A PIONEER OF 1884.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1898, 5 November 1913, Page 11

A PIONEER OF 1884.

RAURIMU RESIDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS. In tho Main) Trunk, country settlors of from ton to fifteen years' standing are ranked as veteran pioneers, aud I those whose iirst arrival dates back beyond tho middlo of tho ninoties are bo few and far between as to belong almost to a prehistoric age. The beginning of all things so far as opening up the country was concerned was the lato Mr. John Rochfort's exploration .and survey of the-railway lino in 1881, and in Raurimu there lives to-day one of t-ho membors of the Rochfort survey party. This is Mr. W. J. Wilson, who can toll many interesting stories of tho vicissitudes of survey camp lifo amongst tho Maoris twonty-nino years ago. Brushes with the- Natives wero frequent throughout tho survey, and Sir. Wilson states that a standing instruction was that whenever any body of Maoris approached tho men wero to elofeo in around the surveying instruments and keep their slashers in readiness in ease tho Maoris {should mako any attempt to rush tho instruments and destroy thorn. On one occasion, when out in the country bordering on tho Waimarino Plains, tho party wero working in a big block of high fern, when smoko was seen rising some distance away in one direction, then in another, and anothor, and it becamo evident that the Natives were endeavouring to hom in the party in a bolt of fire. Tho flames mado rapid progress through tho fern, and there was nothing for it but to drop everything save the instruments, and run for it. Tho partv fortunately escaped unscathed} but'those incidents will giro some idea of tho difficulties with which thev had to eontend.

Tho railway boom had not then ooiiio to an <«ul, aud it was expected that the railway, like the other main lines which had been, previously put in hand, would soon he under way in real earnest. Mr. Rochfort therefore constructed cart bridges over tils principal stream as ho went along, in readiness for tho railway service road, but, as described elsewhere, tho railway failed to arrive, and tho bridges had long awn their be.it days whpn tho constructs Boris kfWk' Numbsra »f its®

cipal Native pas were at Taumarunui, which had a population of 500 or so, and at Karioi, • where, ou an average, one would find from 100 to 200 Natives.