PIONEERS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1246, 30 September 1911, Page 20

PIONEERS.

9 AND HOW THEY FARED. [Tho Story of tho arrival of tho "Georgo Fyffo" in 1542, and of somo of its passengers, after arrival.] [Bi H. D.' Vavasour.] Tho early history of tho pioneers of New Zealand is no doubt of great interest to tho colonists of the present day, and as the history of the pioneers of the "Georgo Fyffc" has never been succinctly given, I think it would interest your readers to read what information I havo on the subject, which includes tho true history of tho first importations of sheep to Now Zealand for breeding purposes. Early in 1812 my father, William Vava. sour, entered into partnership with the lato 'Sir Charles Clifford to tako up land in New Zealand, and get others to join them in their venture and make arrangements for a vessel to take them out, and as far as I can gather, prac-

tically selected the passengers and arranged the whole matter. The first rocord of this is the following advertisement in Hie London "New Zealand Journal," No. 63, June 11, 1842, page 144, which reads as follows:— "To landowners and ol'liers interested in New Zealand. —Messrs. Clifford and Vavasour, who are about to proceed to New Zealand, will Ire happy to undertake the affairs of persons desirous of purchasing land there, or having business requiring the superintendence of agents resident in the colony. Particulars may be . obtained by inquiring at the N>.v Zealand House, Bread Street, City, or to Jlcs?rs. Cotton ar.il Bennett, llayraond Buildings, Gray's Inn." Next we see ill the same Journal, Xi.. G4, Jims tlio Jsth, 1812, page 150, the following:— "Departure of Eirigrnnl'sATho Ncv., Zealand Company's emigrant flii;;. 'Olympus,' 'George Fyffe,' ■'Blenheim.' :-n ' 'New liea'and' sailed from Gravoeiui Wednesday, the 15th instant, being tint'nv advertised for iheir departure. Th< directors visited the ships on that day . e>c-nd, and llr. G. I'. Young bn.->!\ addressed the emigrants on the ot>.'. ,i. i'lie 'George Fyife' has been c 11:..':ed for "Wellington, pud carries the iol ■ ving passengers:—The lion.' Coi:stai:f : ne 'illon (brother of Lord Dillon) and l.adv, j ■:r. Fox and Lady (afterwards Sir A.\ila:n Fox), Mr. Buclcland and I.a'dy, a re.itive of the eminent geologist of that ame, Mr. Vavasour (son of Sir Fdward '.'arniadnkc Vavasour, Bart., and father . . the present writer), Mr. Charles Clif"d, Mr. and Mrs. Donald and child, r. and Mrs. Fitzgerald and Miss Cliris'ui, Mr. Thurwall and Mr. Champney, ! r. and Mrs. Henry ltodwood and the blowing family: Henry, Thomas, 'lliarlcs, Francis, Mary, Anne, Elizabeth, nd Martlmj D. Balkarv and Mrs., Mr. •ml Mrs. Alex. Barnett, Mr. Mrs. R. Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Broadbent, Mr. Edward Boulton, Mr. C'has. Coster, Mr. and Mrs. James Firth, Mr. lleury

Godfrey, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Hammond, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hammond, Mr. and Mrs. David Hariss, Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Hurst, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Jones, Mr. and Mrs. IvinnebuTgh, Mr. and Mr. Chas. Lewer, Mr. and Mrs. David Ledgard, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ledgard, Miss Alice Martin, Mr. and Mrs. George Riddell, Mr. and Mrs. James Remnant, Mr. and Mrs. Israel Rhodes, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rhodes, Mr. and Mrs. Ed- . ward Reynolds, and Miss Dinah Leikner." Tho "George Fyffe" arrived in Wellington on November 9, 1812, after a voyage of nearly fivo months. In. looking over tho list of passengers I think one can safely say that no ship ever brought' out to New Zealand a more epoch-making body of men. Take tho Into Sir Charles Clifford and Mr. William Vavasour, who wero in partnership. They divide tho honour with Mr. C. R. Bidwill in fiTst starting the sheep industry in New Zealand. Messrs. Clifford and Vavasour seem to havo landed sheep from New South Wales about the same time as Mr. C. R. Bidwill, about the end of March or early in April, 1811. But Mr. Bidwill started his sheep on the road to the Wairarapa a-' few days before Clifford and my father, a3 per tho following letter from the lato Mr. Frederick Weld to Mr. Bidwill, dated Chideoch Manor. linidport, Dorset, England, March 23, 1885:-

"My dear Mr. Bidwill:— "I received your letter some timo ago after my return to England, and I delayed answering it till I could have timo to think it over and to find some of my old note-book 3 and journals which might refresh my memory, but I have not been able to find them. I sit down

now fearing that you would think that 1 was never going to reply, yet I fear that I cannot much help you. Your father was one of my earliest New Zealand friends, as you know. When I arrived in the colony in April, 1811, your father was just about to start his sheep for the Wairarapa. Clifford, Vavasour, and Tetre's sheep followed a few days later, and I'etre, Vavasour and I went with them, Petre returning after 'we had got the sheep round the Mouka Monka rocks, in thoso days before the earthquakes raised tho coast, a work after of great difficulty. Both our sheep and Mr. Bidwill's were camped for a timo on tho Wellington side of tho lake, much time being spent in negotiating for canoes to take the sheep over. Our sheep were over first, as your father had to return to town upon business. He with his flock reached tho plain where the Dry River enters the bush by tho Ruamahunga about a week after ours reached Wharekaka, say rniddlo May, 1811. lie had a horse, which with much difficulty brought liiiu a few supplies. Hcyond what' we carried up we depended on a boat load

