GISBORNE THE GOLDEN

Korero (AEWS), Volume 3, Issue 12, 16 July 1945, Page 3

GISBORNE THE GOLDEN

“ Unfortunate and Inhospitable,” wrote Captain Cook A KORERO Report

« Atlhe next morning, Wednesday 11th, I at 6 o’clock, we weighed and stood away from this unfortunate and inhospitable place to which I gave the name of Poverty Bay, and which, by the Natives, is called ‘ Te Oneroa ’ or ' Long Sand,’ as it did not afford us a single article that we wanted. The south-west point of the bay I named Young Nick’s Head, after Nicholas Young, the boy who first saw the land.”

Captain Cook landing on his first visit to New Zealand in 1769 near where Gisborne stands to-day, found the country barren and the Natives insolent and unfriendly. His stay was short ; several Natives were shot dead ; the only return was fresh water and a small supply of firewood.

In our mess at camp is a sergeant who, although not as well known as Captain Cook (or even Young Nick), has opinions about Gisborne which are quite different from those in the famous journal, but certainly expressed no less forcefully. Gisborne the Golden, he calls it; he never tires of talking about its pleasant climate, friendliness of the people, beauty of countryside, earliness of new potatoes, moon rising over the bay, local brew,

size of the sheep, fertility of the soil (in fact, it seems the only thing that doesn’t grow prolifically in Gisborne is hair, because this sergeant is as bald as a moa bone). Subjects of his praises are endless. Gisborne the Golden, he chuckles, and the boys from the South Island dig deep into their books, when at 9 o’clock the weather forecast for his home town predicts further warm sunshine ; but let it be high winds with heavy rain and he’s as deaf as a post. However, when he returns from leave his face is always glowing, and the boys can never agree whether the sunshine or the local brew is the cause, but he says it doesn’t matter because one’s as good as the other, and there’s always plenty of both.

It was the middle of winter when we arrived in Gisborne. From Christchurch were reports of the heaviest snowstorm within “ living memory.” Wellington had been washed with nearly 2 in. of rain in five days. Ruapehu was topped by fire and smoke, there were loud rumbles. But in Gisborne householders were picking their oranges by the basketful—and in one street—where’s Mr. Ripley ?—a woman was hosing her

garden (“ I know it looks absurd, but the ground’s as dry as a bone ”). The hills rising quietly from the town are not those of Otago Central ; they are smoothly rounded and gentle, eventempered and mature, with no barbedwire ridges or savage cruel juttings—the difference of a jungle beast waiting to charge and kill and a kitten sleeping in the sun. In place of a countryside dominated by a harsh tyranny of rock is pleasantness and a feeling of support. A depth of earth covers the hills round Gisborne like icing on a cake, and the grass, the feed, is close and tightly holding without rocks and boulders or stones to disturb the even rise or fall of the slopes. They roll away, to the east into the sea, to the west into a horizon that is still hills on into hills. And although it’s early in July there are flowering plums, blue-gums, wattle, manuka, and golden willows, all in an early spring bloom, colouring the hills. Cattle and sheep shared the grazing. A pheasant rushed from under our feet, as startled as we were. In front of us a thrush was settled on the back of a sturdy hill pony. Both were quietly feeding.

Round Gisborne are 240 registered orchards and 40 market gardens. Holdings of grapes—mostly Albany Surprise —are small, but will undoubtedly be extended as transport to the city markets becomes easier. Grapes ripen at least fourteen days before those in other

districts in New Zealand, and the vines are hardy and do exceptionally well (from one holding of 2 acres last season 13 tons of fruit were picked and sold at tenpence a pound.) Potatoes, which crop about 4| tons to an acre, are ready for the October markets, and each year larger areas are planted. With all fruits (except apricots) and vegetables it is much the same. Crops are early and yield heavily. Chinese gooseberries flourish. Experiments in the growing of olives have been successful, and it should not be long before they are produced commercially. Few of the market gardens, orchards, and farms are without walnut trees, a profitable sideline with the nuts returning Is. 3Jd. a lb., and the yield averaging more than 40 lb. a tree. Many of the orchards have up to 27 ft. of warm, black loam, which is so rich that no manuring is needed. More than £SOO an acre has been paid for orchard land in the district, a price that is not thought excessive when the heavy yields, the early harvests, the variety of crops, and the saving in top-dressing costs are considered.

