LOOKING BACKWARD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 241, 12 October 1931, Page 14

LOOKING BACKWARD

NAMES FROM OUT THE PAST A FIT AND HEALTHY RAC”. (By “W.K.H.”). The people who were settled in Carlyle, as Patea was called in tho early days, could well be called “a chosen people” because of their adaptability to the times in which- they lived.

One of the first white mon to know Patea in tho rough was Mr. Tom Allen, who, in later years, lived in what was known as “ Storey town,” near the back of the present school. He was in P ea as early as J 859, when the main ford of the river was at the mouth. Mr. Allen went as far south as Wanganui, with one of Taranaki’s oldest pioneers, travelling by tho coast line, and drove back stock, by the same route, all the way to New Plymouth. Mr. Joseph Hawken, who brought up a large family at Kakaramea, farming a largo area of land there, drove a bullock team from New Plymouth with Ills belongings. There were no roads in those days and he had to p i over several sandy wastes, including tho notorious Harrio Beach, north cf Oponake. The trip took a fortnight to complete. Mr Alfred Palmer, who for many years farmed Southby’s farm, of about a thousand acres, on the cliffs above the present site of tho

freezing works, and whore, later. Captain C. A. Wray and Mr. W. Howitt owner property, was one of tho first men to drive a bullock team acres tho Pat a River to tho Whenuakura Block. H i was a man of ceaseless energy, and an ideal pioneer. In the seventies and eighties it was quite common to see seven or eight s; 'Hng vessels in the Patea River «.t one time, chiefly bringing timber for Messrs. John Milroy and William Dale, who were the chief dealers in this commodity. Captain Wray, when Resident Magistrate at Patea, used to walk very often right up to Alton and back in an afternoon. Mr. R. C. Tennent (manager of the Bank of New South Wales), who owned a fine pack of white dogs, frequently accompanied him. Mr. James Kenworthy, tho veteran journalist, and my father often walked to Waverley and back on a Saturday afternoon. All old hands remember how Mr. John Gibson \ ’ked fro- Patea to Wanganui when occasion arose to bhnk his money. That, was before tho days of banks in Patea. Of course ho had to walk back again. Tho first time my father camo to Patea from New Plymouth he walked tho whole way—ninety miles, chiefly along the beach. Mr. Felix McGuire and Air. Peacock, of Manutah’, who were both members of the Provincial Council which met at New Plymouth, more than once footed it the whole way. It meant crossing unbridgod rivers, and very often getting very wet, but the courage 'of the arly settlers was undaunted. They always knew that when they were footsore there was a welcome for them tho first house they called at. These hardy settlors certainly kept fit, and their sons did also, but in a 1 prosaic way. No reference io old Patea would m complete without, mentioning 1 raids which tho yotithful members of tho community made on tho Maoris’ peach groves up tho Patea River. These generally wore accomplished on horseback, and a very round-about way jsecl to be followed so that the natives might bo taken unawares. Flour bags full of choice fruit were often st. lon from tho plantations and carried homo in front of tho riders.