of stores that had been sent to Tekopi, but a fortnight elapsed beiore food could bo got up, and in tho interim I supported our party (as your lather t'o a great extent did his) with tho gun. I shall never forget his kindness at that time, lie lent us food whilst ho could and divided his ammunition to the last. I3ut for this I should have been absolutely starved out. As it was, wo often looked back in after years to tho 'dajs of starvation.' I once cut down a large iron wood Maori tree to gel" ft kaka that I had shot, and which hung in its branches whero it could not be got at, so hungry were we. In those days we sometimes had Maori difficulties. Your father was much respected by tho Natives. Ho was always firm and courageous. Neither he nor I had much difficulty after we wore known in getting on well with them when tlioy knew that they could not bully r.s. Your father had very uphill work with his station—lie was not lortuuate in his start, but as you know he overcame all difficulties. It was with very great regret that 1 heard of his death, for I had a real and sincere friendship for him, and few things would have given mo more pleasure than t'o have met him again. Believe me, ~ with all kind wishes for yourself and for tho Wairarapa, "Yours faithfully, "FRED. A. WELD."

"P.S.— Hg arrived in Wairarapa with about 350 ewes, so far as I remember he lost an immense number of sheep on tho way up. It was Vavasour, not I, who was nearly poisoned with him by arsenic. If I can later find my old journals I may some day send von some anccdotes, but I cannot unpack my heavy luggage and boxes now, and I fear my journals aro lost.—F.A.W."

By tho above letter it appears that Mr. Edward JVtre was interested in the sheep with Clifford and my father, but I liavo never heard it mentioned before, and think probably ho was only helping my father to drive them up, the same as Weld. As stated in the abovo letter, my father aiul Wold managed to get their sheep taken over to tho other 6idc of the lake, and travelled up tli© north sido till they eame to tho hanks of tho Huamahunga ftiver, and tool: up a vast quantity of land there, which included (ho present Dry River Estate, recently bought by tho Government, and the Huangaroa Station, now owned by Mr. John Martin. This country my father and Weld called Wliarekaka, aud hero they built tho first station house built in New Zealand. Thov felled Ihe timber in tho bush, and sawed up the timber and built the houso with their own hands. Ilcre they remained, and their shoep must have dono Tomarkably well, as in 1817

Clifford, Vavasour, and Wold took up the Flaxbourno country in Marlborough, Weld then having become a partner in the firm, as in Thomas Arnold's book 011 New Zealand, written about 1848 to 1849, ho mentions having stayed eomo weeks with Weld at Flaxbourne, the joint, property of Clifford, Vavasour, and

Weld, and that there were 12,000 sheep on Flaxbourne at the time, Flaxbourne having been stocked from Wharekaka. The country they took up and called Flaxbourne was the whole of the coast country between the Awaterc and the Clarence Rivers, some hundreds of thousands of acres. During the time Weld and my father were at Wharekaka they explored the whole of the Wairarapa country, and the whole of the ooast country from Wellington to New Plymouth, and reached New Plymouth by working their way through the bush at the back of Mount Egmont- A Maori undertook to guide them (from what is now Hawera) through the bush at tho back of Mount Egmont, but after tho first day. ho got

frightened and returned. They, howover, went on, and lived on pigsons and kakas, and found their way on taking turns to climb trees and tako their hearings by Mount Egmont, arriving at New Plymouth after from a fortnight to three weeks' hard fight with the bush. The father of the present Mr. Newton King (who was, when I knew him, manager of the" Bank of New Zealand, but was, in the days I speak of, one of the early New Plymouth settlers), told mo the astonishment these t wo young Englishmen caused when the,) turned up in rags arid with only a blanket and their guns and a billy. Tliey would not nt first believe (hey had come through at tho back of tho mounlain, as no one had ever been through that way before. My father went Home to England about 1817, mid afterwards sold out his sliaro in the properties in New Zealand, and the firm, became Clifford and Weld. The late Sir Charles Clifford became the first Speaker in the House o£ Representatives, and was for many years intimately connected with politics. Weld also entered into politics, and in ISGI liccnmo the Premier of New Zealand, and afterwards becamo Governor of Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Straits Settle-

ment, and was knighted. Such is the history of fho beginning of the 6liecp industry. Now wo tako tho breeding of thoroughbreds, and tho beginning of racing in Neiv Zealand. The old Henry Redwood who camo out with tho whole of his family in the Georgo Fyfl'o, nnd settled in Nelson, was tho father of the lato Henry Redwood, who was always called "the father of tho New Zealaud turf," and to him wo owe tho importation of the ancestors of somo of tho best blood ill tho colony. Tho present Archbishop Redwood of Wellington (another son) came out as a boy in the George Fyfl'o. Tho lato Sir William Fox was one of our greatest politicians, and one time Premier. Constantino Dillon was the grandfather of tho present Mr. Francis Dillon, of Leefield Slation, Marlborough, and so on. If wo look down tho list of passengers, they stand out as a wholo as a body of pioneers that have gono far towards making New Zealand what it is. The only survivors who came out in. the Gcorgo Fyffo that I know of are Archbishop Redwood, Mr. Thomas Rodwood, of Blenheim, Mr. Charles Redwood, now living in Toowoomba, Queensland, Mr. J. Paterson, of Wellington, and Mr. White, of Auckland.