But however rich the land, however bountiful the crops, and energetic the owners, the value of the land is reduced at once if markets are not readily available. Gisborne growers have not been fortunate. It was not until February, 1943, that the railway between Gisborne and Napier was finally opened. There is still no north railway through Taneatua to Auckland.

Agitation for the construction of the railway between Gisborne and Napier was begun about 1900. Thirty years later, under the administration of no fewer than thirteen Governments, the line had been taken only as far as Putorino, 38 miles from Napier. The depression, earthquake damage, and indecision about the route delayed progress ; several times work was abandoned ; and at one time it seemed as though the £5,000,000 already spent was to be written off almost as a dead loss. Restoration and construction were begun again early in 1936. Eighteen months later the line was sufficiently advanced to allow the running of night trains for goods traffic only between Napier and

Wairoa. In 1938 floods and washouts closed the line to traffic ; in places the line was completely destroyed, repair work took seven months. On July 1, 1939, the line between Napier and Waikokopu was officially opened to regular passenger and goods services. Work continued steadily on the section of line from Gisborne to Waikokopu ; the through line was opened on February 1,1943.

The morning we talked to the stationmaster at Gisborne he was arranging the carriage to Wellington of 4 tons of cabbages and other vegetables. In a

Railway construction would be both difficult and costly. But Gisborne businessmen, farmers, and growers agree that the difficulties must be overcome, the project finished ; the line north, making Auckland markets and the Westfield freezing-works more readily available, will be no less valuable to the district than the line south. The present rail route to Westfield, Auckland, through Palmerston North and Frankton Junction, covers 575 miles, wagon charges for sheep are £l4, for cattle £l2 4s. 6d. The proposed route, through Opotiki and Taneatua, would be 372 miles, wagon

year, he said, about 66,000 sheep, cattle, and pigs are railed from the district ; after one large stock sale, held after a drought when feed was short, 470 of the 694 stock wagons in the North Island were used in one week to avoid losses. Inward revenue amounts to about £50,000 a year.

The East Coast railway has opened new markets in the south. North from Gisborne, however, the line goes only as far as Motuhora, with a gap of about 40 miles of rugged country to Taneatua, which is connected by rail to Auckland.

charges for sheep would be £9 175., for cattle £8 12s. The time of the journey would be reduced from 49 hours to 26 hours. * “Ten years ago in this ground were apple and fruit trees that reached into the sky; the 16 ft. ladders just took you to the bottom branches and then, man, you started to climb. Ten years ago I had a crop of apricots that should have packed twenty-six cases, brown-rot left me —my wife and I had one each. Ten years ago the price of apples went to

pigs and whistles —three shillings a case and all that sort of thing. I rooted out all of those trees —three years later I was selling oranges at a shilling a dozen and making pounds.” The Irishman who owned the citrus orchard told us how he began to grow oranges and lemons. We had travelled to his property, six miles from Gisborne, in a bus with so many windows that it seemed more like a glasshouse on wheels. Each year 6,000 cases of lemons and 3,000 cases of oranges, of several varieties, are consigned from round Gisborne. Grown extensively, too, are New Zealand Poorman oranges and grapefruit and Weeney grapefruit, a variety imported from Australia, similar to the Californian grapefruit in size, inside appearance, and flavour, which does especially well in this district. Oranges and lemons flared from the dark foliage of the trees like lanterns at a Chinese festival. Planted in blocks in warm, rich soil which doesn’t hold moisture, the trees were neat and shaped. Here were some young Ruby Bloods, the flesh of the fruit a deep, dark red, and juicy. To the side of them were Island Orange trees which had been grown from seedlings ; they hadn’t cropped yet, but they do well in the district, and there is no difference between the locally grown

and the imported fruit either in appear

ance or quality. Farther back is a block of Late Valencia trees, the fruit from which does not compare favourably with some of the other varieties, but is useful because of ripening later in the season. There are several varieties of St. Michael’s and Washington and Groverley navels, the trees rising seven years old and cropping well.

