BACK FOR THE JUBILEE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 69691, 6 December 1900, Page 1

BACK FOR THE JUBILEE.

TWO PIONEERS FROM A DISTANCE. The early pioneers are beg-inning to come to take part in the Jubilee celebrations, and there arrived a few days ago from Hawfce's Bay two whose advent in New Zealand! was made from the first of the fleet of the Canterbury Association. Mr J. J. Buchanan, of Glencoss, TikeJrina, Hawke's Bay, was a passenger by the Castle Eden ; his wife, a daughter of the late Mr G. Allan, came with her parents in the Charlotte Jane. It is claimed for Mr Allan that he was the first of the passengers to touch New Zealand soil, arid the race to do so became, a trial of agility between Mr Clark and Mr J. E. Fitzgerald, bub the latter fell and lost his chance, so that the laurels were ' wen by Mr AUari. Mrs Buchanan's first experience of colonial life was in a V-hut built by her father, with such materials as could bs procured at the time, but in the absence of timber the hut was very primitive. In a southeast gale one night the whole structure collapsed. Her friends thought she was killed, bub when a search was made among the dtehris of the wrecked structure the young girl wag found clinging to and suspended .from the lintel. Mr Buchanan was but sixteen years of age when he sailed for the colony. He madei his kmd purohases in England from the Association, and when he came out he found that his %wn section wag three-quarters cf an acre on what is now the Triangle. He let his landl there to Mr J. E. Fitzgerald for £5 a year. The tenant put a scd fence round the section and grazed a cow on it. Mr Buchanan's suburban land was in Selwvn Street, and he parted with several acres of it to the trustees of the Addington Cemetery. Looking round! the colony as it then was. Mr Buchanan failed to realise any bi'ight future before it. He sold his town land! for £60 to Mr William Wilson, and also disposed of his suburban land. He then made his way to the El Dorado^ that promised an Australia. He came back, however, after a year's absence, but some time after made another visit to Australia. On his return he bought land at Templetou, which 'he farmed for some time, hut finding- that the return he received for his labour was a minus quantity, he again sold out. Hired labour was then very dear, the price for produce was nob high* in proportion, and, looking upon his first loss us the best, he sought fresh woods and -pastures new in 1866, and Hawke's Bay has thus the pleasure of numbering among her best colonists two who, in Mr and Mrs Buchanan, have still a hankering after the province they came out to assist in founding, and have come down sou\h to take part in the Jubilee celebrations. Mv Buchanan's Recollections of old Christchurch are very vivid. He remembers the difficulty they had in finding the site of the city among the fern and scrub, and that the river could hardly be seen for the reeds that lined it and grew in the shallows. Ho has heard many • people speak of Christchurch as having been one great swamp when the people came to it, but he says this was nob so. There was swampy land, to be sure, bub it was not in the centre of the town, but towards the Lincoln, Road.. JJupiing, .through his section in the Triangle was * "deep gully, Which'of course was filled up long ago to enable the builders to .erect their structures on- level ground. It is certainly interesting to know that in the beginning e>f settlement three-quarters of an' aerie' in the Triangle was to Tie purchased for £60. How much would a buyer have to pay for the same land now? v The couple, who are in the Indian summer of well-spent lives, hale, fresh, and hearty,' have a grown-up family, one of whom, Trooper George J, J. Buchanan, their second son, js with the Fifth Contingent in South Africa, and all the others would have gone, but were balloted out when selection bad to be made from the crowd of apniicants who wished to go to the frout. Miss Buchanan has already made a gocd mark in literature, and has been favourably received 1 in the ranks of authorship. ' Mr Buchanan hopes that at- the bfuiouet it will not be expected that the old colonists appear in evening dress, as mpst of them have not worn the orthodox " claw-hammer " of society since they left Home, and are not likely to incur the cost of one for one occasion in their lives. He thinks ife would b© wise, even for those who can affoi^e such costume, to wear the ordinary tweeds o.f colonial wear, so that others who have neither the means nor the inclination *o indulge in evening costume should be pub more at their ease. Mrs Buchanan was quite sure, beif^e she left, her Huwlce's Bay uome, that she could easily find her way about Christcluueh. hut after a day's experience of it in the dress it has been putting on in her absence she has begun to realise that, but for the many friends she still possesses among the old settlers she would be " a stranger in a strange land." With tihe esteemed couple one could ependi many hours listening to their interesting reminiscences of early times.