PIONEERING DAYS.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17494, 30 August 1928, Page 11

PIONEERING DAYS.

MR I. COATES’ EXPERIENCE breach of military duty. Mr Isaac Coates, of Hamilton East, continues his narrative of his experiences in the early day's of settlement in Hamilton:— In my last I had bought a quantity of farming requisites from a Vv est Hamilton settler who was leaving Hamilton, being afraid to stay on account of the Maori scare, caused by the murder of a clergyman at the White Cliffs on the West Coast, it being reported that the Maoris who committed the crime were on their way north. Captain McPherson, the then officer in charge, at once ordered the militia, including all male settlers under 50 years of age, to man the barracks on what is now McGarrigle s corner. The building had a big sod wall around it, but the gateway facing the east had not got a gate or anything to hang a' gate upon. When I came in Captain McPherson asked me if I had not some men working for me. I told him that I had two men doing contract work. He said that he must have them both in, and as I had my riding horse I should go and fetch them in. So I very reluctantly rode away but. the men had got some distance up the drain with the first stripping of the swamp and I could not sec them. So I started up the drain and hurt my right foot stepping on to a log. I went back without the rrten and the Captain asked me where the men were. I told him I did not see them but had hurt my foot instead. The answer I got was that whenever I got a military officer’s order I mus fulfil it. I got a little vexed and told him I had not come here to he a soldier, and that I would see him damned before I would go Into the swamp again He then ordered the guard to fall in, and then formed a square, in the midst of which I was ordered to go. As I was lame a chair was ordered to be brought on which I bad to sit, while the Captain got a book from which he read the Riot Act to me. I c then ordered two men, Woolly and William Martyn, to bring in the men, which they did. As the men were having their evening meal, Woolly ana Martyn had not to go into the swamp. That" evening I was chosen for the night watch, and at 12 midnight I was ordered bv the corporal in charge to relieve the guard then on duty, which was to patrol in front of the gateway. Old .Timmy Shine, who was over GO vears old and consequently not eligible for duly, had during the previous day brought a piece of limber, I expect for a gale-post hut which never got used It was i2 xl2 x 10ft long, and as soon as the corporal and previous guard had got to bed, ! lay down on the piece of timber with my rite across my chest and fell asleep and never woke until it wsls broo.fl cloj o * • My orders had been to call the guard at 2 a.m., and it was then near 5 a.rn., so I got my horse and rode home to the farm and milked my two cows The panic soon collapsed, as trie Maoris did not come up as expected, so that we settlers got our half-crown per day for doing nothing. Friday was the annual gathering ot the pioneers. The meeting, was a great success and my old friend, L. j. w. Barton, deserves the greatest credit' for fathering the scheme ana for the way It has been carried out. Charley was town clerk for the five vears that I was Mayor 1888 to 1892), so that I well know his ability It. afforded me gTeat pleasure that at least a dozen people spoke to me in reference to the pleasure they had derived in reading my early experiences. It is satisfactory to think that my good memory pleases some people, which is all I ask.