The Irishman makes every effort to keep his types pure and true ; seedlings are budded when they have grown to pencil thickness, and the many varieties are kept separately in blocks to reduce risk of cross-pollination. Trees fruit after about three years, but need several years longer to reach full maturity; their fruiting life is long—much longer than with the usual fruit-tree —and one tree in the front garden was fifty years old and looked almost to be on fire with oranges. Also in the front garden, looking like orange prodigies, were Golden Nugget dwarf trees ; they grow no higher than 2 ft. 6 in., but the fruit they bear is full size. Sixty hundredweight of lemon-peel is preserved each week in a small but busy little factory which is combined with a cordial works in the town of Gisborne. It’s a new industry, popular with fruit-cake bakers. Orange-peel, too, will soon be processed. Quantities of lemons needed are greater than the district can supply, large consignments have to be brought from Tauranga. The fruit is squeezed (the juice used for the cordials), and the skins softened in a soft brine, cleaned of

inner skins, boiled, dried in an oven, and treated with sugar.

On his 15 acres the Irishman grows what he calls “ murphies,” tomatoes, and strawberries for the early markets, passion fruit, and maize for winter feeding for his pigs ; he also milks a small herd of cows. “ Yes, you tell the boys—don't forget the girls— l’m growing oranges,” he said. “ But also tell them this : if they want to buy a bit of land, get a good bit. Otherwise they’ll be bit; it’ll ruin the bank.” * The glasshouse on wheels just beat us to the corner ; we had a long walk in the sunshine before a woman in a strangely shaped car stopped and offered us a lift.

She was one of the district nurses from “ further back ” ; her work was among the Maoris, except for emergency pakeha cases. Health of her patients was no worse than that of the Maori people in other districts in New Zealand. It was also no better. Crowded houses, some with dirt floors on which stood polished modern furniture, were too often unhygienic. Tuberculosis, against which this Native people had not as yet developed the pakeha immunity, was her greatest worry. But the Maoris were good patients and were interesting, loveable people. Her car had been converted from a Bren gun carrier— the back was room enough for a stretcher. “ But sometimes,” she said smiling, “ I think I could do more for the health of this country if they had not taken away the Bren gun.” * The port of Gisborne has cost well over £1,000,000. Although not as extensive in scope as was originally planned, the harbour is able to work most of the coastal ships on all sides and in all weathers. Depth of water is not now reduced by silting so as to be unnavigable. Ships drawing up to 16 ft. 6 in. can be worked at full tide ; larger vessels are loaded and unloaded by lighters. The port, lying on the north-west of Poverty Bay at the mouth of the Turanganui River, which is formed by the meeting about half a mile inland of the Taruheru and Waimate Rivers, has a history of a continual fight against silting. Heavy rain and floods at times have deposited so much silt and sand that the river channel has been reduced from 16 ft. to 4 ft. 6 in.—the dredge has been specially lightened to give her flotation to cut a channel, but further floods have made the work in vain. Finally, after several schemes had been tried, a training wall was constructed to divert the whole of the river into a new course to the sea in 1930, and definite improvement was able to be made in the channel without fear of subsequent loss through floods.

A steel hopper barge was converted and fitted with two Priestman oil-fired grab cranes suitable for dredging the hard sand in the entrance channel and fully equipped to keep the channel free from mud

and silt. Last year the dredge removed 88,865 tons of spoil from the entrance channel and the inner basin. Centralization of shipping to the main ports during the war because of the need to load overseas vessels expeditiously and to get them away in the shortest possible time, and the losses in refrigerated ships since 1939, have meant a serious reduction in the Gisborne Harbour Board’s revenue. Taking all revenue into account and excluding rates and the Government subsidy of £5,000 (made to compensate for loss in revenue), the revenue in 1939 was £45,746, against £35,301 in 1944—a decrease of £10,445. The Gisborne Harbour Board, with the Boards of other secondary ports, are now anxiously waiting for a return to the system of loading and discharging in existence before the war.

