EMIGRES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1564, 7 October 1912, Page 6

EMIGRES.

PAGE IN AKAROA HISTORY. ; OLD DAYS OF 1840. : The death of Mrs. F. Lelievre at Ate. roa on Thursday List recalls forcibly' the, earlr days of tho Peninsula, and'the'mark , , which the Trench colonisation' has leftoc Akaroa (says the Akaron, "Mail"). ' . It was in August, 1810, that the sixtythree French emigrant* landed at Akaroa from the Comte do Paris. The etory of tlie arrival of tho English frigate Britomart Borne days before tho French is well known, and has been amplified in the "Tales of Banks Peninsula." The eight of tho,French'end,lEnglieh. frigntcs lyinjjv ill the harbour, with the French emigrant ship alongside,' must have been, one that would appeal .to ,the least romantic. • /',

All we know of the Peninsula hills '. with their virgin bush has to be gathered from the reports handed, down.by tlio early set> tiers. By the time the first photograph'■ was takea Akaroa. was The fiTst' , photograph is alleged to have been taken' by an early eetller in 1867, and was lately reproduced in the "Weekly Press' by Mr. James Hay. It is a ricw'fro.n the hill close to Mr. W. Hewitt's house. There are some pictures extent chiefly by the hand of Mr. W. Wntkins, .which give on excellent idea of the Peninsula in the 'sixties' and 'seventies, but of the Peninsula in 1810 we have no pictorial record. There were English settlers at that - date, numbering 84 adults, with their, children, and as most of those about Akaroo, had settled at , the south end 'of tile town, round about where Messrs., T, E. Taylor and Oo.'s .establishment now : stands, tha French took up the north part, of the. town, anJ'.fo. , years the two ends of Altnroa were known as.tho French'-and: English ends., .Anyone interested in euch matters go, now and find traces of the French settlements, especially, in Grehnn Volley. The emigrants were ■ mostly, vino growers, and l brought out grape plants, etc., for. their' vineyards, and tlio stumps of these grape vines may still be seen in somo pTaces. Everything was in a'very rough condition, and Mrs. Lelic(-re's mother, Mmo. do Mai-, manche, 'shortly after arrival.had a son, Charles de Malmnncho, and, as.no house, was procurable, (ho child was uorn m a •tent pitched on the site where Mr. Joa., Hammond's now stands."

It is hard to realise the difficulties taese early settlers had to combat in the cultivation of tho ground, erection of houses, etc. Commodore I/avaud, of the frigate L'Aube, appenre to have been .o tower of strength to (hese early pioneers. He built them n-storo to' hold tlieir goods, he se(> tied all disputes, and he acted as intermediary between the French and English. .','■. Apart from thn-names of. the streets,, Lnvaud, Benoit, Rnlgne'rie, etc., we have several traces of French settlement of tho town. . The bulk of our streets were laid out by the French, nnd : are of Fren'ch measurement,'l2 metres.wide, or 39.37 ft ., .Another peculiarity whieh our borough enjovs, owing to its having been eett>d by. tho Fwnch, is its control of the'foreshore between ,low-water and high-water •mark.'.' This is the regulation exislin? it) France, but in all parts of the Dominion (he Marine Department controls whole of the-'.'foreshore.' Tlie blending of tho English nnd French, has been as perfect as it could be, and the, two peonies'- hnvc lived together in un-, broken amity. Wβ look upon the descendants' of those brave French piencers as good British subjects, and it is only wlwn strangers remark on the foreign nami'S that we rc.ilise thot thej are not of the 6omc nationality as ourselves. The i9U census returns for Connaught, the western province of Ireland, show that in a total population of (>lo ( f>B4 persons,. mnlt>s outnumbr.red females by 13,1!H.' There were G6' persons--20 males nnd .1" fomn!<\s—ovet - n Iltititlrcd years of It mnv be recalled that iu the county of MicHoihinn, with a pnpulaiion of 507.66(1, no persons were , returned 'as over . a hundred. There vera in Counnught 217.087, or 35.5 por cent., Riven ns able to speak . Trish. -Of- these n,367 could speak In'sh only. Of- the total population 9G.3 l»v coii't. were Pnman Catholics. , Of-person? over nino years of age, 3.2 por cent, could not write, aud 15.2 per cent, were entirely illiterate. . . .