped to drive a mob of several hundred sheer) from Arowhenua station to Mt. Pleasant (Major Hornhrook's station at ' Port Cooper) and that he only, lost two sheep on the long journey. INDUSTRY AND THRIFT. A typical oarly settler of the agricultunso class is Air Aiatthew JJri.scoil, ut i_,evels. Air Uriscotl was burn iu bounty Kerry, the eldest of a family of tourteon. Having had ti bitter experience during the time of tlie

" jlsUicK I'aiiiine " in Ireland, he determined to try his luck out here;, and lie arrived in tlie 'limaru roactstead in tiie ivanhoe on Friday, June lien, Jo6i (the uate of tUe lirst issue of the "Timaru Herald." Mr Driscoll arrived Jiere wicn only 4s 6d in his pockets, but with a strong determination to make his way in the world, and in this he was .successful. Owing to sickness and deaths oh board the Ivanhoe, the passengers were ordered to quarurtiue. at Lamp Hay, in Lyttelton Harbour. On the voyage | out about thirty of the passengers died, J as many as tour being buried at sea in one day. After coming out of quarantine, Mr Driscoll went to Christchurch and soon succeeded in getting a. job, road making, for which lie received Ss per day. This, he says, was. untold wealth to him, for he had been unable to make 8 pence per day in Ireland. The lirst' £2O he got together, he sent home, to his parents, and he subsequently got his brothers and sisters to come out to New Zealand. After working in Canterbury for some time, taking anything he could get to do, lie went over to the "West Coast gold fields, but lie had no luck there, and only stopped a week or two. Returning to Christchurch he went to Southbridge, where ho got married, and he and Mrs Driscoll_came down to Timaru by coach' in 1867. Ashburton did not exist then, the present town being represented in those early days by one accommodation house. After working around Temuka and Arowhenun for some time saving all he could, Mr Drißcoll took up some land on the Levels Downs sft acres at first —and he has been there ever since, gradually increasing his holding as he prospered, until he was able to show the deeds for just on 500 acres. Mr Driscoll had a varied experience of roughing it in the early days, and his acquisition of a competence by hard work and thrift is tvpieal of ■ tlia ultimate success of many early colonists of the same stamp. ' i

A PUZZLE EXPLAINED

Hon is it that, except Stafford street, the north and south streets of Knodes town are not in alignment with those "l Government town." ■ The. explanation i.s that the two were planned-by inherent men, Rhodes town by for ?V -fV Lougn, Government town byiUr ,S. Hewlings, and the two wen* quite evidently planned -independently, itud on different principles. Mr Lough commenced with the three gullies giving access to the beach, and hud off three principal .streets running inland from the months of these, drew in two parallel streets between the. .northern : pair, anil then ran a few cross connecting streets. The " Main Road " •was accented as the bullock drivers, bad marked it ont in seeking and following • the easiest grades, and their track made the main thoroughfare a chain of curves and corners, linked by short stretches of straightness. Mr Hewlings accepted the '• Main South " track, and also the chief surveyor's suggestion that '•care should be taken to reserve cross streets from east'to west wherever easy access can be obtained ■to the beach by means of gullies." He laid out such cross streets to the beach at Ifrowiie and Queen- Streets, where gullies ran to the sea, and one other (Heaton Street) where there was no gully, but a dip in the cliff; and naturally he made a street U) divine the State township from the private township, and called it North street. This street was bis base line, and a. set of principal streets' were set oft parallel to it, with cross" streets at right angles and regular distances. Mr Lough's main Cast and west streets were so far apart that as frontages the cross streets were of most importance ; Hewlings put bis east and west streets closer, the cross streets further apart. A consequence of this difference of principle in planning is that except in the case of the Main Road, accepted by both, tho north- , and-KoutU sUeets uu nut anywhere coincide.

It. appears that the Strafhallan.'s lifeboat was bought by Dark tiros., of Client a niifi' Station, and was used by them for the conveyance of wool across tiie head of Lake 'Pukaki, to shorten the cartage via Tokapo ferry- M'! •las. Uouldcn was employed on the. station for a time and boated the wool across, three bales at a time. The boat had a leg-of-mutt(>n sail, and the boatmen (two) sometimes had to contend with a "heavy sea^'

The ttashdyke got its name from.the tact that in a pool in the creek the Khodeses used u, have their sheep washed, following the old English practice ot washing the sheep before shearing. •

In early clays the " 1.0. U." was in common use as a snecies of currencv, and large shop-keepers had ." token pennies" struck, to serve as change and advertise their business. One of these penmes was issued l>y Clarkson and lurnbull with a sketch'of a busy I imaru breakwater on one side.

