OLD TIMES AT THE HUTT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 19, 17 October 1918, Page 9

OLD TIMES AT THE HUTT

■I :" *— ~ A VETERAN'S MEMORIES % SOLDIERS AND SET/LEKS OF 1846 sr , _ "Not many, New- Zcalanders' memori"e" of 'active soldiering and mitioni/making "ivJrli go back over t.eventy ~-' years,; stated the Jlon, G. T. Husseil in an interview.' tjo far as is known ," tliero is only one survivor in tho Domin- •> ion to-day-ot tile Imperial soldiers who lOugnt ia iione Jrieiios wai- in the d -North in. 1&46; and of the campaign in g tho Hiibt Valley in I84(j there is also i'j- but oiio., lone participant still in. tho it land of. the living. L'his. at anyrate, iIJ is the-belief of the veteran of ''fortyu .six" roferred to—Mr. John Cudby, of the Lower Hutt. r, . Mr.aCudby. who as a lad played a j,, part in tho long-gouc troubled days of if liuisket and tomahawk in tho Hutt.Valy. ley ; bush, ia now in "his eighty-ninth year,- and though his recollections of e the .early .years of Wellington..--are y naturally much dimmed /by tho passage ;_ -of yeap, ho was. abla the other day to recount some of his reminiscence's for the Ziational history of tho New Zea--3 land wars, 1845-71, which the Minister of Internal Affairs is .having prepared. B . .•■.Mr,;Ctidb.v's voyage to Now. Zealand '■ ;was full of'the incident of tho rough !U ..old. .seafaring ..days. He sailed -from ..- England.-in-.,the ship Thomas Sparks o (Captain Sharp); he was then-a boy l- in tho employ of the Hon. Henry Pctre, [. who took passage, by this vessel. The r ship called at Capo Town,' and in enter!j- n?g Table Bay struck a,roOk..- The rea pairs to'hcr 'hull necessitated a stay of 0 eleven weeksi : .Wellington!.was reached on •January. 31,. 1843, after a voyago from England of moro .than six ~ months; but evcii when the destination -.-. was m sight the ...voyagers' troubles ;■ were not over, for iir- beating up 1 through the heads into Port Nicholson, »■ m company with a cattle-laden brig the s Margaret, from' Sydney, w. ! collision . .occurred. Tho brig on one: iack in the o -narrow entrance-hold-on .too long, with - the result that she ran into' the imini- \ grant ship, damaging the latter's bul- ; .'ivarks.. Cudby, then a boy of between' •. thirteen and fourteen, was half a sailor 2 by tho time ho set foot-in Now'ZeaT land,- ~ t , went,out to tho Hutt - \a(ey a few months after ho arrived,f and from that day to this, a period - -ot tjirce-qtfarters of p, century,', he - has nm i continuously at tho Hutt. His' most adventurous experiences = fnS y ' IV ™\ t llO3O of "the war ?\l L W> »> which ho took amauly part, s though ho was only-a youngster of barely seventeen. When' Fort Richmond v was built, lu 1845, as a means- of pro- -.. tection against the Maoris then threat- -, enmg war, he helped to cart'tho tim3, ber tor it-heavy posts and thick- buli let-proof, slabs-from the bush between } the present Lower Hutt railway station and I'etohe; and in the following •- year. 4ie was enrolled as a member of - the Wellington militia., Universal ser- - 3t vice was,onforced in those days-and there was no talk", of conscientious ob- | jectors. Cudby's company was No. 3 Company, under Captain George Compton. .This force,was detailed for the t > .defence o'f the- Hutt settlors. It was j curious to gather from the "old hand" .. that, he drilled with the Tower' flint- . lock musket. The.militia were at first .