PIONEERING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 207, 26 May 1908, Page 3

PIONEERING.

A,TALE OF OLD TBIES ' A- farmer was relating to mo (writes • our ' ■ travelling some of the difficulties ho! had! to battle-with when he took up his" sedtioil'thirty years ago. For some. ' years ho had'-no road 'to - his -land, tho only: acccss. bongi'.ovi!r a high range and through dense bufeh.- He .had to -make his own track up' and down tho bills., Whon stores, or farm requisites were' wanted', or -his- wool was sent out, all had to be done by bullock teams. Tho t#hck rose one thousand feet in the first milo. 7 from", the homestead. It took-'eighteen • bullocks to carry six bales of wool to the top of-tho range... ' Frequently'when goods were coming; in, especially if rain had fallen, they never'know-whother'safe delivery would result:-!. j Many times', the load-took'charge of tho team, and then it was a- case of look out.. At one time, when his two little children wero brought in, they wero carried in baskets, ono slung on . each _sido of a bullock, and as one child was heavier than tho other; some bricks wore placed in tho opposite basket to balance. ItTia only by spending an'evening with the pioneers of the early days that ono can understand- the pluck, which 'such' - men ex--hihited.- 'AH honour to these men and to their wives, who wero content to leave all tho comforts of. the townships and endure all the discomfort and hardship entailed in breaking in a bush farm. :