EARLY DAY EXPERIENCES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1462, 10 June 1912, Page 3

EARLY DAY EXPERIENCES.

Sir,—Amongst the items of news which appeared in tho j>oi'.-~oiu>.l columns ;>f yesterday's Dominion is one to Iho o'lect that Mr. Frank .Smith, of Molesivorth Street, nail .Mr. .(amps Drown, Upper llutt two gentlemen I know very wi'l!- though the latter I have not. spen J'or several years; ill fact, L was under the impression that lie had "weighed in" .-nine lime since—aretheonly two men living cut r.f tllie 130 who miiled fioni Welliu.iton to Melbourne. en route fur Hie \ ieloriau ftoldfields ju ("Up cattle ship Tin')' uu May -1. sixty years ago. Knowing that niv unele. Mr. W. (>. Will'ams, of (ireytowu. I«-ft New Zealand early in the 'tilties, I brought the lualler under his not ire, and he tells me Hint himself, Mr. Thomas Smith, South I'VaHierston, Mr. S. Diamond, Sviluev Sl'vpl, Wellington, and Mr. Samuel Smith. new residing near what is known as the I Uncle Bridge, in the Halt, who are all still living, and in fairly (rood heal 111, though lons Past the allotted spun of life, were also amongst Ihp iiiiiuher who took j us. sago liy the Tory upon the oecasicn mentioned. They arrived on the iroldl'mld-i in due course, and met with mole or le-s success. My unele and Mr. S. Smith returned to the Dominion in the schooner Flash, arriving at Wellington just prior to the big shakes in .lanuary, ISM. Upon reaching Now Zealand waters they met with some rather .startling events, as they were within an aco of being wrecked upon D'Urville Island. Thou they fiol caught in a north-west gale, and had to rmi for shelter under Kapiti. The next day the Natives—amongst (hem was Mrs. K. .lillett, mother of Messrs. ,1. and \V. .lilletl, once residents of l'orirua and Otaki. and of Mr. If. Jillett, wlio I believo still resides at the former place, or <1 ill very recently—brought • them some potatoes, kumoras, and iisli. which was very ;u,ccplnble, as the ship's stores were getting somewhat low. On the morning of the second day,' the gale-bavins spent itself, the captaiu decided to.wei'h anchor, and make for' Wellington, but owing to there being some 10 or 50 fathoms of cable out it took a long time to-get it on board with the old-fashioned capstan in use in thofp times. It was thus lato in the day before the .schooner could be got under .way, and dark-'beforp getting through the Straits, tho result -being tl'.ie ran past the AVcllington Heads. The captain was a stranger to tho New Zealand coast, and was gouig to run into Palliser Bay. Had lie done so—and Messrs. Williams and Smith had some trouble in persuading him of tho danger he was running into, and to keep out to sea—they would have been wrecked for sure, for by that time the wind had changed round to the southeast, and was blowing very hard. Had they once got . within the bight it would have teen next to impossible to have kept clear of the land. .After buffeting about for the remainder of the night, they got into Wellington the next day all safe and sound.

My undo and Messrs. T. and P. Smith, who are brother!:, aro probably the three oldest now living of those settlers wlio arrived in. 18-10. Their lospective ages are, Mr. "Williams in his eighty-fifth year, Mr. S. Smith in his eighty-eight year, and Mr. T. Smith is just on the verge of ninety-one. They camo out in the Duke, of Roxburgh. To those who it would interest, those gentlemen could tell somo very geed stories of their-experiences, and what they had to go through when they first arrived, as also thrilling tales of instances of what took place during tha first Maori war, "a (rouble" in tho Hutt, whan the Natives killed Mr. Gillespie, his son, and Mr; Rush. Of the others who also camo by the Duke of Roxburgh still living is Mr. Henry Knight," of Lower Hutt, Mr.'WlTTcly, Mrs. John Judd. and Mrs. John Hawke (sisters), of Greytown. Mrs. Henry "Welsh, of Masterton,"and Mrs. George Death (sister), of Auckland. My uncle. Mr.' Williams, cams into the Wairarapa in the autumn of 1835, with the intention of makins a home, and if he were to relate to penpls of these days of gr.od road?, railwavs, motor-cars, etc., of his experience* and the difficulties ha, had to contend with in transporting ijsnris about I lie Valley with bis bullock team, of which. I believe, he was very proud, they would, I suppose, well, simply smile. However, I know a little about them myself, as I claim to bo somewhat of an old identity. I was born at the Waiwetu, Lower Hutt,

in January. IS-t'2, so have seen some changes. Of other boys who w*r« born at the H.utt and Petolione—lbis is the cor-

rect way of spelling it, and it means in the Maori language, the cud of the sand, or beach: bo'o, end, hone, sand—and of about my own are still living, are Mr. Andrew M'Dowell and Mr. Thomas Knight, of Palmerston North, Mr. Thomas Udy, of Waikanae, Mr. Mike Thomas, near Greytown, and Mr. John Gunday, of Featherston. The last-named, T regret to say, is not having the be=t of health just now. My father, Arthur Hayward, I might say. came out in the snrvey shin Cuba, which, I believe, reach-

i>il New Zealand waters in 1839. He has been 'dead 29 \ears. find T do not know of a single one of Iris shipmates now living. Amongst those who came out with him. and are laying beside him

in the Greytown cemetery, are Captain Smith, once owner, in .conjunction with Mr. S. Rpvans. of the Hnruhangarua Station, which included the site where the Marfinborough town now stands, and Mr. IT. Jackson, latn of Stonestend, near the Woodside Junction.—l am, etc.. J. W. lIAYWARD. May 25, 1912.