■ .armed with these antiquated weapons . from the stores of tbo New .Zealand . Company, the muskets vers of tho same make as those with which Wakehold s organisation had purchased the site of Wellington from the Maoris a • tew years,previously. ,' •' • ".t Du ""? , S the perilous war months in the Hutt Valley, Cudby was chiefly ■einployed-as one of the drivers of the commissariat contractor's carts, tn'kiV stercs:.fr.om, Wellington, to the various .. .ports.in the Butt.,He carried.out. this . duty for several months, often at great personal risk. Tho road between the settlement and Fort Richmond at. the Lower Hutt -and tho camp of the 58tli ■ ltegimcnt at- Boulcott's "farm, was a narrow tract cut through tho dense bush, and the carters .fulfilled their . duties, inconstant danger of ambuscade. j At.nrst Cudby's commissariat cart had an escort ;of a n.c.o. and fifteen men 'for the journeq from Fort Eichmond to the-Boulcott's farm'camp, but as the soldiers stationed -nt the camp were worked to death," to use his own! • words, with convoy and other duties, he. offered-to dispense with th« escort and "chance it"; and'-tKerenfter his , only companion on the bush road was the clerk (issuer) in charge of the rations, i .On the morning of May ,16. 1846' (hidbv arrived !ft Boulcott's Farm a tew,hours after the sui-oriso attack delivered by the Maoris upon the outpost, n-a.r the Hutt River, which resulted in' tho_death of seven soldiers. Another cartinrr party which ho'met in the bush ■warned h,j„ to :'(ro back, iui: the cnni'i) had been attacked, but he replied that .lie must go on .with the: rations. M thecamp,he carted the .bodies of the killed to the burial place on the river bnnL He remembers well bravo young Allen, the bugler, who was fatally tomahawked when sounding the'alarm that morning. -'. Cudby was not under fire or in anv ' engagement, but he rendered coilspicu- ' oils' service in ' tho commissariat, and ■'■ lor this fidelity to duty he deserves tho : Military Medal- and pension, -which, : however, have not yet come his wav. 11l 184G, when engaged in . loading stores m Wellington for the camps, a double-barrelled gun which ho was in the habit of carrying for protection in the bush,' was accidentally discharged, ami the charge of slugs shattered his lelt hand, necessitating .the amputation 1 ot the, arm. The ancient man of the Hutt tells , •« i th..'something. 'of a pathetic' rcgrot of | we. grand native forest- that in his oung days filled tho valley. The i mitt River was fringed to the water's • edge with dense and beautiful bush, , ana the stream was considerably deeper •than it is nowadays, and was of great i so for navigation; largo eanoes and uoats were numerous, and tho Maori regularly, took produce grown in the I valley down the river and across the 1 harbour to Wellington city. The thick 1 growth of bush help to consolidate the banks and coufino the river to its < course, and the damage began when the early sett ers cleared the forest clothing right down to the river's ed<n>. Ihe hanks then began to disintegrate and to fall m, undermined bv the Hood waters, and .presently the Hutt river ■ burst, its. way, through low-lying por-' .tioiis,yswept,iimny acres of-good soil into itycurrcnt and largely changed' or obliterated the landmarks of the ' old Heretaungaj such as the site of t x ort Richmond.; ] ; ;!l'lii!i ? 'f(irt was ..designed by Captain i Vfnptohy'-a/s'ettlcr who was in cliargo ■ •of the,-local. militia in 181046 It ,i s , .^''Square'stockade of thick slabs, •< ■with:' Hanking, bastions in tho form of 5 .small blockhouses, loop-holed ■(■ f comp'any of tho 58th Regiment relieved ' the militia lii charge here in 1845 • Ihe stockade stood just below the present bridge on the eastern side. Its ' J site has vanished; the river now runs ' where its bristling wall, pierced for " rilie hre, rose in the midst of tho Maori- i Imsh. In-Mr S. C. Brees' portfolio of drawings "Pictorial Illustrations of f iNew-Zealand" (1847), there is a pic- ' turo ot lort Richmond with its back- " ground of. busln but a more accurate E drawing is a sketch which is to he s^'V 111 fclle Sw'ainson collection in the AVollnigton: Art Gallery.