For many, years after 185.0 • the SUathallan was observed as a holiday ib liniaru. A cricket match in the afternoon and.a dance at ng hwere the usual diversions. ] n . '66 " b„N

A. Perrv. F W cj. n '„ ''■ -Melton, R. TayW. ' p S ft G i Cliff, pointed Town cTn.i- ,° l ! sh ' was «P----posf till his dS S , n » d ■J* -held, tliufc

for the Proving r„f, r ?, to Payers' roil for the dislrict al be C t °'' m ' , ' + a , fc th «t'date and the Opilf „S? en *! e ' Woitaki tained 285 P Sm£ P $ Tinarn con " the district 150 J he J, e Wo ™ ; in of July 62,100"acres of l I Y, tll^lstll sold, of which 000 w»{ aud H bee » The assessed '". cu,ti vatibn. £23,103. -annual value was Timaru in '69' to"«„^ m V, oa 7 ,e to service for LeCren C * e ln "f"e «w sent down fron, w/V'* ° tncr " the service He Wlf tte ' ton , to ru » before as"„e LIT" stores for .fe

r ng"r £ a warehousing port Ti,„ n.,0l revenue collected 1 for Z B £~>«r 31st, 1861, was £433 & „ \>j2 r t)le J'ear 1862 £3IT3 for lfts |460,, for 1804 £0092, nndf.- £ Jg

FniT ho^ reat ? st disaster that has " b»f„ "'■ .° 08 -, A , *P«rk among shaviims a joiner's shop and a strong nor'wester !,e ga „ it, and in an hour 36 the^t" 1 ■ | Wel i ! T were Proved! the west side of the main road f&'tnfl ford street) being burned out from Church- street to Woollcombo street" whier'£3n a nnn stimated at £ m*>> «? suronce ' "' aS COyond >'- v in -

of Phr y ■ settl « r ?- ™«do their bread of Chilian or Australian flour. A 01 ; 11 •«■»« Presently erected at Mdford by Mr R. Wood, and others at Point by Parr Bros.!and at Winchester by Mr D. Inwood.. A windmill was tried at Timaru, but the breezes proved unreliable, therefore, as at sea, sails were discarded in favour ot steam, and presently the tall conical tower of "Parr's mill," for inanv years the most prominent landmark df Limaru, was demolished.

On the morning of June 11th, 1864. the 'lvanhoe," 1044 tons, Dunn, from London, arrived with 120 passengers lor nnaru, but in consequence of several deaths having taken place, the last £i . A,,V' 0S from -typhoid fever, the Wealth Officer ordered her into quarantine, and she sailed for Camn Bav, Lyttelton, taking with her the bootmen, who remained aboard for a fortnight. They were Philin Foster Stronnwork- Morrison, Thomas Chap man, Joseph Moss, and Charles Thonip*

Hie first election for a Town Council for I'miam, in 18G5, was an informal affair. Townspeople met one day, discussed possible candidates pivssed tiiis or that one to stand. Next morning there were nominations, followed- by a poll, and the result was declared at 4 p.m. Sixteon candidates were nominated and the poll resulted as follows:—H. J. LeCren 67 &. Henley 64, R. Turn bull 62, J. ln?n s 6 T 3 ' £,Y W - Stubbs 53 > 8. Hewlings 49, J. Ellis 49, p. LeCren 42, Dr McLean 42. The foregoing were elected. Tlie following were defeated: H. Durand 36, R. Taylor 28, F J Wilson 20, J. Smith 20, T. W. »Fyfi» 13 f W. Harrison 11, J. Reilly 9.

AA hen the Strathallnn immigrants arrived, the only water supply'available was that found in the bigger peat swamps on the tops of the downs. One or the biggest of these was skirted bv the mam road, where it passed the site of the present Timnru Hotel, and the dip in Turn bull street is a souvenir ot it. So, too, is the "Timnru Hotel tor ham Williams built on that spot the first hotel of his ow\ to be near the water. Mr Jas. Shepherd also selected his section with an eye to nearness to that natural water supply. Those who .know what these swamp holes elsewhere are like, will not envy the immigrants on that account. The Provincial Government paid tor sinking some well.s, at different points about the town. The iirst well-sinkers ceased work as soon as they eame to the reef, awl consequently the supply of water was not satisfactory. Later someone ventured to work through the reef, and a ■•much better supply was obtained. Rainwater tanks presently superseded the wells altogether, and the tanks were in turn discarded when, the Parenra waterworks were completed in 1882.

At ono time—some centuries ago— South Cantorbury Was a well-forested country. Logs and stumps of difierent kinds oi' wood are found in every peaty swamp at the coast, and along the frontal ranges and downs fringin»them remnants of totara logs are found scattered over the surface. It is an interesting question how . long those, fragments have lain thero. When the. first whites arrived thero was but littlo bush to be seen. A solitary patch oi perhaps a hundred acres existed .• t Arowheima, between the two rivers and just west of the Main Hoad. This furnished the material for the first builders in Timaru, and the last troo was lolled many years ago. The largest and most valuable bush was at Waimato, and this was Timaru's seepnd source of supply. This also is practically worked out. Other good bushes were found at Geraldine, • where thrt north-eastern side of the downs was bush-clad; at Waihi (Woodbury), and at Peel Forest. All these bushes furnished totara and black and white pine to the sawyer. • Most of the gullies in the frontal ranges facing the lowland contained more or less inferior bush, and much of this still remains, to be drawn unoiu for firewood. The principal sawmillers in the early days were Messrs J. Bruce and Alpneua Jlayes, Waimate; D. Mackenzie, Geraldine; Taylor and PMatman, "Woodbury • and Mr Button, Pool Forest. • When Mr Yogol's public works scheme was; in lull .swing the prices paid for heavy bridge timber enabled high royalties tq be paid, and the owners of timbered Picketed heaps of money.