Across the river from Gisborne town and built in brick alongside the wharves are the freezing works. Here in the busy season more -than four hundred men are employed— the rest of the year about two hundred. Last season killings were lower than usual because of a drought and shortage of food ; the number of carcasses handled was 403,635 (434,823 the previous season), comprising: cattle,

11,532, and lambs, 250,461. The differences in seasonal conditions between Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay is shown by the figures of the killings at the Whakatu works (near Napier), which were a record. *

Barnet Burns, an English sailor, is believed to have been the first white settler in the Gisborne district. On his return to Great Britain more than one hundred years ago he published a booklet, which, with two illustrations of himself tattooed from head to foot, and with a fantastic account of his life among the Maoris, could not fail to create the impression that life in those early days was nothing if not perilous. The title page of the booklet read : — “ A Brief Narrative of a New Zealand Chief, being the Remarkable History of Barnet Burns, an English Sailor, with a Faithful Account of the Way in which he Became A Chief of one of the Tribes of New Zealand, together with a Few Remarks on the Manners and Customs of the People, and other Interesting Matter. Written by Himself . . . ” The text of the booklet opens with an " Address ”as follows : Address. Multitudinous as are the ills “ which flesh and blood is heir to," and multifarious as are

the miseries of human life, they become, from their frequency, commonplace subjects of remark, and merely excite a transient sympathy in the mind. There are, however, incidents in the pilgrimage of some which force themselves upon our observation with a power which at once arouses our attention—startles our imagination—excites our surprise, and calls forth our admiration ; such is the history about to be narrated. Happily, “ recording with fidelity," he adopts a lively style to tell of the hardships he endured, “ perils unheard of in modern times, sufferings almost beyond human endurance, in a country of professed cannibals."

It was not until after the inter-tribal wars in the district, the rise and fall of the terrible Hau hau i nu and the bloody massacre by Te Kooti and his fanatical followers of nearly forty settlers, and after the reign of Captain Read, a trader, who ran his own fleet of schooners and who issued his own paper currency in exchange

for gold—it was not until after this, in 1868, that the present site of Gisborne was bought by the Crown from the Maoris for £2,000. In those days, because of the uncertainty of the ownership of the land, many of the houses and huts were built on sleds so that if a new owner should appear friends could pull the dwelling to a new section. The township, which was named Gisborne in 1870 after the Hon. W. Gisborne, Colonial Secretary in the Fox Ministry, from 1869 to 1872, was surveyed and laid out in 1870, and sections were auctioned. By 1874 great progress had been made ; houses, buildings, and hotels were being erected and a public board had been formed. In 18 7 7 the first mayor and council were elected ; the borough, as now it was, had a population of between 400 and 500. Less than ten years later it was 2,000. Now it is more than 14,000, including the urban area more than

16,000.

To a visitor to Gisborne the sun appears to rise in the north and to spend the rest of the day travelling slowly to its bed in the south —probably because, although Gisborne is on the coast, there is a spit of land between the town and the ocean. But at least that sun shines. The town is clean, busy for its size ; the streets are colourful with Maoris. With its shops, hotels, and business premises, its postoffice, library, banks, fire station, theatres, and dance halls it is little different from other farming centres. But it also has a pie-cart. The narrow, rich flat rolls into hills, until all round are hills with their wealth, not of gold or oil or coal, but of pasture land for sheep and cattle. Goats —billies, nannies, and kids —are on those hills to keep back the blackberry. There are few rabbits; a vigorous “ killer ” policy has seen to that. It’s a pity the erosion couldn’t be stopped as effectively. On that Gisborne country are horses, too. Because of few main highways, and the difficulty of travelling in a district that even now is not properly opened with roads, horses are used more extensively than in most parts of New Zealand. There are many horses round Gisborne. One of the better class won the Grand National Steeplechase the day we left.