ROMANTIC SETTLEMENT STORY

Chronicle (Levin), 24 August 1946, Page 4

ROMANTIC SETTLEMENT STORY

HIGHLAND COMMUNITY IN WAIPU , At a members' evening of the Horowhenua Scottish Society on Thursday night, Rev. A. Salmond related the romantic story of the settlement of the Highland community in the Waipu district, For many years after the Battle of Culloden, in 1746, 'a continuous effort had been made to break up for ever- the feudal clan system ofthe Highlands. A ruthless policy of evictions was put into operation, and this had the desired effect oi depopulating the land and driving its inhabitants from the regions of their birth. The clearances that took place at the orders of the Duchess of Sutherland and her English husband, Leveson-Gower, carried cruelty and hardship for many Highland families well into the 19th century. In 1817, Norman McLeod of Assynt, a parish schoolmaster and a preacher of power, left Scotland for Nova Scotia. He landed at Picton, which was formerly a French settlement. There he became a leader of men and an eloquent Gaelic preacher. A colony of Highland refugees who had settled near Hamilton, in Ohio, invited him to come and live amongst them'. With the Highland settlers who had become attached to him, Norman McLeod built "The Ark," a vessel of 200 tons and equipped her for the voyage. In 1820 "The Ark" left Picton, but encountered Atlantic gales and took refuge in St. Ann's Bay, Cape Breton Island. The company decided to go no further, but to land and take possession of the unoccupied country around them. For thirty years they wrested a livelihood for themselves and their growing families from the sea, the forest and the land. In 1826 Norman McLeod. was licensed as a preacher of the gospel by the Genesee Presbytery .and ordained. An effort was made to organise a shipping trade belonging'to the community, and Captain Donald McLeod, Norman's son. 3took a laden barque of 300 tons, built by the community, to Glasgow. The trading venture failed and Captain McLeod found his way to South Australia. From Adelaide in 1847, 'he wrote to his father, praising the new land he was in. It seemed to Rev. Norman McLeod that the Lord had beckoned to him to proceed to Australia. His people resolved to go with him. They then turned to and built tijeir . own ships, and between the years 1851 and 1859 six ships left Nova •Scotia for Soufchern Seas. After many adventures Norman le.d the vanguard of his Highlanders to Waipu, in North Auckland, and guided the first 13 years of the settlement. He died in 1366 at the age of 86. In the eight years 185.1-59, a thouspnd Gaelic speaking people settled in the Waipu and kindred settle-c ments. Traces of their work and ideals could be found in many departments of New Zealand life. Rev. Mr. Salmond related many interesting anecdotes of the settlements and the voyages, and emphasied the religious zeal and conviction which enabled seemingly impossible tasks to be done successfully.