THE FOUNDING OF THE SETTLEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1168, 1 July 1911, Page 11

THE FOUNDING OF THE SETTLEMENT.

ARRIVAL OF THE WILLIAM BRYANT. . THE FJRST EMIGRANTS. THE LOT OF THE EARLY PIONEER, Tho settlement of Taranaki was formed in 1811. The first settlers arrived in March and tho main body in September. These- colonists were sent out by a joint Btock association named the New Ply-, mouth Company, from a town celebrated in tho early colonisation of Massachusetts, and seated in a district which gave, birth to that leader <f colonists, :Baleigh Gilbert. Brett's "Early New Zealand," from which these particulars are taken, says that the Earl of Devon was Governor of tho company, and Mr. Thomas Gill Deputy-Governor. Tho principal street in Now Plymouth to-day is Devon Street. Gill Street is an important residential row. The company had a capital of .£150,000. The first purchase from thf NewZealand Company was 10,000 acres, "to Which were soon afterwards added 50,000 acres, to be allotted out of the land which Colonel Wakefield claimed to have purchased. The exact location of the settlement was at that time undetermined, and the New Plymouth Company dispatcned Mr. I\ Carrington, as chief surveyor, to settle this question, while the directors of tho Now Zealand Company wroti; to Col. Wakefield directing him to facilitate by all means in his power the inquiries ot the agents of the New Zealand Company. Mr. Carrington and staff left England on August 13, 1810, in the barque London, and arrived in Port Nicholson (Wellington) on December 12. Looking for a Site. The exploration party, headed by Messrs. Stokes and Parkes, surveyors, and Mr. Heaphy, draughtsman, made only a short stay in Taranaki. The journey from Port Nicholson to Sugar Loaf Point occupied a month. They found that tho Natives had erected a long house, divided into compartments, on tho beach, for the reception of expected immigrants. The party experienced great.difficulty in getting supplies, so returned to Wellington after a very hurried examination of the country.

After his arrival in Wellington Mr. Carrington, the agent of tlio New Plymouth Company, conferred with Col. Wakefield on the question of a site for the proposed settlement, and it was agreed that an examination should ho made of Queen Charlotte Sound, Blind Bay, and Tnranaki. For this purposo Col. Wakefield placed at Mr. Carrington's disposal the -bnrriuo Brougham. Col. Wakefield, nt the time, expressed as his opinion that Taranaki was tho most, attractive locality despite the absence of a "harbour." Tho Brougham was sailed for Taranaki firstMr. Barrett accompanied the expedition as pilot and interpreter. Messrs. Carrington, I!. H. Aubrey, Baincs, Xesbit. and Rogan landed, and made a -hurried fxamination of the country, including an excursion up the Waitara River. Thence they went- to Port Hardy, Alotucka, and Queen Charlctto Sound.

"The Garden of New Zealand." i taranaki was selected. On February -1, ] 15.(1, Mr. Carrington returned to Taranaki with a surveying party and settlers, and immediately commenced to lay oil' the sile of the settlement. His reasons for rejecting Waitara. which was then believed to bo available to him, were explained in a letter to Mr. Woolcombe, in which he said: "I have fixed the town between the rivers Huatoki and Hcnui, tho former two miles from Jloturoa and the latter three. Two or three brooks also ran through the town, and water is to be had in any part of it. The soil, I think, could not bo better. There is much open or fern country, and much fine country. ... I once had made up my mind to have the town there (Waitara), but the almost constant surf upon the bar has caused me to prefer this place. A good roadstead is certainly before a bad harbour. There is thirteen and a half feet of water at high tide at Waitara, and inside the bar plenty for a large ship. However, it would never do for the town, owing to the surf. As you will see from my journal, I have minutely examined about seven or eight hundred miles of const. The New Plymouth Compiiiiy has the garden of this country." It was from the above that Taranaki was afterwards designated "The Garden of New Zealand."

The William Dryant Arrives. In November, 1810, preparations wero made in Plymouth, England, for the dispatch of emigrants to Tnranaki. The barque William Bryant, 312 tons, Captain Maclean, sailed from Plymouth Sound on November 19, 1810, and arrived at Cloudy Bay on March 19, 1841. Mr. George Cut field was in charge of the expedition. The vessel arrived at Now Plymouth on March 30, 1841. In addition to Air. Cutlield were Messrs. It, ChiltmiD, Thomas KiDg, A. Aubrey, aud

Weeks (surgeon). There were sixty-four adult emigrants and seventy children. . The following report of the arrival of the William Bryant and the landing of the passengers and tho cargo furnished to Colonel Wakefield .by Mr. Cutiield gives an idea of the anxieties of the early settlers. . . . Provisions of all sorts being scarce I have purchased all the captain (of the William Bryant) could spare, and I believe I have now salt meat for two and a half months, and flour for four or five. At present I have not only to supply my own people, but many.others, so that I fear, before the arrival of our next ship, we .may Feel tho want of provisions. Mr. Barrett has no salt meat, and but little fresh; he is looking out anxiously for tho Jewess. [She was wrecked.] Tho Natives are in dread of another descent on them by the Waikato tribe." 111-fated,Vessels..... .:■.. The schooner Jewess was wrecked on April 21, 1811. She left Wellington for Wanganui and New Plymouth, encounter'ed foiil weather, anchored under Kapiti, v parted her cable during a gale, and wont ashore at Faekakariki. Mr. G. Wado and a Maori chief called Wide Awake were drowned. Tho barque Amelia Thompson, -with 187 emigrants, reached New Plymouth on September 3, 1841. On November 5 a schooner named The Regina, which had tho baggage of the Amelia Thompson's people, was wrecked iX Moturoa, in a gale. No lives were lost. The Native troubles broke out in 1842. The news was brought to Wellington by the Messrs. Aubrey, sons of Colonel Aubrey, who came overland, on foot—a two-weeks' journey. Some years before this the Waikato tribe had overrun Taranaki and taken a number of the Taranaki Maoris away as their slaves. In about 1812 these .slaves,- or what remained of them, were liberated, and returned to Taranaki. They had not, of coiiT'O, been parties to. the sale of the laud to tho Whites, and complained on their return that they had neither grounds nor utu. As a matter of fact, there was plenty of land thereabouts for (hem. But, however, • that is how the trouble started. To describe the tariy troubles under this heading is not practicable, but we all know, if only in a vagiie wnv, how the early Taranaki settlers stuck to their homes and fought for them. And we know how settlement spread over the whole province.; how the Native' risings about .Hawcra were overcome after severe trials; and how prosperity at length came to almost all parts of the province.